MONTREAL – For all the talk of Georges St-Pierre's dark place prior to UFC 158, imagine how Johny Hendricks must feel.

Over the last two years, Hendricks learned that simply winning isn't enough.

Johny Hendricks is once again hoping a win leads to a title shot. (MMA Weekly)Nor, he learned to his dismay, is winning in spectacular fashion enough to get a shot at St-Pierre's UFC welterweight title.

Hendricks will face Carlos Condit on Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 158 at the Bell Centre when he believes with all his heart that he should be facing St-Pierre for the belt in the main event.

That honor, though, will go to Nick Diaz, who was handpicked specifically by St-Pierre.

In defending the decision to fight Diaz instead of Hendricks, St-Pierre said he felt Diaz should have gotten the decision over Carlos Condit in their match at UFC 143. St-Pierre also said he felt Hendricks got a gift win over Josh Koscheck at UFC on Fox 3 last May.

[Also: Condit still composed after difficult loss to St-Pierre ]

St-Pierre is a lot of things for the

Carlos Condit trudged out of the Bell Centre in Montreal last November without the UFC welterweight belt in tow. He'd come oh-so-close to a dramatic knockout victory against the seemingly unbeatable Georges St-Pierre only to lose by unanimous decision. 

Carlos Condit is 5-2 since joining the UFC in April 2009. (MMAWeekly)He left without the belt, but rest assured that Condit did not leave a loser. Few fighters have ever gained more from a defeat than Condit did after losing to St-Pierre at UFC 154.

On Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 158 in the very same venue, Condit will return for a fight against Johny Hendricks that could have been, under slightly different circumstances, the first defense of his welterweight title.

Condit kicked St-Pierre in the head in the third round and seemed on the verge of a dramatic win. He went for the finish with the ferocity of a man who knew how close he was to fulfilling a long-time dream and capturing the UFC title.

[Also: Junior dos Santos thinks Alistair Overeem is a joke]

St-Pierre, though, showed

For five years, Georges St-Pierre has been more than just one of the great champions in mixed martial arts history. He's been the face of a promotion – one of the cornerstones in a jaw-dropping business turnaround from epic failure to sensational success.

Georges St-Pierre will defend his welterweight title against Nick Diaz this Saturday. (Getty)He exuded class, portraying himself and, by extension, his fellow MMA fighters as thoughtful, polite and dedicated athletes who wanted nothing more than to compete against the best.

For all the problems he has been forced to deal with on a daily basis, from failed drug tests to drunken binges to homophobic slurs and thoughtless tweets, UFC president Dana White never once had to worry that he'd be awakened from his sleep because St-Pierre had gotten into trouble.

St-Pierre brought hordes of positive media attention, attracted fans by the droves and generally set a standard for what a professional fighter should be. He's always been in magnificent condition and pushed the sport to new levels. He still executes moves in the cage

Most fighters find out far too late that the real money in fighting comes not from their paychecks but from what they can earn from endorsement contracts.

Georges St-Pierre, the UFC's well-heeled welterweight champion, probably made more money in 2012 from endorsements alone than 98 percent of mixed martial arts fighters made in purse money. St-Pierre is sponsored by mainstream blue-chip companies such as Coca-Cola, Gatorade, Under Armour and Bacardi, sponsors that essentially are out of reach for the majority of his peers.

For better or worse, Nick Diaz speaks honestly and from his heart. (AP)It's great work, if you can get it.

To this point, Nick Diaz hasn't been able to get it. Diaz, who will challenge St-Pierre for the belt in the main event of UFC 158 on Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal, has sweat and bled for every cent he's earned. Diaz has become the sport's anti-hero, even if it's a role he'd rather not have.

Much to his chagrin, he's been cast as the guy who soccer moms curse out at traffic lights.

Diaz's life is a polar

Timothy Bradley probably learned more about life in the three weeks following his June 9 victory over Manny Pacquiao than he had in the previous 28 years combined.

Every day, it seemed, something new, something bizarre occurred. It culminated, sadly, with a series of death threats, via the mail and the telephone. Tim Bradley trains before a fight. (Getty)

That series of events turned what should have been an epic win and a celebratory summer into a nine-month nightmare.

The Bradley prior to June 9 was the epitome of what a father would want his daughter marrying: bright, loyal, patient, friendly, understanding and successful.

"I am the nicest guy you will ever meet on the street, ever," said Bradley, who ran a youth football league in his hometown.

Bradley did everything correctly in the days and weeks leading up to the heavily hyped bout with Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao was the star going into that fight and, despite the outcome, he was the star when it ended.

Now, nine

Bernard Hopkins is one of the great strategists in boxing history. Every action the 48-year-old former middleweight and light heavyweight champion does comes following a great deal of thought and calculation.

Little is left to chance, particularly when he has a fight lined up.

Bernard Hopkins chats with the media during a February workout. (AP Photo)Hopkins will meet unbeaten knockout artist Tavoris Cloud on Saturday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for Cloud's IBF light heavyweight title in the main event of an HBO-televised card.

Hopkins came to the news conference wearing a dark hooded coat, a dark ski mask and a pair of dark sunglasses. But Hopkins, one of the great talkers in the history of the sport, bolted the gathering at the Barclays Center with nary a word.

He was trying to get some sort of message across, but we're left to guess what it might be.

As Hopkins sat stoically on the dais, trainer Naazim Richardson took the microphone and said, with Hopkins just a few feet to his left, "Bernard Hopkins has already left the

(AP)

William Moody, the real-life undertaker who became famous by portraying Paul Bearer, a mortician who managed some of pro wrestling's biggest stars, died Tuesday at 58 in a Mobile, Ala., hospital.

The hospital did not release a cause of death. TMZ.com reported that Moody told friends in the days before his death he was suffering from a blood clot.

Moody hit the peak of his career when he joined the WWE in 1991, took the name Paul Bearer and became The Undertaker's manager. Bearer's face was painted a pasty white and he would carry an urn with him to ringside.

He was known for a demonic laugh and the catch phrase, "Oh, yes!" He hosted a show on WWE broadcasts known as "The Funeral Parlor."

Moody got into the wrestling business in the late 1970s, first competing on smaller shows around the country while serving in the Air Force.

His first major success, though, came when he was joined Florida Championship Wrestling in 1984 under the name Percival "Percy" Pringle III. He had worked under

Bernard Hopkins is 48, older than five sitting governors, four current U.S. senators and is only three years and five months younger than President Obama. He doesn't move as nimbly as he once did, and isn't the complete fighter he was in his heyday.

Disaster lurks around the corner for every fighter – that's the risk any boxer, whether 18, 28, 38 or 48, takes when climbing between the ropes – but it looms much larger for a guy who has been fighting professionally longer than burgeoning star Adrien Broner has been alive.

The old adage in boxing that a fighter can age overnight has repeatedly proven true.

But Hopkins has been doing things others have told him he couldn't do for about a quarter century now, and he'll probably continue that trend Saturday by mesmerizing Tavoris Cloud in their IBF light heavyweight title in the main event of an HBO-televised card in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nazim Richardson talks as Bernard Hopkins looks on during a press conference. (Reuters)

The Hopkins of 28 would have toyed with Cloud. The Hopkins of 38 would have beaten a