Few matchups in UFC history carry more “what if” weight than Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva.
Both men ruled their divisions at the same time. Both were dominant champions. The fight was discussed for years, but it never made it past the negotiation stage in 2012.
St-Pierre recently revisited the situation and gave more detail on why the super fight collapsed.
St-Pierre Explains His Side of the Deal
Speaking on Demetrious Johnson’s MightyCast, St-Pierre made clear that his intentions were tied to how the fight would be structured and compensated.
“I can only speak from my side, I don’t know what was happening on Anderson Silva’s side.”
“OK, you want me to get out of my way to go up a weight class, I need to be compensated because it’s different. I’m full of challenges in my weight class, so if I’m fighting someone bigger I need to change my training, try to get bigger”
Catchweight Idea, Drug Testing, and No Follow-Up
Besides the better compensation, St-Pierre laid out several other conditions for the bout. Specifically, he wanted the fight to be at a catchweight, and there needed to be drug testing.
“I wanted this to be done in a catchweight, because Anderson fought in PRIDE at 170, and I knew he could go down”
“So it would be at a catchweight, so after that I could [go back down]. … If I go up, I needed to go back down because I wouldn’t spend my career there. And the third one was I wanted to have drug testing implemented. And they never got back to me.”
The UFC legend eventually moved up to middleweight years later for a one-off fight against Michael Bisping at UFC 217. He won the title and submitted “The Count” before stepping away from competition.
St-Pierre closed his career on a 13-fight win streak, retiring with the belt and remaining one of the most respected champions in MMA history.
With what could have been one of the biggest fights in the MMA world, you can not help but wonder who will be the victor if those two met in the Octagon.