Former UFC two-division champion Georges St-Pierre has shed new light on why a long-rumored superfight with Anderson Silva never materialized, revealing that the UFC approached him about the matchup only once and never followed up after he outlined several conditions for accepting the bout.
For years, fans clamored to see St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) and Silva (34-11 MMA, 17-7 UFC) face off while both men were at the height of their powers. St-Pierre dominated the welterweight division during one of the most successful title reigns in UFC history, winning 12 championship fights between 2006 and 2013. Silva was equally dominant at middleweight, racking up 11 title-fight victories and establishing himself as one of the sport's all-time greats.
Despite widespread interest from fans and media alike, the fight never came together.
Speaking recently with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson on Johnson's YouTube channel, St-Pierre explained that the UFC's interest in the fight never progressed beyond an initial conversation with then-UFC executives Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta.
“This is one of the biggest regrets of the fans,” St-Pierre said. “So what happened is that at the time when I was in my prime and Anderson Silva was in (his) prime…I can only speak from my side because I don't know what was happening on Anderson Silva's side…I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo.”
According to St-Pierre, he was open to the fight but believed certain concessions were necessary given that he would be moving up from welterweight to face a larger opponent.
“I had the request because I was like, ‘Okay, you want me to get out of my way to go up in a weight class? I need to be compensated because, you know, it's different,’” St-Pierre said. “I'm full of challenges now in my weight class. So if I'm fighting someone bigger, I need to change my training, try to get bigger maybe.”
The Canadian legend said his first condition involved increased compensation for taking on the challenge. He also wanted the fight contested at a catchweight rather than the full middleweight limit.
“My request was like: if I fight Anderson Silva, I want it to be put in the contract that I wanted to be compensated better, for one,” St-Pierre explained. “I wanted this to be done in a catch weight, because Anderson fought in PRIDE at 170, and I knew he could go down.”
St-Pierre acknowledged that Silva's ability to make a lower weight later in his career was uncertain, but said his concern stemmed largely from the difficulties fighters can face after moving up in weight and then attempting to return to their natural division.
“I wanted a catch weight so that I could, after that, go back because I saw what happened to Roy Jones,” St-Pierre said. “He went up and then tried to go back, got knocked out by Antonio Tarver. It's easier to go up. It's harder to go back down.”
The third condition centered on drug testing, an issue St-Pierre became increasingly vocal about throughout the latter stages of his career.
“And the third one was: I wanted to have drug testing implemented,” he said.
According to St-Pierre, the UFC never responded to any of his requests.
“They never got back to me,” St-Pierre said. “If they said, ‘You want that? If you make that happen, I'm in.’ Yeah. No problem. I'm in.”
He reiterated that his demands were not unreasonable and were based on the unique circumstances surrounding a champion-versus-champion superfight.
“If you make, let's say, a 180 catch weight, I'm in,” St-Pierre said. “And if you compensate me…the money that I wanted more…it was reasonable. It was not emotional. It was like the numbers were there.”
St-Pierre concluded by noting that the proposed drug-testing measures also never advanced and that he has no knowledge of whether Silva was ever presented with similar conditions.
“Also the drug testing, they didn't keep up. They didn't follow up with that,” St-Pierre said. “I don't know if they asked Anderson about that, but they only asked me once.”
