For years, fans dreamed of seeing Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva share the Octagon. It was one of the biggest superfights the UFC could have made during the height of both legends’ careers. However, according to Georges St-Pierre, the fight never moved beyond a single conversation with UFC executives.
St-Pierre, widely regarded as one of the greatest welterweights in MMA history, recently revealed that the UFC approached him about facing Silva while both men were at the peak of their powers. But after he presented a few conditions for the matchup, he never heard back.
“What happened is that, at the time, when I was in my prime and Anderson Silva was in his prime, I can only speak from my side,” St-Pierre said while speaking with Demetrious Johnson.
“I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo. I had the request because I was like, OK, you want me to get out of my way to go up a weight class, I need to be compensated because it’s different. I’m full of challenges in my weight class, so if I’m fighting someone bigger, I need to change my training and try to get bigger, maybe.”
At the time, both fighters were dominating their respective divisions. St-Pierre ruled the welterweight division, while Silva enjoyed one of the most legendary title reigns in UFC middleweight history. Naturally, fans pushed hard for a champion-versus-champion showdown.
According to Georges St-Pierre, he wasn’t opposed to fighting Silva. In fact, he was willing to take the challenge if the UFC agreed to three specific requests.
“So my request was to fight Anderson Silva, I wanted to be put under contract,” St-Pierre explained. “I wanted to be compensated better, one. I wanted this to be done at a catchweight because Anderson fought in PRIDE at 170, and I knew he could go down. I don’t know if he could’ve gone down at that moment, but it seemed like he got heavier as time went by.”
The former UFC champion believed a catchweight made sense because he intended to return to welterweight afterward rather than permanently move up to middleweight.
“So it would be at a catchweight, so after that I could go back down. If I go up, I needed to go back down because I wouldn’t spend my career there. And the third one was I wanted drug testing implemented. And they never got back to me.”
Looking back, Georges St-Pierre believes his requests were reasonable and far from excessive. He insists he never tried to price himself out of the fight and was fully prepared to accept the matchup if those conditions were met.
“That was my intention: ‘If you make that happen, I’m in, no problem,'” St-Pierre said.”If you made it a 180-pound catchweight, I’m in. And if you compensate me, and it was reasonable, and also the drug testing. But they didn’t follow up with that.”
“I don’t know if they asked Anderson about that, but they only asked me once.”
The proposed clash between Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva remains one of the greatest “what if” scenarios in UFC history. Both men cemented their legacies as Hall of Famers and all-time greats, but fans never got the opportunity to see them settle the debate inside the cage.
Whether it was contract issues, weight concerns, or failed negotiations, the superfight never materialized. As a result, Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva continues to stand as one of the most anticipated fights that never happened.
