St. Pierre, Jones, Werdum Earn ESPY Nominations

UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, light heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones and two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World Championships gold medalist Fabricio Werdum have been nominated for 2011 ESPY Awards.

Held annually since 1993, the ESPYs -- Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly -- recognize individual and team athletic achievement, along with other sports-related performances. Votes can be cast until July 9. The ESPY Awards, hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers, will be presented July 13 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The show will air live on ESPN at 9 p.m.

St. Pierre (Pictured; file photo) and Jones picked up nominations in the Best Fighter category, along with professional boxers Bernard Hopkins, Sergio Martinez and Manny Pacquiao. Werdum was nominated for Best Upset in wake of his June 2010 submission victory against Fedor Emelianenko, a man who had not lost in nearly a decade. Werdum faces stiff competition in the category: thoroughbred Blame’s win over Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeder’s Cup Classic, the Seattle Seahawks victory over the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in the NFL playoffs and the Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team’s unlikely run to the NCAA Final Four.

A three-time nominee, St. Pierre has long been viewed as one of MMA’s pound-for-pound best. The 30-year-old French Canadian last appeared at UFC 129 in April, when he took a unanimous decision from former Strikeforce champion Jake Shields at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The defeat snapped Shields’ 15-fight winning streak.

Jones, meanwhile, became the youngest UFC champion in history when he stopped Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on third-round strikes at UFC 128 to capture the 205-pound crown in March. The 23-year-old trains out of Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts in Albuquerque, N.M.