Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva is one of the greatest UFC fights to never happen.
The duo are a pair of the best fighters of all time and widely considered the greatest of all time in their respective divisions. Much of their title reigns overlapped, and there was definitely a period where there were not particularly interesting challengers for either man. All the way back in 2012, the super fight was negotiated but never actually came to fruition. Fans and pundits alike continued to discuss and break down the possible matchup for many years, but those 2012 negotiations were as close as pen ever came to paper.
“What happened is that, at the time and when I was in my prime and Anderson Silva was in the prime … I can only speak from my side,” St-Pierre explained (via MMA Fighting). “I don’t know what was happening on Anderson Silva’s side.
“I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo… and I had the request because I was like, OK, you want me to get out of my way to go up a weight class, I need to be compensated because it’s different. I’m full of challenges in my weight class, so if I’m fighting someone bigger I need to change my training, try to get bigger, maybe.”
“So my request was to fight Anderson Silva, I want to be put under contract,” St-Pierre continued. “I want to be compensated better, one. I wanted this to be done in a catchweight, because Anderson fought in PRIDE at 170, and I knew he could go down — I don’t know if he could’ve gone down in that moment … it seems like he got heavier as time goes by, so I don’t know. It’s only an impression.
“So it would be at a catchweight, so after that I could [go back down]. … If I go up, I needed to go back down because I wouldn’t spend my career there. And the third one was I wanted to have drug testing implemented. And they never got back to me.”
