Anderson Silva Wants A Fight With Georges St. Pierre, Says Fighting GSP Would ‘Be An Honor’
There has always been talk about the possibility of an Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre super-fight taking place. However, the fight, as far as we know, hasn’t ever been close to being made. But now, with Silva out of the middleweight championship picture, and with it being extremely likely that GSP will return to the UFC before the end of this year, there’s now a chance that this long-awaited super-fight between the two best fighters of their generation will take place.
St. Pierre and Silva probably won’t fight any time soon, as GSP has yet to announce his intention to return to the octagon, and Silva is currently training to fight Uriah Hall at UFC 198. But if everything goes right, Silva and GSP may see each other inside the octagon at some point next year.
During Wednesday’s UFC 198 pre-fight press conference, Silva was asked if he’d like to fight Georges St. Pierre at a catchweight, as Silva usually fights at 185 pounds and GSP fights at 170 pounds, and Silva said that he’d love to fight the former welterweight champion, adding that it would be an honor to step inside the octagon with him.
“(A fight with GSP) could happen. It would be an honor to fight him. It could happen. I really want to test myself against him, he’s a great athlete, had great skills, even though my focus is on my next opponent, but I’d like to test myself against him. I’ve never fought in the weight classes below, only in my younger days in Shooto. For me to test myself, it’s a great fight.”
Silva is coming off of a decision loss to Michael Bisping, and he has lost three out of his last four fights, with his most recent win coming via decision over Nick Diaz last year. Silva also tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs following his bout with Diaz, so the official record shows that Silva vs. Diaz was a no-contest.
“The Spider’s” last official win came in October of 2012 at UFC 153, where he defeated UFC Hall of Famer Stephan Bonner via TKO in the very first round.
Georges St. Pierre hasn’t fought since November of 2013, where he earned a split-decision victory over Johny Hendricks, although many believed that the judges got that one wrong, and that GSP actually should’ve lost the fight.
St. Pierre retired following his bout with Hendricks, therefore vacating the UFC welterweight championship. Robbie Lawler has been the king of the welterweight division in his absence, and there is a belief that, if GSP comes back, he’s going to fight Lawler, and attempt to regain the title that he never lost.
Before UFC 196: McGregor vs. Diaz, there was talk of doing St. Pierre vs. Conor McGregor at UFC 200 on July 9, as the UFC wanted to put together the biggest fight that they could. But McGregor ended up losing to Diaz via submission, and it was just announced on Wednesday that the Diaz vs. McGregor rematch will be the main event for this July’s big event. So, that rules out the possibility of GSP returning and fighting on that show. Although, don’t be surprised if McGregor calls him out if he ends up defeating Diaz, because that was the plan back at UFC 196.
So, will we see Silva vs. GSP? It seems like the perfect time to do it. But there may be other fights that GSP wants, and, in the past, he hasn’t been very high on the idea of fighting the former UFC middleweight champion. But it’s a big-money fight, so he may end up doing it just because of that.
[Featured image via Steve Marcus / Getty Images]
