Silva vs St-Pierre the greatest fight that never was

[Iron Nick]

Good post.
In my opinion, GSP would've won, although a match between these two is hard to predict accurately for certain, as others have already mentioned.
Silva relied a lot on counter striking and GSP is both one of the most defensively sound and the most intelligent (regarding fight IQ) fighters ever, which makes it highly unlikely that he'd just run into Silva's hands and as guys like Weidman and Sonnen have shown, wrestling can be extremely effective against Anderson Silva and it's really no secret that GSP is one of, if not the best MMA-wrestler ever.

 

[AlwaysWonder]

Silva ducked GSP. He could’ve easily made WW. He was even originally being brought over to the UFC as a WW to fight Hughes.

The narrative is that GSP ducked him by not wanting to move up. But nobody talks about how Silva also refused to move down to fight him.

Please! Silva is at a completely different level of that overrated boring play it safe coward chery picking GSP. GSP will never even considered to be at Anderson Silvas level by any non casual.

Thats like comparing Michael Jordan to John Stockton.

Anderson Silva is the true goat of MMA followed by Jon Jones.


GSP is not even a contender. Any version of Anderson Silva annihilates prime GSP.

 

[AlwaysWonder]

Good post.
In my opinion, GSP would've won, although a match between these two is hard to predict accurately for certain, as others have already mentioned.
Silva relied a lot on counter striking and GSP is both one of the most defensively sound and the most intelligent (regarding fight IQ) fighters ever, which makes it highly unlikely that he'd just run into Silva's hands and as guys like Weidman and Sonnen have shown, wrestling can be extremely effective against Anderson Silva and it's really no secret that GSP is one of, if not the best MMA-wrestler ever.

Wow keep dreaming. Anderson Silva is at a completely level as a fighter than that scrub overrated GSP.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Please! Silva is at a completely different level of that overrated boring play it safe coward chery picking GSP. GSP will never even considered to be at Anderson Silvas level by any non casual.

Thats like comparing Michael Jordan to John Stockton.

Anderson Silva is the true goat of MMA followed by Jon Jones.


GSP is not even a contender. Any version of Anderson Silva annihilates prime GSP.

Its funny. GSP fans think Anderson is overrated and that they could probably beat him themselves. Anderson fans think that GSP is overrated, and that they could probably beat him themselves. And yet of the two fighters, neither was willing to change weight to fight the other. Seems like the fans assessment of the guy they don't like is very different than the fighters -- meaning its easier to think you can beat someone if you never actually get into the cage.

In terms of the analogy, its the comparison between Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb -- the prototypical homerun hitter vs the prototypical singles hitter. Most people would put Ruth ahead, but not by much.

Me, I think if they fought at 170 GSP wins, if they fought at 185 Anderson wins. And I think the fighters thought so too, which is why GSP wanted it at 170 and Anderson at 185.

 

[BoD 2.0]

Please! Silva is at a completely different level of that overrated boring play it safe coward chery picking GSP. GSP will never even considered to be at Anderson Silvas level by any non casual.

Thats like comparing Michael Jordan to John Stockton.

Anderson Silva is the true goat of MMA followed by Jon Jones.


GSP is not even a contender. Any version of Anderson Silva annihilates prime GSP.

Anderson almost lost to Chael Sonnen. GSP would have mopped the floor with him.

 

[Iron Nick]

Wow keep dreaming. Anderson Silva is at a completely level as a fighter than that scrub overrated GSP.

You know, it'd be cool to hear actual reasons regarding their skills, instead of phrases like this.

 

[Mcountry]

Striking advantage for Silva -> Mainly in countering, and GSP doesn't wildly swing, like some of the guys SIlva knocked out so viciously.

Size advantage for Silva -> Not really that much. Anderson wasn't even that big of a MW

Reach advantage for Silva -> 197cm Silva against 194cm Georges.. that advantage is almost non-existant IMO.

Strength advantage -> Silva popped and was probably stronger than he looked, but GSP is actually very strong (Chael Sonnen confirms this, when having trained with him). So i think they're about the same strength maybe.

GSP wouldn't put himself in dangerous positions on the ground, and the strength advantage is not nearly as big as you think IMHO and Silva's reach advantage isn't even the width of a finger on each hand.
GSP has advantages in fight-IQ and a big advantage in wrestling.
It's unlikely that one of the defensively most aware and best fighters ever, is going to get countered by Anderson, since he wouldn't put him in such bad positions. Elite-wrestling and a very good striking-defense (both things that GSP is known to be elite at) are the things needed to beat Anderson.
There's a reason why Chael Sonnen (who's clearly not as good as GSP) dominated Silva in their first fight until Silva's submission.
Silva also had big problems with Weidman in their first fight, even being outstruck by him (although the number of strikes being close), but some people argue that Silva was at that point already out of his prime because of his age - despite fight mileage being a bigger factor, and while Silva has had lots of fights, he was known for regularly taking almost no damage.
This is not to sh*t on Silva or anything, but people need to realize that MMA is so much about matchups as well. You could go and have record of 25-0 until you meet a fighter that's a very bad matchup for you, and you'd lose three times in a row to him.

What a load of horse shit.

Andy fought a few times at lhw back then because he could easily put on and take off the weight. There was talk of him fighting Jones. Gsp admitted he couldn't don't that. And his walk around weight wasn't as drastice as Anderson's.

Andy just has a bigger frame in general to work with.

Anderson's footwork and distance was second to none back then. And that 3 inches you want to shrug off would give him a decent advantage at standup which he was also much better at. Gsp wouldn't land his jab at will. And Anderson's strength would insure that this fight would stay on the feet.

Gsp knew all this which is why never took that fight. I'm a fan and I can admit this. Gsp is the goat welterweight. His middleweight win over bisping was just a blip and bisping past his prime isn't comparable to Andy in his prime.

 

[Porradossaurus]

"Georges St-Pierre Says Anderson Silva Is Too Big For Super Fight"

https://camelclutchblog.com/georges-st-pierre-anderson-silva-super-fight/

But hey, he didn't have a problem when Bisping was the champion.

/thread

 

[Ying Li]

Sonnen layed the blue print of what GSP would have successfully done

 

[blaseblah]

GSP never really laid and prayed, he was always looking to advance position and would land ground and pound and look for submissions, although he had some performances that were not exactly the most entertaining to some fight fans, the narrative that GSP was a lay and pray artist has always been silly to me.

This is incorrect. There are several fights of his where he avoided advancing position to stay in guard. His GNP was hard enough to not be stood up but not hard enough to the point where he risked getting off balance. He would never commit to a submission that risked him losing top position. He absolutely fought safe for a long stretch of his career.

 

[AlwaysWonder]

You know, it'd be cool to hear actual reasons regarding their skills, instead of phrases like this.

Play it safe leg huggers like Khabib and GSP can never be true GOAT contenders. Nobody can be the best by being strictly a leg humper.

Anderson Silva till this day has pulled off moves that are Hollywood esc and almost super human. Prime Anderson was in a class of his own athletically and was different from the rest. Even at the age of 56 he still does things that not even these 23 years can do in cage.

The man is a legend.

 

[Iron Nick]

What a load of horse shit.

Andy fought a few times at lhw back then because he could easily put on and take off the weight. There was talk of him fighting Jones. Gsp admitted he couldn't don't that. And his walk around weight wasn't as drastice as Anderson's.

Andy just has a bigger frame in general to work with.

Anderson's footwork and distance was second to none back then. And that 3 inches you want to shrug off would give him a decent advantage at standup which he was also much better at. Gsp wouldn't land his jab at will. And Anderson's strength would insure that this fight would stay on the feet.

Gsp knew all this which is why never took that fight. I'm a fan and I can admit this. Gsp is the goat welterweight. His middleweight win over bisping was just a blip and bisping past his prime isn't comparable to Andy in his prime.

No need to be rude.

Well, some posters said that Silva was originally planned to join the welterweight divison, so who's right?

Anderson Silva, even at middleweight, had some fat on him, so it's not too far fetched that he could've made that cut.

Anderson Silva, despite supremely talented, wasn't nearly as good if he wasn't able to counter strike, that's the truth. What's also true, is that GSP had one of the highets fight-IQs and was phenomenally good, defensively and a fantastic wrestler, and as i said, guys like Sonnen and Weidman made Silva struggle, so it's perfectly reasonable to think GSP would've given Silva a bad time as well.

3 inches? it's 1.2 inches (3cm). As i said, it's literally not even the width of a finger in reality that Silva's longer than GSP.

 

[AlwaysWonder]

Anderson almost lost to Chael Sonnen. GSP would have mopped the floor with him.

MMA math doesn't mean shyt. GSP lost to Matt Serra. Everyone here knows Anderson Silva is by far the superior fighter to boring cherry picking overrated scurred GSP.

Everyone else is just pretending. GSP can never will never be a GOAT. Goat of the leg humpers maybe but not a true fighter.

 

[Iron Nick]

Play it safe leg huggers like Khabib and GSP can never be true GOAT contenders. Nobody can be the best by being strictly a leg humper.

Anderson Silva till this day has pulled off moves that are Hollywood esc and almost super human. Prime Anderson was in a class of his own athletically and was different from the rest. Even at the age of 56 he still does things that not even these 23 years can do in cage.

The man is a legend.

Anderson Silva is one of the most exciting, maybe the most exciting fighter ever and in no way i'd ever deny his insanely good talent in hand-eye coordination and evasiveness, but to say that this alone makes him better than anyone else is just wrong.
Fighting is about winning and while a flashy knockout might look more exciting to most, it's perfectly okay to use wrestling as well.
Being talented doesn't make you the best. Beating the best makes you the best, no matter how.

 

[BoD 2.0]

MMA math doesn't mean shyt. GSP lost to Matt Serra. Everyone here knows Anderson Silva is by far the superior fighter to boring cherry picking overrated scurred GSP.

Everyone else is just pretending. GSP can never will never be a GOAT. Goat of the leg humpers maybe but not a true fighter.

GSP was more dominant. Over better competition. While that competition was at their best. Those are facts.

You may like Silva’s style of fighting better. That’s fine. But GSP was the more successful, dominant MMA Fighter.

 

[skylolow]

I would say for sure this is the biggest fight that never happened.

 

[Iron Nick]

MMA math doesn't mean shyt. GSP lost to Matt Serra. Everyone here knows Anderson Silva is by far the superior fighter to boring cherry picking overrated scurred GSP.

Everyone else is just pretending. GSP can never will never be a GOAT. Goat of the leg humpers maybe but not a true fighter.

"cherry picking" GSP's opponents he won against during his time in the UFC have a better combined record than Silva's opponents under the same circumstances.
338W-57L against 264W-71L - i wonder which one is better..
(These numbers do by the way not include double fights.)

 

[AlwaysWonder]

Anderson Silva is one of the most exciting, maybe the most exciting fighter ever and in no way i'd ever deny his insanely good talent in hand-eye coordination and evasiveness, but to say that this alone makes him better than anyone else is just wrong.
Fighting is about winning and while a flashy knockout might look more exciting to most, it's perfectly okay to use wrestling as well.
Being talented doesn't make you the best. Beating the best makes you the best, no matter how.

We're talking about goat fighters here. Lets get serious. Everyone knows GSP while a nice guy is a play it safe sissy. I wouldnt even consider him a true fighter. He is just another Ben Askren. Ben Askrens of the world cant be in GOAT contendership by winning on technicalities.

Anderson Silva is true master of martial ARTs. The man plays in there. GSP will never be in the same league as an Anderson Silva. Thats ridiculous.

 

[Hirashin]

GSP nuthuggers voting for their boy. GSP would stood absolutely no chance at all. Would get recked, KOd at the center of the cage and never recovered from that loss. Silva would have retired GSP.

 

[RonniePickering]

Silva ducked GSP. He could’ve easily made WW. He was even originally being brought over to the UFC as a WW to fight Hughes.

The narrative is that GSP ducked him by not wanting to move up. But nobody talks about how Silva also refused to move down to fight him.

GSP refused to fight Silva at 185, but happily fought at that weight for the much easier Bisping title fight

There is no defending GSP here