Anderson is the bigger fighter and the undisputed king of his division at the time, why is he going to cut 20lbs+ to fight a smaller man?
Yes he was. And he was on a role after the Forrest win fighting also at LHW and stated when he announced his retirement run (legacy run) that he wanted the biggest fights possible at LHW until Shogun took that belt and called for a fight with Anderson. Suddenly then Anderson's focus became GSP and when Jones won the LHW belt Anderson never looked back to LHW despite his earlier procalamation.
Also the undisputed king of his division.
wanted the fight he could have met Anderson at 185lbs
Yes he could have but like Anderson he GSP clearly only wanted the fight on his terms and when he was ready. Just as Anderson was not going to risk fighting the bigger top champs and only wanted a super fight V GSP when he was in retirement mode, a GSP not YET in retirement mode (legacy fight mode) would not want Anderson YET.
like he magically is now against Michael Bisping.
No magic to it. It is the exact thing Anderson did when he suddenly wanted GSP. Legacy mode and retirement allows you to take risks you otherwise won't during your main earning, prime years.
Unlike St. Pierre, Anderson has actually fought at 205lbs, he's actually had the balls to go up a division. [
It takes no balls to go up and fight weaker hand picked comp. It takes balls to fight the TOUGHEST comp which is what GSP did.
If you doubt that ask yourself this. Is fighting prime Jose Aldo at FW a tougher fight for Edgar than fighting a fringe top 20 LW during that same period?
Only an idiot assumes 'oh the bigger guy is the braver fight' when in fact Aldo would be the tougher and braver fight. GSP always fought tougher comp than Anderson. that is not even in dispute.
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In fact, Anderson moved up a weight division on as little as one day's notice, and only on approximately 1 week's notice against Bonnar. [/QUOTE] Ya to fight WHO and WHO?
I would rather see Anderson have fought tough high level MW's than handpick easier LHW fights.
I wonder if Conor skipped more top defenses at LW and instead chose to hand pick stylistically easy WW's if you would praise that as Conor being brave or instead point out he was trying to hand pick easier comp??? I know what most on this forum would say including the hypocrites who would then praise Anderson for the same thing.
We can sit around and act like Anderson was "ducking St. Pierre" when in reality it was the contrary.
It does not have to be either unless you are hater of one or a fan boy of the other.
FACT is that neither Anderson nor GSP cared much for a fight with one another when they were both in their prime and neither was really willing to do anything to make it happen. Anderson when asked would most commonly reply 'its not a fight that interests me' or 'I am happy in my division'.
it was ONLY once Anderson was thinking retirement and legacy fights (around GSP/Shields) and particularly once he had no more appetite to play at LHW with Shogun and then Jones as champ that he became focused on GSP.
Well too bad for Anderson that GSP was not YET in his own legacy mode fight stage and he was still an active champ not yet looking at retirement. Because that meant GSP was acting just like Anderson was PRIOR to looking to retirement. The two of them were perfectly consistent.
St. Pierre wasn't obliged to ever fight Silva, but it's ridiculous that he's now grown the balls to fight Bisping.
Again nothing ridiculous about it. Just as when Anderson went into retirement mode and he was looking for legacy fights, now that GSP is in legacy mode he is too. He just got there years after Anderson.
the biggest difference is that when Anderson went into legacy mode he wanted NOTHING to do with bigger fighters and even stated he wanted GSP as he saw it as the easier fight. He started calling out the smaller man.
GSP may be being opportunistic in his legacy fight choice but at least he called out the bigger man an did willing to move up to fight him.
If Anderson was still in his prime and champ and GSP was calling out Conor and telling him to move up so they could fight that would be the equivalent of what Anderson did and sure as shit you guys would give GSP holy hell for it while praising Anderson for same.