Today’s “The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo” podcast featured an interview with Firas Zahabi, head trainer at TriStar gym, who talked about a prospective super fight between Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva.
“Georges St-Pierre told me he wants (to fight Anderson Silva). But right now he has to get back on the horse and fight Carlos Condit and be champion again. He needs to keep focused.
“(If the Silva fight happens) ideally I’d like a catch weight. I think it’d be more fair. If you fight at a catch weight, Silva won’t be 20 pounds heavier. 177 or 178 pounds is much more fair.”
Just to play devil's advocate - 170 isn't cleaned out anymore. Between Kampmann, Ellenberger (should he win,) and the winner of Silva vs Fitch there are plenty of contenders waiting for the champ. Hell, Diaz might come back and get a gift title shot.
This fight should do over 1.5 million PPVS especially if it's around super bowl weekend or NYE.
You have the worlds greatest MMA athlete and strategist vs the world's deadliest technician. Elite vs elite, the best of the best. But I think Anderson would rather go down to 170 to take the crown.
If you're GSP how can you pass up on this opportunity to test yourself.
yeah, catchweight is the way to go with this superfight. That way no belts are on the line, and it could still be a 5 round fight if it's a main event, which is surely would be.
Give it up, Silva aint making WW, he is a huge MW, catchweight would leave Silva a little drained and might even things up a bit considering the rather large size discrepancy. I often think people don't realize just how much bigger Anderson Silva is than GSP.
Your absolutely right, BJ would be but that is cause everyone always wants to discredit Penn for some reason. But that fight is also a perfect example of the problem with this fight. Just as GSP was clearly to big and to strong (possible to slippery but that is another arguement) for Penn the same will largely hold true if GSP moves up. His frame can not support the amount of mass necessary to even the scales without it becoming detrimental. Just like BJ walking in against GSP at 167 because putting on more muscle would only hurt him. The fact BJ has balls so large they gotta names after planets does not make GSP a *****. My god if BJ Penn has become the standard for who is a coward than the UFC is filled with nothing but a bunch of cowards and pantywaists.
Thats the point. It wasn't a problem. BJ did it and in the first fight he kicked GSP's ass as the smaller man.
Point is fighting size matters, but it matters 10x more if the bigger guy is the wrestler. GSP was bigger than BJ and was the wrestler who wrestled him. Anderson would be the bigger guy but he isn't looking to lay and use his size other than reach vs. GSP. So the difference is huge. GSP is the wrestler. Anderson is not.
GSP has sat at 170lbs his whole career. Anderson has not.
GSP beats everyone by being better but really out-wrestling everyone. Lets see what his plan is and if he can wrestle when he isn't the bigger guy.
But GSP apologists don't want to here logic. They want GSP to sit at 170lbs from start to finish cutting 25lbs and always being the stronger fighter.
Condit vs. Anderson. What is really the size difference there? Why is Condit at 6'2 76 inch reach so much different than Anderson at 6'2 77.5 inch reach? I don't get it. If Anderson cut to 177lbs for a catch weight he would weight around 195 during the fights. Condit come November will weigh 185-190 during the fight.
So tell me mathematically how there is SOOOO much size difference? Fact is Anderson doesn't try to build muscle like GSP. He can change his body weight in a variety of ways. He can become lean, skinny Anderson at 170. He can become normal Anderson at 185. Or he can become chunky, Fedor looking at LHW and still be fast.
There is very minimal difference in Condit and Anderson's size. Anderson is bigger through the arms and Condit is a little bigger through the legs.
We are talking a difference of 5 or 10 lbs. Fighters in the same weight class give that up everytime they fight. Machida, BJ at 170, Frankie, Hendo, Maia did. But GSP fans don't want Georges to ever be the smaller fighter....
Thats the point. It wasn't a problem. BJ did it and in the first fight he kicked GSP's ass as the smaller man.
Point is fighting size matters, but it matters 10x more if the bigger guy is the wrestler. GSP was bigger than BJ and was the wrestler who wrestled him. Anderson would be the bigger guy but he isn't looking to lay and use his size other than reach vs. GSP. So the difference is huge. GSP is the wrestler. Anderson is not.
GSP has sat at 170lbs his whole career. Anderson has not.
GSP beats everyone by being better but really out-wrestling everyone. Lets see what his plan is and if he can wrestle when he isn't the bigger guy.
But GSP apologists don't want to here logic. They want GSP to sit at 170lbs from start to finish cutting 25lbs and always being the stronger fighter.
