Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre? Not so fast. It appears the UFC has switched gears away from the proposed super fight and opted to put middleweight champion Anderson Silva in against the last man to technically hold a win over him, Yushin Okami, at the UFC event in Brazil in August. UFC president Dana White confirmed the bout to USA Today on Wednesday. Yushin Okami earned a title shot at the champion by defeating Nate Marquardt last year, but after Silva dispatched of Vitor Belfort in February, most thought the next fight on the horizon for the sports pound-for-pound best was a match-up against St-Pierre. St-Pierre of course still has a fight coming up at UFC 129 against Jake Shields, and it seems if hes going to fight Silva its going to be further in the future. Okami gets his second shot at Silva after an illegal upkick from the Brazilian brought an abrupt end to their first fight at Rumble on the Rock in 2006. After being taken down by Okami early in the fight, Silva launched a head kick that clocked the Japanese fighter, and he was unable to continue. Okami was declared the winner, and that was the last time Silva had a blemish on his record. Now they will look to settle the score once and for all.
I recently read an article breaking the news about Big Nog confirming Silva's plan to face Jon Jones at 205 after Anderson gets past Okami. That's great news and all, but I think the winner of Silva-Okami should go on to face the winner of Sonnen-Bisping. If Jones beats Evans then he should proceed to fight the winner of Machida-Couture. If both Jones and Silva win their next two matches then bring on the superfight between the two.
Wouldn't read too much into it until we get more details about St. Pierre's plans. It could easily be a situation where GSP wants time to move up in weight/Silva wants to fight in Brazil so they had Silva take another interim fight with the 'super-fight' taking place towards the end of the year. Its not like GSP fights overly frequently anyway. Equally St. Pierre could have decided against moving up in weight. If he has I could see Silva move up to 205Ibs - he only seemed to abandon his lhwt aspirations as he the prospect of the superfight with GSP grew stronger.
As much as I'd love to see Machida v Jones, Machida needs at least two convincing wins before he gets another shot at the title. Hell, both Forrest and Rampage are ahead of him in line, and if Matt Hammill does something amazing and beats Rampage at 129 even he would be ahead of Machida.
I think it is very important that any fighter re-visits his losses. It shows improvement, it shows versatility, it builds a legacy and it shows evolution as a fighter. Realistically, GSP needs a warm up fight at 185. I think someone like Bisping would be a good shout. Tall guy who will strike him but has decent jits to get back up should he be taken down.
My problem is not with Anderson Silva's competition but GSP's. The well is running dry and he needs to go up to MW to pursue this.
The winner of Rampage & Hammill should fight the winner of Machida & Couture and then the winner of that match should fight the winner of Jones & Rashad Ther winner of Sonnen & Bisping will then fight for the MW title. re: GSP, I dont know who he should fight nxt if he beats Jake. That divsion unfortunatley isnt swarming with super fights.
I watched the GSP/Kos fight again last night. GSP is HUGE!!! He made Kos look small. Look at how big GSP's shoulders, mid-section and legs are. The guy is a monster.
So let Silva beat Okami, then move up to fight Jones. In the meantime, the winner of Jake/GSP can move up and face the winner of Sonnen/Bisping. I would LOVE to see either GSP or Shields vs Sonnen! That fight would be sick. Then the WW division would be wide open. We would get too huge fights out of Silva/Jones and GSP or Shields/Sonnen. Then IF GSP or Shields can beat Sonnen/Bisping it would be that much bigger of a fight when Silva comes back down to defend against either one of them.
This doesn't surprise me surely at Silva's age he wants to fight as much as possible and the Okami fight has some history and interest that Zuffa can sell. I honestly don't see a Silva GSP fight happening I can understand why GSP is cautious about the fight and I think Zuffa would rather do Silva Sonnen II.
The size difference isn't that much different. Marquart says GSP walks around at the same weight that he does.
Well so much for the biggest fight in MMA history, with one promoter calling the shots no less. While I think that GSP is scared of Silva I blame ZUFFA because they can easily make the fight if they offered both men a fraction of the PPV profits for this one mega-fight. Instead they rather protect their cashcow and the fans have no problem with this since they will eat up anything that Dana tells them. I can see Okami beating Silva if he survives the first two rounds, this being a 5 round fight will greatly benefit him.