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'Rushing the Spider': St. Pierre vs. Silva needs to happen, and soon.
Written by Emir Filipovic   
Friday, 08 May 2009 14:47
Anderson Silva has only a few fights left on his contract and seems to be running out of opponents to fight at middleweight. Many think that he should try his luck at the more competitive light-heavyweight division, but before that happens, he needs to fight fellow pound-for-pound candidate and welterweight superstar Georges St-Pierre. Whoever wins this superfight will only further cement his place among the greatest of all time.

This matchup has been in the making for quite some time and even St.Pierre has been recently quoted, saying that he would like to fight Silva, should he get by Thiago Alves. This fight would not only be pure Pay-Per-View gold for the UFC, but it would hold significance for the MMA universe in general, finally answering who is the better pound-for-pound fighter.

Considering Silva’s last two lackluster performances against fighters most would hesitate to label "elite", maybe this kind of super-matchup is what’s needed in order to wake him from his “dancing” spell. For GSP,  fighting the Spider would be his biggest challenge to date, considering just how much size he would give up to an extremely skilled opponent. One question that comes to the fore, however, is which weight would the fight take place at? 185 lbs or an agreed upon catch-weight? 

The more intriguing question though, is "how would this fight look?" Both St. Pierre and Silva are incredibly well-rounded, so it's hard to be certainly, but it would be a fair guess to assume that GSP would not desire to stand with Anderson for a long time, considering the Spider’s accuracy and the reach advantage (4 cm/1.6 in) he would have in this fight. St Pierre's smartest strategy would be to take Anderson down and keep him there, while avoiding submission attempts and inflicting some damage with his impressive ground-and-pound. That being said, spending time in Silva’s guard is not like lying in a La-Z-Boy, as it offers more than just impressive defensive capabilities. Travis Lutter found out the hard way, and Thales Leites, with his stellar BJJ credentials, failed to even mount a threat within the Spider's guard. For Anderson the fight would be all about picking apart St. Pierre from a safe distance, punishing GSP while attempting to avoid takedowns, then going for the kill when the time is right.


 
So, who has the most to gain from this match up? I think it's safe to say Georges St. Pierre. He’s the younger man and would easily vindicate a loss by beating some fighters at WW, while Anderson is at the end of his contract, meaning that a loss would leave a blemish on his UFC record against a fighter in a lower weight-class. Anderson is also the larger man, so there is more of an expectation for him to win, so there wouldn't be as much of a backlash on St. Pierre if he lost.

Regardless of who comes out on top, the true winners of this future fight would be MMA fans from all over the world, because as far as I'm concerned, this bout has 'epic' written all over it.