(You should have gotten after him when you had the chance, Anderson. / Photo via Ric Fogel @ ESPN)
It appears that Georges St. Pierre wants to fight Anderson Silva about as bad as ‘The Spider’ wants to fight Jon Jones. That is to say, not at all, right now. We were told by UFC Prez Dana White that should the welterweight champ beat Carlos Condit as he did at UFC 154, he would take on the Brazilian middleweight king next, but St. Pierre revealed all of that to be a cruel tease recently while on Radio-Canada’s Tout Le Monde en Parle, or, Everyone is Talking as we’d say here in civilization. MMA Fighting had the translation.
“[The Anderson Silva] fight is the cherry on the sundae,” St. Pierre explained. “[Silva] wants to fight me so he can then retire. I would like to fight him too, but after I fight him and win the fight, what happens next? These days, yeah, there’s a lot of money to be made, but I don’t fight for the money. My motivation is to be the best. Like we said, to be the Wayne Gretzky of my sport. So if I fight him, what happens next? It will be over. So yes, I want the fight, but I want to take it when I decide the time is right, not when he wants the fight to happen.”
St. Pierre doesn’t want to move at Silva’s schedule just because he’s champion of a lighter division, even though Silva would appear to be much closer to retirement at age 37 than St. Pierre is. Speaking of weight differences, St. Pierre has appeared to have gotten some specific intel on just how much heavier Silva is than him.
More on that, as well as the complete video interview with St. Pierre wearing sunglasses and sipping wine, you know, just to emphasize the whole French thing, after the jump.
“On top of that, he weighs 234 pounds; I weigh 188. So there’s a big weight difference,” St. Pierre said. “I’ve fought guys who were bigger. I’m not scared of him, it’s just that I will take this fight when it makes sense for me. I just came back from an injury, there’s money to be made, there are fights in my weight class, other challenges out there, and if I fight him, I will have to gain weight, while he will have to lose weight, and then afterwards, I won’t be able to come back to my weight class.
“First and foremost, I have things to do at 170 pounds. When I am ready and when I want the fight, that’s when it will happen.”
Before you jump on St. Pierre for that “I have things to do in my own weight class even though everyone knows I really don’t have anything else to prove or anyone to beat in my weight class” statement, first remember how identical it is to how Silva has answered calls to move up and compete for the light heavyweight title. He, unlike St. Pierre, has fought in a higher weight class, but has so far refused to campaign for the title.
Video of the full interview below.