In a recent interview with Sport TV, UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva indicated that he wants to fight UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, even if Carlos Condit beats GSP at UFC 154 on Nov. 17.
“Regardless of who wins, even if St. Pierre loses, a fight with me can happen. A fight like this is above anything else. St. Pierre is one of the greatest of the UFC. Right now, a fight with Condit is meaningless," Silva told Sport TV (translation via Bloody Elbow).
Silva vs. GSP has been talked about for roughly two years now and would easily be the biggest fight in UFC history. Sorry to rain on the parade, but this fight should not happen at all if “The Natural Born Killer” beats the French-Canadian on his home turf this winter.
St-Pierre is a very impressive 22-2 in his professional career and has avenged both losses to Matt Serra and Matt Hughes. He has also won nine in a row, seven being successful title defenses.
All of that is tremendous, but it doesn’t mean let’s go and pretend a loss to Condit doesn’t matter.
GSP has beaten the who’s who of the welterweight division: Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, the list goes on. A loss to Condit would prove that GSP is no longer the greatest 170-pounder to ever compete in the Octagon.
Condit is another fantastic fighter, the current UFC interim title holder and the winner in 13 of his past 14 fights, but he is supposed to be on the same tier as all those other aforementioned competitors.
A Condit win means that GSP is no longer the cream of the UFC crop and should not be fighting the pound-for-pound best.
Silva has set the record with 10 successful UFC title defenses and has won an incredible 16 in a row. He also hasn’t lost “for real” (no one really considers the DQ to Yushin Okami a loss) since Dec. 2004.
If, by some crazy chance, Condit beats GSP at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Silva should be eyeing a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones (or whoever is the 205-pound title holder at that time), not St-Pierre.