MMA fans may finally get to see a super fight for which they have been clamoring. UFC president Dana White indicated to Ariel Helwani during an interview on Fuel TV Tuesday that Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre are likely to fight in the near future.
“I think we’re pretty close,” said White. “If Georges St-Pierre beats [Carlos] Condit, that could be the next fight.”
St-Pierre is scheduled to fight at UFC 154 on November 17. Silva doesn’t have any fights scheduled.
White indicated that the fight would likely take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“If that fight happens, it will probably happen at Dallas, TX stadium,” said White.
GSP has demonstrated a tremendous amount of respect for Silva in the past and expressed reluctance about facing the Brazilian master. As recently as last March, GSP was worried about facing Silva at 185 pounds. The answer appears to be a fight at a 180-pound catchweight.
“At one point it sounded like Anderson wanted to go to 170 and take Georges’ welterweight title,” said White. “That was what he was talking at one point. Then it was 180 the catchweight, because Georges doesn’t want to go to 185 — he’s going to stay at ’70. He said if ‘I had to make the move to go to ’85, I’d have to stay at ’85.’ We figured that a 180-pound catchweight makes sense.”
So why would they finally face each other after avoiding the super fight for so long?
“These guys want to fight each other now. If you’re a fighter and you’ve dominated as long as Anderson as, you’ve been great as long as Georges has, you finally say I want to test, you say ‘I think I can beat this guy,” White figured.
As long as GSP doesn’t blow his fight with Condit — which is always a possibility — then this could be the headline event to energize sports fans the way the Chael Sonnen-Anderson Silva rematch did. I think Silva would have to be favored in that fight given GSP’s lengthy layoff and unimpressive wins prior to his knee injury.
Thanks to MMA Fighting for the transcriptions. Video of the interview is below:
