Will George St. Pierre Ever Fight Anderson Silva?
Sports are always at their best when there is a huge rivalry playing out: Ali/Frazier, Celtics/Lakers, Yankees/Red Sox. Both boxing and MMA have been starving for such a rivalry for years.
The cream rises to the top of each division in MMA. Jon Jones, George St. Pierre, Ben Henderson, and Anderson Silva all look like they'll be reigning atop their respective weight classes for the foreseeable future. None of these guys have had a rival since George St. Pierre overcame Matt Hughes six years ago.
Many UFC fans have an interest in some kind of superfight between the kings of two weight-classes. The most popular of these dream match scenarios seems to be St. Pierre vs. Silva. They are the champions of the 170- and 185- pound divisions, respectively. GSP had this to say on the matter on the Joe Rogan Podcast:
I need to do stuff in my division before I take (a superfight). Anderson Silva is very big. He’s 230 pounds. He’s a very big guy, walking around very big and I’m 190 pounds. It’s a lot of weight difference. If this fight happens one day, we’re going to have to decide what weight class and everything. If he wants to make 170, I weigh 170, and he can (come down to) 170, that’s fine.
It seems GSP has absolutely no interest in coming up in weight, so a St. Pierre-Silva superfight becomes even less likely. It's been about seven years since Anderson Silva fought under 180 pounds, and I'm not even sure he'd want to fight after cutting so much weight.
There's no fight I'd rather see in the UFC than Silva vs. GSP, but chances seem more slim by the day. St. Pierre went on to say that he expects a fight with Johnny Hendricks to be in the offing. We may all have a better shot at Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones, when it comes to dreaming up a superfight.