GSP Explains Why He’s No Longer Interested In Anderson Silva Fight
Georges St-Pierre doesn’t seem too interested in a superfight with Anderson Silva anymore.
During their respective heydays, St-Pierre and Silva ruled as the cream of the crop in their divisions, with St-Pierre dominating the 170-pound weight class, while Silva terrorized those at 185 pounds. The only difference between the two – Silva’s reign came to a shocking end after a young Chris Weidman knocked him out in the second round of their match-up at UFC 162 back in 2013.
St-Pierre would retire just months after the Brazilian’s loss after taking home a controversial split decision win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. His win over “Bigg Rigg’ marked his ninth consecutive title defense at the time, one shy of Silva’s record of 10.
Since losing to Weidman, Silva has still been active inside the Octagon, however, he has only won three of his last four fights and his one win didn’t come without controversy. “The Spider” was given a controversial unanimous decision win over the young Derek Brunson in their UFC 208 meeting this past February.
Earlier this year it was announced that St-Pierre would be making his mixed martial arts (MMA) return after signing a new multi-fight deal with the UFC. He was scheduled to make his 185-pound debut and receive an immediate title shot against current division champ Michael Bisping. That match was later called off by UFC President Dana White, however, as St-Pierre said he wouldn’t be ready to compete until October.
In the midst of St-Pierre’s title bout still being on the docket, Silva expressed great displeasure with the decision. Silva was scheduled to take on Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 212 from Brazil but unfortunately Gastelum was removed from the contest after being flagged by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). Silva grew frustrated with the situation and went off on Dana White and the UFC, demanding an interim title bout with No. 1-ranked Yoel Romero – and threatened retirement if it was not granted.
What made the situation even worse, Silva says he was promised a superfight with St-Pierre once the Canadian decided to return to MMA, but that promise was broken as “Rush” was instead pencilled in opposite Bisping.
During a recent interview with TSN, St-Pierre commented on the possibility of sharing the Octagon with Silva, but admitted it doesn’t have the same luster as it once did (quotes via MMA Junkie):
“It could happen; it depends on the condition (because) fights are about timing,” St-Pierre said. “Sometimes the guys stock are higher, and sometimes it’s lower. You want the guy that the stock is the highest. It fluctuates. I don’t think his stock right now is very high. He’s a legend for the stuff he has done in the past, but he’s not the same as he was back in the day.”
After this past weekend’s UFC 211 pay-per-view (PPV), Dana White commented on the possible superfight between Silva and St-Pierre, which he brushed off as unrealistic due to the fact that Silva doesn’t compete at 170 pounds:
“I told ‘GSP’ obviously it’s not worth talking about right now until we look at the landscape,” White said. “He needs to figure out what he wants to do in the 170-pound division, who he wants to fight there. I don’t know if he wants to move up in weight and fight these murderers at 185. I think he liked the Bisping fight. I think he saw that as a fight that was winnable and saw Bisping as the guy who is beatable.”
You can check out St-Pierre’s interview with TSN here:
