A Silva clearly ducked GSP his whole career.

[Fedor Emelianenko]

He could have easily jumped to welterweight, like he has fought at many times, but he simply refused to do so out of fear. He knew if he was the same size as GSP he would get ragdolled.

It is sort of sad that this fight never happened because Silva refused to fight on equal grounds.

Andy was such a big weight cutter in the UFC. He fought at 170 earlier in his career

 

[Stagliano]

UFC Silva would have never made 170 WTF is wrong with you all ? Are you all aware that in getting older you can't be as light than when you are younger right ?

 

[SpiderFan187]

Anderson lost to The Chris, The Chris lost to Luke, Luke got KTFO by Bisping, Bisping beat Anderson, GSP beat Bisping.

GSP beat the Bisping who was the reigning champion and beat Anderson AFTER getting almost KO'd by a cheap shot knee when Herb Dean clearly distracted him with the mouthpiece.

Age matters, GSP ducked simple as that.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

weak man, step up

Yeah like the old Serra fluke reference is a solid one?

 

[pankrat]

Yeah like the old Serra fluke reference is a solid one?

Both are weak both very shertard man

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Age matters, GSP ducked simple as that.

Here is a quick and simple test to determine if your opinion is worth a damn.

What is your criteria for Ducking?
For me only a champion is "Obliged" to take fights. When a worthy #1 contender emerges the champion is "Obliged" to take that fight. You cannot "Duck" champions in a higher weight class. Champions are not obliged to move up but they sure as hell have no business calling out the smaller guy to come up. If they want the fight they need to go to that Champions weight class. If a champion feels they have no more valid challenges they must look up or cut the weight and move to a new division.

So if GSP Ducked Anderson "Simple as that", you must also think Anderson "Ducked" Jon Jones. If your answer is no then explain to me the "Ducking" criteria that GSP meets and Anderson does not?

Here are some examples:
GSP & Anderson have both fought at WW
Invalid unless applied to Anderson who has fought at LHW along with Jon Jones.

GSP cleaned out his division. That could be argued but GSP supposedly "Ducked" the new generation of WWs like Tyrone, Lawler, Hendricks rematch etc.
Invalid unless applied to Anderson who had cleaned out MW or was closer to it then GSP was at WW.

So what is it? Both "Ducks", neither are "Ducks" or are you hypocritical with one over the other?

 

[The XL]

Pride WW wasn't 170 it was 183.
2 fighters in different weigh-classes can't duck each other, they were in different weigh-classes.

With the way the first Chael vs Anderson went, no one should be in any doubt about how the fight would have gone. GSP wouldn't have thrown 23 minutes of a fight where he was winning away by getting sub'd.

GSP couldn't physically keep top position on Anderson, and he would be too hesitant to walk through fire like Chael did to get the takedown. Chael was probably 215lbs in the cage and GSP is like 185lbs, so there is that too.

Anderson would have starched Georges. Even if he had the skillset to beat Anderson, he would have been too scared and timid.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

UFC Silva would have never made 170 WTF is wrong with you all ? Are you all aware that in getting older you can't be as light than when you are younger right ?

And yet when he was even older he wanted to fight Conor, which presumably would be at WW (or even LW).

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Age matters, GSP ducked simple as that.

GSP ducked at 185. Anderson ducked at 170. Anyone who thinks just one ducked is hopelessly biased.

 

[snugglecakes]

They both ducked each other. It was a double duck. A shitty risk for both men

 

[dipstickjimmy]

GSP couldn't physically keep top position on Anderson, and he would be too hesitant to walk through fire like Chael did to get the takedown. Chael was probably 215lbs in the cage and GSP is like 185lbs, so there is that too.

Anderson would have starched Georges. Even if he had the skillset to beat Anderson, he would have been too scared and timid.

Not big enough to control Anderson once he gets him down? Based on what other than Silva's size? Has Anderson shown great ability to get up when taken down?
He only fought a handful of wrestler's with good top control. Chael did what he wanted in the first and second fights when he took him down. His biggest mistake was trying to strike in the second fight and getting tapped mere moments from winning the first fight. Cormier held him down easily, The Chris had such good top game that he KO'd Anderson twice. Anderson was so scared of the TD and GnP plus the subs of Chris he forgot how to fight standing.

GSP has the top game and TDs to give Anderson nightmares. He is also GOAT in all other areas so GSP was as likely to rock him and tap him or just KO him as he is to ground out a 50-45 UD.

 

[Stagliano]

Not big enough to control Anderson once he gets him down? Based on what other than Silva's size? Has Anderson shown great ability to get up when taken down?
He only fought a handful of wrestler's with good top control. Chael did what he wanted in the first and second fights when he took him down. His biggest mistake was trying to strike in the second fight and getting tapped mere moments from winning the first fight. Cormier held him down easily, The Chris had such good top game that he KO'd Anderson twice. Anderson was so scared of the TD and GnP plus the subs of Chris he forgot how to fight standing.

GSP has the top game and TDs to give Anderson nightmares. He is also GOAT in all other areas so GSP was as likely to rock him and tap him or just KO him as he is to ground out a 50-45 UD.

Too bad that GSP didn't share your same confidence about that fight.

And yet when he was even older he wanted to fight Conor, which presumably would be at WW (or even LW).

Did he said the weight at which he wanted to do that fight ? Maybe it was at catchweight or something like that. He was like 42 when he called him out and he would have never made 170 (and you know that he wasn't thinking about LW don't ne silly).

By the way that call out was pretty lame. He has at least 30 lbs over Conor. Don't know wtf he was thinking about by doing this.

 

[Dreaming Dead]

Silva was juiced too so it was even. Sonnen was great but GSP is in another league.

Well, I know it's pretty much irresistible to embrace the "they all are using" narrative, but the truth is, no one can prove Anderson was juiced during the Sonnen fights. As long as there is no proof, the accusation is meaningless. However, it is known Sonnen had elevated testosterone levels during their first fight. Therefore, the steroid argument is not applicable in this case.

 

[HOOD]

clown shit right here

 

[pankrat]

Not big enough to control Anderson once he gets him down? Based on what other than Silva's size? Has Anderson shown great ability to get up when taken down?
He only fought a handful of wrestler's with good top control. Chael did what he wanted in the first and second fights when he took him down. His biggest mistake was trying to strike in the second fight and getting tapped mere moments from winning the first fight. Cormier held him down easily, The Chris had such good top game that he KO'd Anderson twice. Anderson was so scared of the TD and GnP plus the subs of Chris he forgot how to fight standing.

GSP has the top game and TDs to give Anderson nightmares. He is also GOAT in all other areas so GSP was as likely to rock him and tap him or just KO him as he is to ground out a 50-45 UD.

GSP would have much more problems that you assume with Silva in the ground. Especially getting any offense going to avoid and eventual standup by referee. See the Marquardt fight for example.

Just look at his fight vs Bisping. We were used to see GSP dominating very legit grapplers at WW from top with ease and he had lot of troubles being in the guard with Bisping, he even took bad elbows from Bisping off his back, let alone passing the guard as easily as he used to do on WWs or landing any effective GnP.

Also, the chances of Silva landing a fight-ending hit are much, much higher than WW had.

It seems GSP agrees. Why did he not tried be champ-champ while Silva was there? Silva who fought at WW the same year he became UFC MW by the way

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Did he said the weight at which he wanted to do that fight ? Maybe it was at catchweight or something like that. He was like 42 when he called him out and he would have never made 170 (and you know that he wasn't thinking about LW don't ne silly).

By the way that call out was pretty lame. He has at least 30 lbs over Conor. Don't know wtf he was thinking about by doing this.

I can't find the interview, but I'm pretty sure Anderson wanted the fight with Conor at WW (probably because he knew there was zero chance that Conor would take the fight at anything higher). You're right that I added the LW just to be funny.

The point is, if Silva thought he could make 170 to fight Conor at age 42, then he would have been even more certain of being able to make 170 to fight GSP in his mid-30's. And that means that the GSP-Anderson fight could have happened at either 170 or 185.

I don't blame either GSP or Anderson btw, I blame the UFC for the fight not happening. No one wanted catch weight, because a non-title fight would drive down the casual PPV numbers (and casuals outnumber hard core fans in MMA by a large margin -- you only need look at the fluctuation in PPV numbers to see that, compared to the steady viewer numbers in all the major sports). That means either GSP would be giving Anderson an advantage by fighting at 185, or Anderson would be giving GSP an advantage by fighting at 170.

One side in a business contract having to compromise more is normal in business, and the solution is almost always the same -- the side that compromises more gets paid extra to do it. The normal business practice would be for the UFC to offer an extra few million to whichever of the two was willing to change weight. Everyone has their price, and at the right price one (or both) would have offered to change weight, and the UFC would still have made a big profit. The UFC however is used to dealing with fighters who know nothing about business, and so refused to do so, thinking either GSP or Anderson would be stupid enough to change weight for free. But neither GSP nor Anderson are stupid, so the fight never happened.

Anderson calling out Conor (and even GSP) is pathetic on the face of it (calling out a smaller fighter and asking him to go up in weight to fight you is pretty bad), but I'd give Anderson a pass simply because it's really all about money. He wanted to fight GSP because of the money, same for Conor. And GSP too is all about the money, and Conor. Each fight means millions of dollars to those guys, so of course that's their main concern. Things like legacy and challenge is what fans talk about, but professional athletes are almost always working for money -- just like us. Few of us will take a lower paying job because it gives more legacy and challenge, and its odd that fans think its any different for professional athletes, who have even less active years to earn their money.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

1.Just look at his fight vs Bisping.

2. It seems GSP agrees. Why did he not tried be champ-champ while Silva was there? Silva who fought at WW the same year he became UFC MW by the way

1. the same Bisping Anderson lost to? The same Bisping Anderson could not finish even with a massive cheap shot knee while Herb Dean was distracting Bisping? Funny you choose that fight to claim GSP couldn’t handle Anderson on the ground while GSP not only subbed Bisping but he practically KO’d him first.
2. GSP didn’t want to go to MW as he had lots of challengers at WW. Why didn’t Anderson go to LHW? Jon Jones was as much talked about for a Super fight for Anderson??? Don’t even bother with the cherry picked Trio of Irvin, Forest and Bonnar. Three slow sloppy strikers with ZERO offensive wrestling.

Anderson Ducked Jon if you believe GSP Ducked Anderson.

also at that time in the UFC there was little reason to chase other champs. The UFC wasn’t going to pay real money the way they have been paying McGregor. That’s why Anderson didn’t chase Jon.