Anderson Silva set the cat amongst the pigeons earlier this week when he suggested he was intending to take a year out despite talk of a superfight with Georges St.Pierre, but UFC president Dana White told ESPN today that he believes the middleweight champion is bluffing.
“He said he wouldn’t fight Chael Sonnen again either, but he did,” White points out. “He always comes out and says this stuff. I don’t know why he does it or why he says the things he says. I guarantee you, he will be there Saturday. If Georges St-Pierre wins, those two will fight and it’ll probably be in May.”
That’s quite a statement given that GSP has so far appeared reluctant to agree to face his greatest rival in the pound-for-pound rankings, but White seems to think it’s virtually guaranteed to happen and is already speculating that it will be the biggest fight in the history of the sport.
“It’ll probably be the biggest fight in UFC history. It’ll definitely be the biggest gate. We’ve done (55,000) up in Toronto with Georges before. We’ve had big gates pretty much everywhere we’ve gone, but this one would be either a soccer stadium down in Brazil, Dallas’ Texas Stadium, or we’d do Toronto again.”
Of course all this hinges not just on the two fighters agreeing to it, but also on St.Pierre defeating Carlos Condit on Saturday night which will be easier said than done, particularly with the champion having been on the sidelines for 19 months.
Nonetheless, it’s hard not to get excited by the mouth-watering prospect of a genuine superfight and so we’re certainly hoping that White’s plans come to fruition.
