Georges St-Pierre doesn’t care that Anderson Silva plans on sitting front row cageside at Montreal’s Bell Centre on Nov. 17. As far as the UFC welterweight champion is concerned, the only thing that matters is his title defense against interim champion Carlos Condit.
“I don’t care about Anderson Silva,” St-Pierre said on Wednesday. “He can do whatever he wants, he can go to Florida or stay in Brazil if he wants. I’m focusing on Carlos Condit and that’s all that matters to me.”
But Wednesday’s media teleconference with the UFC 154 main eventers made it clear that the middleweight champion’s specter won’t go away anytime between now through fight night. St-Pierre’s return bout since an 18-month absence is an intriguing stylistic matchup, but a potential superfight with Silva has been discussed for years and is now closer than ever.
“There’s no doubt Anderson Silva is showing up to cheer Georges St-Pierre on, and he wants him to win this fight,” UFC president Dana White said. “He wants to fight him after.”
As for Condit, while he has noticed the amount of talk about a St-Pierre vs. Silva fight, that hasn’t fooled him into thinking St-Pierre is looking past UFC 154.
“I would say it’s motivating,” Condit said. “I kind of like playing the role of the spolier. There are lot of people in the sport and in the media overlooking me as an opponent for Georges and looking to a superfight with Anderson Silva. I don’t think Georges is overlooking me.”
As he has already said several times, White again confirmed that a potential GSP-Silva fight would take place in a major stadium setting — specifically naming as potential venues Dallas’ Cowboys Stadium, Toronto’s Rogers Centre, or a TBD soccer stadium in Brazil.
But White, who said the advance gate for UFC 154 is up to $3.1 million, again dropped a reminder that there’s still something left before such a date can be booked.
“We gotta see how things thing plays out or whatever,” White said. “People ask me, is Silva happening after? He’s got to beat Carlos Condit first. Like I said before, people are overlooking Condit and that’s a bad idea.”