Condit vs. Anderson. What is really the size difference there? Why is Condit at 6'2 76 inch reach so much different than Anderson at 6'2 77.5 inch reach? I don't get it. If Anderson cut to 177lbs for a catch weight he would weight around 195 during the fights. Condit come November will weigh 185-190 during the fight.
So tell me mathematically how there is SOOOO much size difference? Fact is Anderson doesn't try to build muscle like GSP. He can change his body weight in a variety of ways. He can become lean, skinny Anderson at 170. He can become normal Anderson at 185. Or he can become chunky, Fedor looking at LHW and still be fast.
There is very minimal difference in Condit and Anderson's size. Anderson is bigger through the arms and Condit is a little bigger through the legs.
We are talking a difference of 5 or 10 lbs. Fighters in the same weight class give that up everytime they fight. Machida, BJ at 170, Frankie, Hendo, Maia did. But GSP fans don't want Georges to ever be the smaller fighter....
BJ also lost the second fight and people use that loss to shit on his legacy.
You say Anderson would weight 195 to fight at a catch weight but that is the point. If the fight happened at 185 Anderson would walk into the cage at about 205-210 pounds which is 20-25 pound weight advantage. Anderson didn't appear anymore drained against Forrest and Forrest walks into the cage about 230 so AS is a big guy. GSP is often the smaller guy I would argue Fitch,Shields and Alves were bigger. Only Penn and Serra would have given up notable size advantages with Hughes,Kos and Hardy being a wash.
Considering how so many people disrespect BJ's record it is totally understandable that fighters don't want to move up in weight.
This would be a great fight. GSP has been out of action for a while, and should probably take 2 fights to tune up to Silva, but if he wants to get a shot at Silva before he retires, then more power to him.
This fight at a catchweight can't happen until March at the earliest, ruling out the Superbowl Card (Feb 3).
Dana has often stated that a super-fight would take place in a stadium like cowboy stadium or the Rogers Center, which also pushes it back past Feb 3 (not that the Cowboy's are gonna make a superbowl run).
He shouldn't be looking past Condit. I still have my money riding on the fact that GSP will be able to move to 185 because he is no longer the champion.
Wow GSP is manning up for the first time, thats impressive. Also silva is not as big as every1 thinks, yeah hes tall but thats pretty much it,
His reach is 77.5 while GSPs is 77
Anderson does not weigh 220, thats his out of shape weight, he was weighing 198 in the octagon for the second sonnen fight, while GSP weighs 193-194 on fight night. Thats only a 5 pound difference at most, at catch weight GSP might even be heavier than anderson come fight night since he is one of the best weight cutters while anderson would have to cut more than his usual GSP can simply cut less weight
Also anthony johnson was a huge ass WW and kos schooled him with his wrestling, if GSP loses its not because of size, it will be because hes simply not as skilled.
Lets not forget that GSP has made a career out of beating smaller guys, his best wins are BJ and hughes...
GSP isn't really manning up, he doesn't want to risk his title also aren't there like a dozen contenders to the WW title right now. My guess is he's waiting for Diaz to come back and knock out the easier the contender (Kampmann?) to set up his big money fight.
I just don't get why people want this fight. At least one of them is going to be fighting at a weight they have not fought at for YEARS, if ever.
If I were a GSP fan this fight would scare me. Ok it's #1 vs #2 but it just so happens that the guy in the #1 spot is much bigger, and is #1 for good reason. He's well ahead of everyone, including GSP.
Forget star power and weigh up the fight, mismatch IMO and with so much on the line, why do it? Not interested.
Its funny to see most hardcore fans think like this nowadays, i remember last year how there were huge debates about who would win and many thought GSP could beat anderson since he had the "wrestling and sub defense to do it" now just because hes been out for a while ppl think its a mismatch? Anderson doesnt use his strength anyway, he relies purley on striking technique, he also wont be able to stop GSPs TDs just because hes taller and its not like he would be the only 6 ft 2 WW in the world, ppl dot want to see it because anderson would KO him, even without the size advantage hes simply on another level and a wrestler cant beat him
Then they complain that he wont go up to fight JBJ...last i checked JBJ turned down the idea of fighting AS also, he said there was too much to lose in sponsers and legacy, that means hes afraid to lose also, if he wanted to fight AS he would call him out.
I think GSP's coach should have kept quiet until after the Condit fight.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Mixed Martial Arts Forum
1.9M posts
52.9K members
Since 2006
A mixed martial art forum community dedicated to the different arts of MMA. Come talk about UFC results, Bellator matches, The Ultimate Fighter and more!