Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva still sit near the centre of every serious MMA GOAT debate, even years after both left their UFC primes behind.
St-Pierre ruled welterweight, later winning middleweight gold, while Silva built the longest title reign in UFC history during a terrifying run at 185lb.
Advertisement
That made their proposed superfight irresistible, but it never came to fruition, and St-Pierre has now shed light on what happened backstage.
Georges St-Pierre lifts lid on his three requests for Anderson Silva fight
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Speaking to Demetrious Johnson, St-Pierre said UFC officials only seriously asked him once about moving up to face Silva, and he responded with three conditions.
“I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo Fertitta and I had the request because I was like, ‘Okay, you want me to get out of my way to go up in a weight class, I need to be compensated,’” he began by saying.
“Because you know, it’s different now, I was full of challenges in my weight class. So if I’m fighting someone bigger, I need to change my training, try to get bigger maybe.
“So my request was like, if I fight Anderson Silva, I want to be compensated better. I also wanted this to be done in a catchweight because Anderson fought in Pride at 170, and I knew he could go down. So I could go back after that. And the third one was that I wanted to have drug testing implemented and they never got back to me.”
Advertisement
‘GSP’ claims he never denied the appeal, but he wanted the risk managed financially, competitively and medically.
At the time, that mattered. St-Pierre still had contenders at welterweight, while Silva’s size, striking and middleweight dominance made the jump more than a normal champion-versus-champion gamble.
Read more:
