Is a Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva fight on the horizon for Toronto?
Two recent announcements from Lorenzo Fertitta indicate that a much-anticipated fight between Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva may take place in the very near future.
Fertitta, who is the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s parent company, Zuffa, recently stated his desire to see a St. Pierre vs. Silva fight. Speaking to MMA Junkie, Fertitta
stated, “I want to see that fight. That’s probably the one fight I really want to see the most.”
While in London to promote UFC 120, Fertitta announced plans for a record-breaking event in Toronto. Fertitta said that the UFC was “looking at…sometime in late April” for the event.
As far as the site of the event, Fertitta said, “It looks like we’re going to try and do the Rogers Centre.” He followed that up by stating his desire “to get about 40,000 to 50,000 people
there.”
The highest attendance at a UFC event is 21,451 for UFC 97. That fight card took place in April 2009. The second highest attendance was 21,390 at UFC 83 in April 2008. Both of these fight
cards took place in Montreal’s Bell Centre. Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites headlined UFC 97, while UFC 83’s headlining bout was Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre.
Those numbers clearly indicate the fan base is there in Canada to support a huge turnout. Add to that fact that Silva and St. Pierre each headlined one of those cards and you can extrapolate
that fans want to see these two fighters.
Mixed martial arts fans want to see this fight due to the fact that many MMA pundits rank these two fighters as being two of the top three pound for pound fighters in all of MMA. The fact
that they fight in weight classes that are fairly close makes a fight between them that much more appealing.
Why has this fight not been booked before? According to Fertitta, “One of the things we wanted to do was allow both of these guys to continue to get through their divisions. But, I mean,
we’re getting to a point where they’ve pretty much cleaned out the division. Maybe it’s time to watch them and see what happens.”
St. Pierre holds a record of 20-2 and has held the UFC welterweight title on two occasions. His current streak of title defences stands at four in a row. The list of welterweights he has
defeated includes B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Jon Fitch, Dan Hardy, Thiago Alves and Sean Sherk. St. Pierre has fought the best in his division and defeated them all, having avenged his only two losses, to Serra and Hughes.
Silva is the holder of the record for longest title reign in UFC history. Silva has held the UFC middleweight title since October 2006 and has defended that title seven times. Silva, with
a record of 27-4, also has the longest unbeaten streak in UFC history at 12 fights and counting.
Both St. Pierre and Silva have fights scheduled in the near future. St. Pierre will defend his title on 11 December against Josh Koscheck. Silva is scheduled to take on Vitor Belfort
on 5 February.
The UFC has never had an event in Ontario, so why the big push now? The answer to that is simple - mixed martial arts were not legal in Ontario until August of this year. The sanctioning
of MMA in Canada’s most populated province opens up a huge opportunity for the UFC.
Marc Ratner, UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs had this to say about brining the UFC to Ontario, “…it’s my understanding that a major UFC event can bring in as many as 30,000
people to town…42 percent of the ticket sales (for UFC 113 in Montreal) were made to Ontario residents.”
There are some barriers to this fight, one being what weight class would the fight take place at? St. Pierre fights at welterweight, with a weight limit of 170 pounds. Silva fights in
the 185-pound middleweight class and has gone up in weight to compete at the 205-pound light heavyweight division.
St. Pierre has spoken about moving up to 185, but has said that if he does so he “cannot go back down (to welterweight). If I do it one day, I’ve got to make sure it’s the end of 170 because
I ‘m going to go up for good.”
Another stumbling block is the fact that if St. Pierre and Silva are successful in their upcoming bouts, they already have other opponents lined up. UFC president Dana White has made assurances
to Jake Shields that he is next in line for a welterweight title shot, while Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami are scheduled to fight in November to decide who will be next in line for a shot at the middleweight title.
But if the UFC were able to rearrange schedules and make this fight happen it would be one of the most anticipated fights in the history of the organization.
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