Seeing Fedor lose and lose bad twice made me realize that seeing your heroes get creamed is no fun.You want your legends to live on forever. When you put a much naturally larger Anderson Silva up against George St-Pierre any fight will be lop sided. Silva is naturally 185 – 205 where GSP is a clear 170.
Stylistically it might be a bit more interesting, but it still wouldn’t be fair. Silva is one of the best strikers in the game, a jedi as he has been called and calls himself, while GSP is the most complete overall fighter. You remember when you used to play video games and you had to choose between the guy with the even stats and the one with the single major advantage? Well Silva doesn’t have many disadvantages, but being prone to want to stand over work on the ground is probably his biggest weakness. GSP is so intelligent he would obviously see ground and pound as his ticket and shoot in early (see Chael). This all sounds well and good and we run it through our heads, but do we want either of them to lose?
Shields vs. GSP is a better matchup and would be a good test of the smaller GSP vs a fighter who has spent some time at 185. GSP himself says cutting back down from a heavier weight class decreases your reaction time. And you can bet he uses his superior striking and wrestling to keep things on the feet. GSP will work from the outside and use jabs and combinations with fake takedown shots to keep Shields on his toes. If Shields can take him down it’s anybody’s game but I would be more than slightly worried about Shields’ BJJ skills.
Silva has been a champ and he is a legend, he’s arguably a showoff and a bit of a lazy dude when it comes to really prepping. But hey when you have that much talent you really don’t have to get up for a less challenging opponent (Forrest Griffin ftw?!). I personally would rather not see that fight, I would rather see a hungry newcomer champion take on the Michael Jordon of MMA.
GSP vs AS is a nice thought, but don’t miss out on UFC 129: Jake Shields vs. George St-Pierre, it will be amazing. Trust me.