Georges St-Pierre says path to history doesn't necessarily lead to Anderson Silva

Canadian Georges St-Pierre (19-2 MMA, 12-2 UFC) is already considered among the world's current top pound-for-pound fighters, but that's not enough for the UFC's welterweight champ.

"When I retire, I want to be known as the best fighter in the history of the sport of MMA, pound-for-pound, of all time," St-Pierre recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

And while many fans hope to see St-Pierre take on current middleweight champ Anderson Silva at some point in his career, "GSP" believes he doesn't necessarily need to make the jump to middleweight to secure his spot in history.

"To reach that goal (of being the best fighter in history), of course I'm going to have to beat some of the best guys in the sport," St-Pierre said. "Of course Silva is one of them. B.J. Penn was one of them. But this fight (with Silva) is not written in stone. One of us can lose a fight, and if one of us loses a fight, the interest of the fight will diminish considerably."

Link

I've been thinking GSP is scared to fight the 'Spider'.

I'd love for the fight to happen, but GSP would get beat I think.

IMO they're on the same level, well their legacies atleast. GSP has been very dominant with a few slip-ups (ex. Serra) but he has always beaten his top opponents.
Silva has done the same thing,been extremely dominant, but I dont think he has fought the level of competition that GSP has in the UFC.

I'd be very excited for the fight, but I dont think it will ever happen. The UFC cant even seem to get a main event together lately.

I believe that if he goes up to MW he will have success until he meets some of the larger and more talented of the division. I think Silva, Henderson, Nate, Franklin....all beat GSP solidly. I just think that they are talented enough and large enough to ensure that GSP never clinches that belt.

I'm not gonna go out there and say GSP is scared of silva, but he does give that impression. Just once when they ask him about fighting Silva I'd Love to hear him say "ab-sah-loot-LEEE, it is a big challange fo'me, but he cannot andle ma riddum"....

But it's been "Middleweight training partners, I'm a small 185, matter of timing" blah blah blah...If he really wanted that fight, they'd give it to him with the state both the 170 and 185 divisions are in. But I'm not convinnced he really wants that fight!

I don't think he wants the fight at all.... he's made it pretty clear in my opinion. That makes me think the Spider would win because he'd have a mental edge and confidence is never a problem with Anderson.

I really think Anderson would walk straight through GSP. GSP's striking is good, but it's not anywhere close to Anderson's (almost no one's is) and he really seems apprehensive to stand with his opponents since the Serra loss. He does have the wrestling to potentially put Anderson on his back, but he doesn't have the finishing power to end the fight there against someone of Silva's caliber.

I think Anderson would KO him in round 1 or 2.

I truely believe GSP's wrestling ability would lead him to the victory if him and Anderson did meet in the cage.

will right now, fedor n anderson are ahead of him if u ask me. anderson has fought in multiple weight classes and dominated. fedor n anderson have fought better fighters too. I am a GSP nuthugger but he needs to fight in MW n anderson to be greater than anderson or fedor. GSP does sound like he does not wanna fight the spider though

I absolutely agree that GSP does not want that fight. Statements like this CLEARLY show that. Why else would he say stuff like that? If he was willing to fight Anderson Silva just a little bit he wouldn't say things like this. Whenever he gets asked about fighting Silva he never answers directly, just things like "I'm not a coward" etc. Which I don't think GSP is a coward whatsoever but I think he knows that Silva is too big and too fast and why fight him when he has plenty of SOLID opponents at 170? He has lots of competition at WW, I completely understand why he would want to stay there.

after the anderson vs griffin fight, alot people stopped talking about a match up between GSP and Silva. Even Dana, seemed like "wtf is the point now?, we are all pretty sure about the outcome"

Not saying Silva would give him a whooping but making a former LHW Champ look like a a complete amateur, alot of people started thinking "what would he do to GSP?"

I'm going to stick up a bit for GSP, although I think Anderson would win. GSP is a natural WW, he walks around between 180 and 185lb Anderson walks around about 220lb. Thats a huge natural weight difference which when fighting top 10 competition never mind the best P4P fighter around.

GSP if he steps up to MW will be a small MW at best, Silva at LHW is still big at MW he's HUGE! I can see why GSP is skeptical about fighting Anderson, the weight difference alone is enough to call it unfair.
I honestly think GSP could step up and beat some of the top 10 MW's but pushing for a fight with the biggest and meanest MW in the world is unfair, especially if its his first fight at a new weight.

In practice its like asking Miguel Torres to step up and fight Sean Sherk. Theirs a huge difference in weight which would almost nullify any of the skills Torres would be able to use against Sherk.
Same for GSP and Silva. I'd say let him have a few tune up fights like Anderson got and if he's as dominant as Anderson has been at LHW then maybe set up a fight in a year or so.

---

Posted by SmileR

I'm going to stick up a bit for GSP, although I think Anderson would win. GSP is a natural WW, he walks around between 180 and 185lb Anderson walks around about 220lb. Thats a huge natural weight difference which when fighting top 10 competition never mind the best P4P fighter around.

GSP if he steps up to MW will be a small MW at best, Silva at LHW is still big at MW he's HUGE! I can see why GSP is skeptical about fighting Anderson, the weight difference alone is enough to call it unfair.
I honestly think GSP could step up and beat some of the top 10 MW's but pushing for a fight with the biggest and meanest MW in the world is unfair, especially if its his first fight at a new weight.

---

If you say all of these things then I'd be curious to know what you think of the HW division? Guys like Randy Couture who clearly have more skills than Brock Lesnar are getting knocked off because they're outweighed naturally by about 70 lbs.

IMO this is a huge problem in the HW division. Yet, every time I bring that up people like to get into a flame war over it.

Just something for all of the fans to think about if they're defending lighter weight guys who have to move up.

---

Posted by Jackelope

If you say all of these things then I'd be curious to know what you think of the HW division? Guys like Randy Couture who clearly have more skills than Brock Lesnar are getting knocked off because they're outweighed naturally by about 70 lbs.

IMO this is a huge problem in the HW division. Yet, every time I bring that up people like to get into a flame war over it.

Just something for all of the fans to think about if they're defending lighter weight guys who have to move up.

---

I completely agree with you on that. Guys like Brock are always going to beat guys like Randy and even the new up and comers like Cane. People should understand that physical size in trained athletes is a huge advantage!
In a perfect world I think their should be a 215-235 devision and then 236-265, but in reality there aren't enough HW's to make that possible.
I don't want it to seam like I'm fighter bashing but Brock is the perfect example of what you're talking about!
He's not very well rounded and in every other devision he would not be champ but because he can use his size as a weapon in the HW devision he is. I honestly don't mean he's a bad fighter but the natural size of the man gives him a huge advantage over a fighter with much better skills.