The Anderson Silva rope-a-dope continues. Just a few days after softening his stance on fighting Jon Jones, the UFC champion’s manager is still gunning for a Georges St-Pierre Superfight. Apparently one of these guys did not the memo.
[adinserter block=”2″]This whole obsession by Anderson Silva and his team to fight Georges St-Pierre has never made that much sense to me. Silva is a UFC champion and instead of doing what champions do which is defend the belt against the best, Silva would rather pick a fight with a guy in the lower division. It may be a fun fight to put together in UFC Undisputed, but the size mismatch here really doesn’t make sense. Especially to GSP who has said several times that he isn’t too keen on the fight.
Silva’s manager Ed Soares was a guest this week on Inside MMA. Soares is singing a bit a different tune than his main client sang last week. Silva downplayed the GSP fight and gave his first indication that he was at least open to fighting Jon Jones at catch weight. Soares on the other hand is still focused on getting his hands on a GSP vs. Silva pay day.
“At the end of the day, GSP is the greatest welterweight of all time,” Soares said. “People argue back and forth who the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world is. Some people say it’s Anderson, some people say it’s Georges St-Pierre. So I think the way to settle it is to do a catch weight at 177 1/2, right down the middle, and see what happens.
I think it’ll be a fight that the fans want to see and it’ll be a great fight.”
It is certainly an interesting fight I’ll give him that. I am also intrigued with his offer to go down to 177 1/2, but I don’t know if that will be enough to get the fight signed. GSP has said numerous times that he doesn’t want to fight any heavier than 170. Silva has said that he would drop to 170 for the fight so this new 177 1/2 catch weight is maybe a last ditch effort to reel in their big fish.
I thought Soares’ answer for other future fights was interesting as well. Talk about a guy that is all over the place here.
“Who knows what’s next. Maybe after (a possible fight with St-Pierre), who knows. A possibility it could be (Jon Jones), or maybe even Bisping,” Soares said. “There are so many different fighters out there that could potentially be big fights.”
[adinserter block=”1″]Am I the only one who finds the idea of throwing Michael Bisping and Jon Jones around in the same sentence humorous? I can certainly understand why they’d want the Bisping fight. He is not a dangerous opponent for Silva and will draw better than any other title match at middleweight. Interestingly enough he never mentions Chris Weidman or Tim Boetsch.
It sounds to me that the UFC and Silva are starting to prepare for life without a GSP vs. Silva Superfight. Silva’s manager has millions of obvious reasons to push for it and maybe he’ll get it at 177 1/2. I just wouldn’t count on it at this point.
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Again,good article!
We certainly see eye to eye on the subject!
When Bas said;"Maybe Jon Jones!" Soares wasnt really in it. I really dont understand is thinking…(well…I kind of do…Its $$$ & $$$)
I'm a HUGE GSP fan…I'd love to see this fight ,but in the same time I know it doesnt make any sens…Plus "size-wise" Silva is wayyyy closer to JBJ than GSP!!!
First hes afraid of JBJ and now NIKE is in there…smh…(And I dont like Soares that much,just for the record.)