CPF UP CLOSE with Dana White On UFC 129, GSP vs. A. Silva Superfight and how 1 person sold over 11,000 tickets

UFC 129: Will Georges St. Pierre be Vacating Welterweight Title to Fight Anderson Silva?

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Rumors of an eventual clash between UFC kingpins Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva are picking up, as the two fighters head into what will likely be their final title defenses before the dream bout.

Georges St. Pierre, the current UFC Welterweight champion, has completely dominated the division since winning back his title from Matt Serra in April 2008. Title defenses against Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy and most recently Josh Koscheck have looked like a walk in the park for the machine known as “GSP.”

While the UFC employs anywhere from seven to eight of the top 10 welterweights in the world, the division looks bare due to the complete control that St. Pierre has on top.

The only real fight remaining for St. Pierre, at 170 pounds within the UFC, is against former EliteXC Welterweight champion Jake Shields, which will happen at UFC 129 in April.

Shields has spent much of his recent career fighting at 185 pounds, but he has won 15 straight fights dating back to his last loss in December 2004.

The streak includes wins over a plethora of the world’s top fighters including Yushin Okami, Carlos Condit, Paul Daley, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Robbie Lawler and Dan Henderson. He also won his UFC debut over consensus top-10 welterweight Martin Kampmann in October 2010, albeit in less than spectacular fashion.



Even given Shields’ impressive track record, George St. Pierre remains a massive betting favorite (-600) for the fight. Simply put, odds-makers have determined that St. Pierre is so dominant that even against the man who may be the second best welterweight in the world; he is still a six-to-one favorite.

Just imagine how much of a favorite he’d be against lesser competition.

If the defending champion does what everyone expects him to do to Jake Shields, the UFC welterweight division goes back to looking like an abandoned wasteland, despite being filled with some of the world’s best fighters.

At this point, it seems that the only competition that St. Pierre truly has is if he moves up 15 pounds to fight at the 185 pound middleweight division.

Fellow pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva has been on a similar, perhaps even more dominant run since his UFC debut in June 2006. “The Spider” has utterly deflated the division as the UFC Middleweight champion, leading many to believe that his only real threat to his undefeated UFC record may be in other weight classes.

Silva himself faces perhaps the toughest competition of his career this Saturday, when he defends his title against Vitor Belfort.

According to Dana White’s interview with Fightline.com last week, if Silva and St. Pierre win their next fights, the UFC is planning to move St. Pierre up to 185 pounds. The move would, of course, setup the dream fight between the world’s top two pound-for-pound fighters.

"If (Silva) wins that fight on the fifth, then Georges St-Pierre needs to beat Jake Shields in Toronto," White said. "If that happens, then we're probably going to do that fight. If they both win, that fight makes all the sense in the world."

Even more surprisingly, White also confirmed that if St. Pierre does make the move up to 185 pounds, he will stay at that weight for the foreseeable future.

"Georges St-Pierre said he would move to 185 and stay there, he would stay at that weight and not go back to 170," White said.

If what the UFC President said is true, then we have to assume that St. Pierre will not only make a run at winning the Middleweight title, but that he will also be vacating his Welterweight title.
After all, the UFC can’t afford to have a division where there is not a defending champion.

We’ve seen interim UFC champions in the past when the existing champion is injured but this would be an entirely different set of circumstances. St. Pierre’s move to 185 pounds would be permanent and he would not be returning to defend his title against an interim champion.

Of course, this news must be music to the ears of fellow welterweight contenders such as AKA’s Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, Thiago Alves, Matt Hughes, Dan Hardy and B.J. Penn—all of whom have been unable to get their hands on the belt since St. Pierre’s dominance began.

If St. Pierre does make the move to 185 pounds, perhaps the UFC will consider doing what Strikeforce is currently doing with their heavyweight division and create a tournament to determine a new champion (although Strikeforce’s tournament is just to determine a No. 1 contender to face current champion Alistair Overeem).

But before we get ahead of ourselves in looking forward to the dream fight between St. Pierre and Silva, each man must take care of business in their upcoming fights.

At that point, we can really start to look at the historical matchup between the two and what will happen to the UFC welterweight division in the future.

UFC 117: Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, and the Miracle in Oakland

By Elton Hobson

As I watched the weigh-ins for tonight’s UFC 117 from Oakland, something occurred to me. It happened right as champion and challenger squared off for the “face to face” photo op, and Anderson Silva turned away from Chael Sonnen in distain (pictured above, in reverse, from earlier press conference) while the crowd roared. Watching this scene, I began to get the feeling that I was watching something that was impossible.

Or more accurately, that what I was watching was nothing less then a PR miracle. And all thanks to one man - or is he more myth and superstition then man? Yes, folks, the Superman is real, and he’s a Republican.

Let’s flashback a couple of months to this past April, when this match-up was first announced. Silva was coming off the absolute disaster that was UFC 112, and his “fight” with Demian Maia. Man, it sucked to be Anderson Silva back then. After three straight stinkers, broken up only by his rapid destruction of fan favourite Forrest Griffin, fans had finally, terminally given up on the sport’s pound for pound king and possibly greatest ever fighter.

It’s no exaggeration to say that at the time, “The Spider” was the most hated man in the sport. There were many, many people in those days who vowed never to order an Anderson Silva headlined card again. Dana White was near desperate in his concessions and apologies, vowing to “make this one up” to the fans. His super fight with GSP was put in permanent limbo, and there was serious talk of his being suspended or even cut from the company.

And Chael Sonnen? Well he was coming off a win over top ranked Nate Marquardt, and enjoying his first blip of casual fan attention.

Sure, he earned a lot of fans with his gritty performance in that fight, and his entertaining comments to Joe Rogan afterwards. But prior to that, Sonnen had being flying under the radar at 185 lbs, the dark horse contender in the middleweight division. Worse, he had acquired a reputation as a “boring” fighter, a Greco-Roman wrestling decision machine whose unspectacular, plodding style seemed destined to make him the Jon Fitch of the 185’ers.

When this fight was announced, no one jumped out of their chairs in excitement. The Decision Machine vs. The Dancing Queen? I think I’ll pass, thanks. Fans yawned. Media yawned. Dana wept.

Chael Sonnen ( R ) cracked his knuckles in excitement. In the history of the UFC, there are few fighters who have so dramatically and decisively risen to seize a moment as Sonnen has done. The former Republican State Senate hopeful and Real Estate agent (what a perfect combo for fight selling, by the way) got to work, and he has painted his Sistine Chapel.

His months long campaign of side-splitting trash talk, bald-faced lies, and borderline psychotic rants against Silva isn’t just funny. It isn’t just irritating. It’s not just eloquent, or embarrassingly stupid, or perfectly timed, or way over the top. It’s all those things, and possibly even more.

In my opinion, it’s nothing short of brilliant, a marketing coup like nothing we’ve seen before in MMA.

When people say Sonnen has created lots of hype for his UFC 117 title shot, they really fail to capture the whole picture. Just creating “hype” is easy. Tito Ortiz has already created hype for his next, Rolling Stones-esque “comeback fight” by making fun of Matt Hamill’s deafness. Put a camera in Nick Diaz’s face, and you’ll get a stoned, F-word filled rant that would out crazy anything Sonnen has said. And don’t get Brock Lesnar started on Bud Light.

No, what Sonnen has done is far more impressive. When Sonnen took to the scale yesterday, he was booed heavily. When Silva appeared, the crowd actually cheered a little bit. When Silva turned away from Chael, that noise grew to a roar. The tension, the excitement, and the energy in that room was palpable, even through my tiny laptop screen.

It was a scene that only months ago would have been a laughable fantasy. But there it was. The most hated man in the sport is, once again, a good guy.

Chael Sonnen didn’t just successfully sell this fight. He sold this fight with himself as the “heel” (bad guy in wrestling lingo), a far better narrative as far as the UFC is concerned. Anderson Silva is the top fighter in the game today. Him being hated and despised and booed is a situation the UFC (and let’s be honest, the sport itself) could really do without.

So Sonnen went beyond the pale. Like the aforementioned Nick Diaz, the Oregon native wasn’t afraid to say and do whatever he felt like. Unlike Diaz, his madness had a method. Say what you will about him, but Sonnen is certainly clever and witty, even if in an overt, blunt way, and he has a great sense of timing. In short, he can sling BS with the best of ‘em.

And sling he did. For months and months and months. It worked cause it was funny, or cause he could deliver it with a straight face. It worked because it irritated you, and eventually you wanted him to shut up. It worked because his sense of timing was incredible, moving from one outrageous claim or story to the next with perfect fluidity.

Nothing was safe. Nothing was taboo. Race, religion, ethnicity, nationality - even Lance Armstrong's testicular cancer.

In the process, Sonnen has sold us a golden proposition. After all this talk, after all these outlandish claims and boorish insults and outright lies, we want to see somebody, anybody, shut his mouth. We want to see him eat a big slice of humble pie - preferably while lying starry eyed on top of the “Amp Energy” logo.

And who better to deliver that then the sport’s undisputed KO king? So congratulations, Mr. Sonnen. You’ve earned your big payday, and your hefty increase in fan recognition. You may have made your whole career with the lead up to this fight alone. For what it’s worth, I really do hope you find a way to take Anderson down and hold him there for all 25 minutes.

Or that you like eating your meals through a straw. Cause you’ve clearly made Anderson Silva angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.