I know you were using it as him wanting to copy Conor .. Conor was not a thing in 2011. GSP weighed in way under 170 for fights, he was in the 170's, the fact you don't think so has no bearing on the truth. At the end of his career he was ~187 walking around while the other WW were 190's and even 200's walking around. The big LW are the same size as GSP was. (Tony Ferguson just posted a pic of him weighing 200.4lbs)
The only fight GSP was 'big' for was Shields, he got up to 194 and was 190 on fight night .. that's not even big for top WW, his biggest was on the small side of average.
This is GSP weighing in for a title fight, back when he was walking around in the 170s. This is the first Serra fight.