Georges St-Pierre All But Closes the Door on Anderson Silva Superfight

The idea of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre moving up a division to face middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva in a superfight has been kicked around for years.  It’s a promotional dream, but St-Pierre on Tuesday all but closed the door on the possibility of fighting Silva… at least in the near term.

The 31-year-old Canadian appeared on UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s latest podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, and said he’d likely face Johny Hendricks next.

St-Pierre had cleared out the 170-pound division before suffering an ACL injury that required surgery and extensive rehabilitation while preparing to face Nick Diaz at UFC 143.  The knee injury sidelined the champion for 19 months, and new contenders emerged in his absence.

“I need to do stuff in my division before I take (a superfight) because it has moved now,” said St-Pierre.

If he were to accept a fight with Silva at middleweight, he’d be at a considerable size disadvantage.

“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,” he said.

“I don’t do a lot of cutting.  It would be easier for me to go fight at 155 than fighting at 185.  I would be more at my weight naturally.  There’s guys at 155 that walk around 190 like me,” said St-Pierre.  “They think I’m big because I have a large frame, but I’m not a big guy.  I’m not thick.”

Silva has competed as low as 168 pounds in Japan, but that was more than a decade ago.  He fought in Rumble on the Rock at 175 pounds in 2006 and has indicated that he thinks he can make 170.

“If he wants to make 170, I weigh 170, and he can (come down to) 170, that’s fine,” said St-Pierre.

Silva is scheduled to face Chris Weidman at UFC 162 on July 6.  Johnny Hendricks solidified himself as the top contender in the welterweight division by defeated Carlos Condit at UFC 158 on March 16.

When asked who he expects to face next, St-Pierre responded, “We’ll see.  (Silva) is fighting Weidman and Hendricks is freaking out.  He wants to fight me.  We’ll see what’s going to happen in the future… probably Hendricks.”