The long-awaited superfight between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre not only seems more likely than ever, but it also looks to be the UFC’s next big stadium show.
As part of a wide-ranging interview with MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani which aired Tuesday night on Fuel TV’s “UFC Tonight,” UFC president Dana White confirmed the bout is well on its way to being made.
“I think we’re pretty close,” said White. “I mean if Georges St-Pierre beats [Carlos] Condit, that could be the next fight.”
If the match comes about, the most likely venue candidate is Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX.
“If that fight happens, it will probably happen at Dallas, TX stadium,” said White.
The stadium’s regular configuration for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys is 80.000. The UFC’s attendance record is 55,724 for UFC 129 on April 30, 2011 in Toronto.
If the bout goes off, it’s likely to be held at a catchweight of 180 pounds. White explained the reasoning behind the move.
“At one point it sounded like Anderson wanted to go to 170 and take Georges’ welterweight title,” said White. “That was what he was talking at one point. Then it was 180 as a catchweight, because Georges doesn’t want to go to 185, he’s going to stay at ’70. He said if ‘I had to make the move to go to ’85, I’d have to stay at ’85.’ We figured that a 180-pound catchweight makes sense.”
As to why the fight should come about at this stage in both fighters’ careers, White figures it has something to do with legacy. Silva has the longest title reign in UFC history at nearly six years, and St-Pierre has the second longest reign at four-and-a-half years and counting.
“These guys want to fight each other now,” said White. “I think that, if you’re a fighter and you’ve dominated as long as Anderson has, and been great as long as Georges has, you finally want to say, ‘I want to test this guy, I think I can beat this guy.'”
St-Pierre returns from a long layoff to meet Condit in the main event of UFC 154 in November in Montreal.