The long-awaited dream fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre may have only been one fight away from reality.
In several Twitter posts, Fight Hub TV’s Marcos Villegas reported on Tuesday that he spoke briefly with St-Pierre’s boxing trainer, Freddie Roach, who admitted that a superfight involving the iconic legends was in the works.
According to Roach, the bout would have taken place at a catch weight, and it all hinged on St-Pierre defeating Johny Hendricks and Silva beating Chris Weidman.
Unfortunately for the UFC, things didn’t go according to plan, and what would have been the biggest superfight in MMA history became just another pipe dream.
In perhaps the most shocking upset in MMA history, Weidman knocked out Silva in July 2013 to win the UFC middleweight title. There were plenty of skeptics after the bout insisting that Silva didn’t take Weidman seriously. UFC President Dana White wasted little time in putting together an immediate rematch that would truly decide the best middleweight in the world.
Before that bout ever took place, St-Pierre held up his end of the deal by defeating Hendricks in November. Unfortunately, the bout was marred by the controversial split decision given to St-Pierre, who many felt actually lost the fight.
The UFC made every attempt to put together an immediate rematch, but in a media conference call on December 13, St-Pierre announced that he would be taking an indefinite hiatus from MMA to heal up prolonged injuries and attempt to live a normal life.
In speaking with Villegas, Roach claimed the decision to step away from fighting was on St-Pierre’s mind before the Hendricks bout. In fact, the former welterweight champ initially wanted to take two years off before Roach convinced him to only step away for a year.
A couple of weeks after St-Pierre’s announcement, Silva went on to lose a second time to Weidman, who checked a leg kick and broke the former champ’s left leg. The bout likely put the final nail in the coffin of the Silva vs. St-Pierre superfight.
Outside of answering questions, St-Pierre has never appeared to be that interested in moving up in weight to challenge Silva. It had become routine for him to have a set answer used to deflect questions away from the superfight.
Silva, on the other hand, is still interested in fighting St-Pierre, according to a recent interview his manager Ed Soares did with Sherdog.com. Fans have talked about the fight for years, and both men are arguably the greatest fighters in MMA history.
Why not make the dream fight a reality?
It would all depend on St-Pierre returning to MMA and moving up in weight. Even if he did return to fighting, it’s more likely St-Pierre would pick right back up where he left off in pursuit of the welterweight title, especially if Hendricks is champion.
At only 32 years old, St-Pierre could realistically take a couple of years off and return to fighting. But Silva is nearing the age of 40 and coming off a devastating leg injury. How much longer can he continue to compete at a high level?
As hard as it is to admit, the door has likely closed on this once-great superfight.
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