As another welterweight title bout was confined to the records books, Georges St-Pierre walked away with yet another shut-out five-round decision as he jabbed the life out of Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in Montreal.
Arms raised, title in hand, the carousel of welterweight contenders has almost gone full circle now for GSP, with Koscheck the first to fall in a queue of fighters desperate for a second beating at the hands of the Canadian phenomenon. St-Pierre is as dominant a fighter as there is in MMA, and now even Dana White admits he has cleaned out the division.
With fans frustrated by the lack of challenge that the welterweight division seems to present to St-Pierre, the super-fight of all super-fights between GSP and Anderson Silva is now more relevant than ever before. UFC president White recently spoke the words the MMA world had been craving, stating that the pound-for-pound title fight "will happen" sooner or later.
St-Pierre v Silva is the one fight that would be an absolute must see for MMA fans worldwide and would likely be the biggest fight the UFC will have ever put together. Both athletes have staked their claim as the No. 1 fighter on the planet, but neither case is conclusive, meaning the only way to decisively settle the debate would be to pair the two men in the centre of the Octagon.
While GSP crushed BJ Penn during their champion v champion clash back at UFC 94, it was in fact Penn who was moving up in weight to take on the much larger welterweight king. On that note, GSP has never competed beyond his own 170lb division.
Silva, on the other hand has cleared out the entire middleweight division and even made two trips to light-heavyweight to tackle James Irvin and Forrest Griffin, in what will go down as two of his most devastating career victories. A jump of 20lbs made no difference to Silva; if anything the Brazilian thrived as his larger opponents attacked, while he sat back awaiting his opportunity to strike. The victory over Griffin, a former light-heavyweight champion no less, was one of the most emphatic seen in any UFC match-up.
However, while Silva has found great success, winning all 12 of his UFC bouts, the opposition he has faced outside of his weight class are not at the same all-conquering level that Penn was at when he took on St-Pierre, so until Silva and GSP square off no-one will know who is the true pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet.
Striking belongs to SilvaDespite St-Pierre displaying tremendous boxing technique against Koscheck last weekend, the Muay Thai skills of Anderson Silva would surely prevail should a toe-to-toe war break out between the two. Silva would not fear the stand up threat of St-Pierre, while the Canadian would find it far more difficult to land that predominant jab and control the Octagon - in the manner he did against Koscheck - against the Brazilian's superior reach, meaning he would likely approach this fight with a totally different game-plan to the one displayed at UFC 124.
The key is in the grapplingAs was witnessed at UFC 117, Silva had anything but a quiet night when he tackled Chael Sonnen. Silva was repeatedly taken down by Sonnen and quite literally beaten up for the first time in his UFC career. It appeared he had no answer for the American's incredible Greco-Roman skills, but with less than two minutes remaining Silva proved why he is champion by submitting Sonnen via triangle choke to retain his title.
With the natural wrestling ability that St-Pierre possesses, and the success Sonnen found for the majority of his bout with Silva, one would be forgiven for assuming that St-Pierre would use that fight for reference and subsequently rely heavily on his own wrestling skills to topple the Brazilian. Despite being a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black-belt under the Noguiera brothers, Silva doesn't often use his ground skills for offensive intentions. Instead it has been used more as a "get out of jail free card" with the comeback against Sonnen being the prime example.
While St-Pierre has also had submission success, seeing off the likes of Frank Trigg and Matt Hughes, he has also had troubles finishing the likes of Dan Hardy and Jon Fitch. The Canadian is calculated, unwilling to take unnecessary risks, but that does mean that often when he is on top - he stays on top. Therefore, by using his explosive takedown offence to take the fight out of Silva's comfort zone, it would be St-Pierre who would be more comfortable should the fight go to the ground.
Tactics will decide the outcomeSilva has proven that he is deadly when given the opportunity - finishing 10 of his 12 opponents in the UFC - and he has also proven that he has the chin to go with the offensive flair that he possesses. The loss to Matt Serra means St-Pierre will always have that question mark to answer and, with the fact that four of his last five have gone to the judge's scorecards, it would steer you away from the belief that a stoppage victory for GSP could be on the cards.
It makes more sense for GSP to avoid the clinch, avoid a stand-up battle and take the fight to the ground, while Silva would like nothing better than to lock those fingers around the back of St-Pierre's neck and rekindle the type of viciousness that he displayed when dismantling Rich Franklin. Where the majority of the fight takes place will more than likely determine the winner.
However, as well as the various strengths that both of these men display, there is one crucial factor in all of this, and that is the weight at which the two fighters would agree to tip the scales. While a welterweight bout is unimaginable, a showdown at middleweight would heavily favour the much larger Silva and that makes it difficult hard to visualise St-Pierre winning in those circumstances.
Should the bout take place somewhere in the region of 175-180lbs - in the true spirit of the occasion - then the playing field would be significantly levelled, and as a result there could be no question that whoever comes out on top would be rightfully crowned the undisputed pound-for-pound king.
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