On the surface, a fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre looks like a dream match-up. When you look deeper into it, is it really THAT great of a fight?
First, let's look at the positives:
•A fight with GSP will surely light a fire under Anderson's ass and make him work, and work hard for a finish. The motivation has to be there. He will be facing a fighter in GSP, who like himself, resides on just about everyone's P4P Best Fighter list. In many cases, he's ranked higher on those lists than Anderson himself. I just can't see Silva pulling any of the shenanigans against St-Pierre that he did in his fights with Maia, Cote or Leites.
•This fight is a classic striker vs grappler match-up. You have arguably the best striker on the planet against arguably the best MMA applied wrestler on the planet. There's a ton of intrigue in this fight based on that alone. Given George's reluctance to stand and trade with strikers who are way inferior to Anderson, he undoubtedly will immediately work for a TD. Anderson has underrated jits skills so even if GSP gets the fight to the mat, it doesn't mean he can win it there. Don't forget, Anderson loves to use those NASTY elbows he has from the bottom. The main question in a ground battle will be if Anderson has any sweeps.
I'm sure the Nog brothers will be drilling sweeps with him from the second this fight gets booked.
•GSP isn't Brazilian! Silva seems to show some mercy on his Brazilian opponents. This won't be the case with Georges. Like he has against ALL his non-Brazilian opponents, Anderson will come out with fire in his eyes, looking for blood, and most importantly, looking to finish the fight, and finish it QUICKLY!
•$uperstar Vs $uperstar!
These two guys are the UFC's biggest stars outside of Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. G$P is arguably their biggest draw right now. Everyone wants to see the biggest names in the sport fight each other, especially Zuffa, who will be watching their bottomline grow exponentially from this fight.
Now on to the negatives:
•What weight? Should the fight be at 170, 185 or a catch weight in between? I would prefer the fight to happen @ 185 or a catch weight close to that. A fight at 170 makes absolutely no sense to me in any way. Why does anyone want to see a drawn out, dehydrated, energy depleted Anderson Silva fight. He supposedly walks around at 195 these days, just like GSP, but has been known to weigh around 210-215 between fights. That cut would be extremely rough on him. Not to mention dangerous. The result would be seeing Anderson fight in a condition that wouldn't allow him to be a fraction of the fighter he really is. I can't see Ed Soares (Silva's manager) agreeing to a fight at welterweight in the first place. Since GSP walks around at 195, make the fight at 185, or at a minimum, a catch weight of 180. The catch weight makes sense so there doesn't have to be any belts on the line. We just get a good ole', "who's better than who", throwdown.
•There is huge potential for the implementation of another "boring" gameplan from GSP. We all know he isn't going to stand and trade strikes with Anderson. That's virtual suicide. If he is able to impose his wrestling will, we will end up watching 15 minutes of GSP taking Anderson down, getting tied up, the ref standing the fight back up, and repeat. OVER & OVER & OVER again! The only thing worse than that is if it ends up being a title fight and we get 25 minutes of that instead of just 15. Styles make fights! Stylistically, this fight might not deliver.
There are some definite parallels between Anderson and GSP:
-Both of them have been completely dominant in their divisions.
-Both show signs of absolute brilliance with their skillsets.
-Both of them have been somewhat boring as of late, but obviously for different reasons.
-Both, to a certain degree, seem to have lost their killer instinct.
Will the brevity of this fight create magic and inspire these guys to take their respective games to completely different levels? You would think so! And hope so!
Now, on to the specifics of the fight itself and its potential outcome. As long as the fight is at or around 180-185, I see no way for GSP to win. Anderson is just too good on his feet, too fast, has too much length and has too good of a sprawl. GSP can't win a striking game and if he can't get the fight to the mat, he has no chance whatsoever at victory.
If for some insane reason, this fight ends up happening at 170, I think Georges can grind out a split decision. At 170, Anderson will be a shell of himself, completely energy depleted and lethargic. Look at James Irvin's last fight as an example of what a fighter looks like when competing at way too light a weight. I don't see Anderson performing well in that condition. Georges has a huge advantage at welterweight.
Let's see what Zuffa comes up with and what approach, if any, they take with this match-up. Initially, I didn't want to see this fight happen, but after going through the pros and cons involved, I am now leaning towards wanting to see it go down. But, and its a BIG but, a Vida Guerra sized butt, it has to be at a weight where both fighters can compete at their absolute best. One hundred seventy pounds is not that weight!
Silva has been quoted as saying he walks around at 215-220. GSP, at his heaviest, is 195.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but there is no real upside to this. Want something interesting, move Silva up to LHW. There are plenty of match-ups for him there.
As far as drawing power goes, Silva's only big card had both Forrest and Penn on it. With heavy marketing, this does well, but more because GSP than anything else.
GSP will eventually move up, but I don't see it happening for at least another 12 months.