UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre may not be ready to fight 185-pound kingpin Anderson Silva just yet, but money talks.
On the latest edition of The MMA Beat, Mike Straka dropped a bombshell on his viewers: “Rush” is asking for an awfully pretty penny to step into the Octagon opposite “The Spider” (via MMA Mania).
I was told by somebody very close to Georges that Georges today makes close to $8 million a fight. So to fight Anderson Silva he’s going to ask for $50 million … Because he said that Georges has 10 fights left in his career at $8 million a fight. But he believes that Anderson could actually hurt him, could physically hurt him and end his career. So to take that chance he wants $50 million and that’s exactly the number he’s going to go to Dana White with.
Silva is widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, given that he is riding a 17-fight winning streak, including 10 successful middleweight-title defenses.
Always in the same conversation, though, is St-Pierre, who has won 10 in a row, successfully defending his strap seven times during that span.
If the report is true, it’s tough to argue that $50 million amount to pay one fighter.
GSP wouldn’t be the first one to put an absurd price tag on a superfight; Silva told Tatame last month that he wanted 50 percent of the UFC to fight light-heavyweight title holder Jon Jones.
Will GSP vs. Silva ever happen or is this another sign that this epic showdown between two of the sport’s best was simply never meant to be?
UPDATE: 12:11 a.m. ET 12/3
St-Pierre did an interview with 985Sports denying Straka’s report that he is asking $50 million for the Silva fight.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com