What If #1: GSP Vacates

In my last post, I made the case to give Okami his shot at Anderson Silva. However, it increasingly looks like that's not going to happen if Georges St. Pierre defends his welterweight belt against Jake Shields. Even if Okami gets his shot and GSP wins, the GSP/Silva fight will still be on. Therefore, I begin a new sporadic series, "What If" with "What if GSP vacates?"
The story is that if GSP defeats Shields, consensus states that he will have cleaned out the Welterweight division in the UFC and should move up to 185 permanently. According to Lockflow.com, he had even discussed his plan retirement prior to his defeat of Josh Koscheck at 124; he would strongly consider it if he defeated Anderson to become the world's Pound for Pound champion. That would obviously leave the Welterweight belt wide open. Therefore, I would like to suggest something that the UFC hasn't done since 2003: a non-TUF tournament to determine the new Welterweight champion.
The main reason to put on such a tournament is because setting up an immediate title fight with whoever Dana White deems most worthy is arbitrary at best. Several fighters will have earned shots at the belt; it would be at least unfair to grant the shot to only two. The second reason, of course, is the fact that tournaments excite the fanbase. Before the Heavyweight tournament was announced, Strikeforce was only known as the promotion that had Herschel Walker and female fighting to casual fans. After the tournament has been announced, Ariel Helwani reported on Twitter that people are beginning to call it "the premier MMA organization in North America". The fact is, tournaments get people excited and will sell PPVs.
I came up with some seeding with the help of Sherdog's Welterweight rankings. My proposal is an eight-man tournament with two alternate bouts.
1. Jon Fitch-easily the consensus #2 welterweight
2. Thiago Alves-the only two people he hasn't beaten yet are GSP and Fitch
3. Josh Koscheck-He's lost more than a few fights, but he has earned his spot just the same.
4. Jake Shields-This is completely contingent upon him not having a medical suspension, but his defeat of Kampmann certainly qualifies him for a shot.
5. Martin Kampmann-Only Semtex and Jake Shields have been in the way of the Hitman's run.
6. Carlos Condit-Outside of his debut loss to Kampmann, the former WEC champion has gone through three quality opponents on his way to the top.
7. John Hathaway-His only loss to Mike Pyle, the British wrestler has fought his way to near the top of the division.
8. Dan Hardy-Even though the scrappy Brit has lost two straight fights, his clinch warfare style has been enough to roll past Marcus Davis and Mike Swick, the latter of which gave him his unsuccessful title shot against St. Pierre.
The alternate bouts:
Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Ellenberger-A matchup of two brilliant wrestlers and well-rounded fighters could end up being the fight of the tournament.
Mike Pyle vs. Anthony Johnson-The classic striker (Johnson) vs. grappler (Pyle) matchup would be a great test of both mens' abilities.
I would have no issue making this a TUF season as was considered for the Flyweights in "Urijah Faber & Dominick Cruz on TUF 13"; they already did something like it with Season 4. However, the best option the UFC would appear to have is to make it a PPV series. Will it happen? Probably not. Should it happen, if the circumstances it requires come true? Definitely.