UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre

By Jesse Heitz

Recently, the MMA newswires have lit up with speculation and contagious rumors that the UFC is looking to hold the long-awaited Superfight between middleweight (185 pounds) champion Anderson Silva and welterweight (170 pounds) champion Georges St. Pierre at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas.  Of course, this could only occur if St. Pierre makes a successful return from his ACL injury, which he sustained last year, by defeating Carlos Condit at UFC 154 in November.

One issue that immediately comes to mind is the ridiculousness of trying to hold a mixed martial arts card, regardless of whether or not it’s flying under the fabled UFC banner, in a 100,000 seat stadium in The United States.  The view from the seats in the nosebleed section of the standard 15,000-18,000 seat venues is poor enough for a visually complex sport like MMA, so I can only imagine the views from the nosebleeds at Cowboy Stadium.  Additionally, I don’t think that the American public has latched onto MMA to a degree that would make holding a card in such a large venue feasible.

Perhaps the single most important question that remains is whether the fans still overwhelmingly want to see this fight.  It can’t be doubted that this potential matchup was the talk around every MMA forum in the land at one point.  Yet, by the time this fight takes place, if it did in fact ever take place, it would ostensibly be mid-2013.  By such a time, we’d be several years removed from the zenith of this rivalry.

St. Pierre is 31, still relatively young, but one would imagine that for a fighter whose bread and butter lies in explosive wrestling, a torn ACL might cause him to lose a step.  With all of this in mind, I don’t feel the overwhelming desire for a welterweight, even if it is the best welterweight in the world, to step up and fight the best fighter in the world in Anderson Silva.  I’d much rather see him continue running through the welterweight division, re-establishing himself there.  It might be more fruitful for him to lock horns with the likes of: Diaz, Hendricks, Kampmann, and Ellenberger, rather than face a massive middleweight like Silva.

For the 37 year-old Silva, I think that the decision is clear, attempt to add more light heavyweights to his list wins.  I would venture to guess that the super fight of Anderson Silva vs. Jon “Bones” Jones would be the fan preference at this point, in addition to the higher grossing fight of the two.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d certainly like to see a Silva vs. GSP fight, but it doesn’t have the luster that it once did.  I also believe that the UFC needs to focus on the current demands of its fans.  It needs to continue its proud tradition of offering relevant and in-demand fights, and when it comes to Silva and St. Pierre, the moment has passed and there are plenty of other entertaining and more worthwhile fights that could be offered.