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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Georges St-Pierre still doesn't seem entirely thrilled with the prospects of a fight with Anderson Silva, even after making an incredibly impressive - and successful - return to action on Saturday at UFC 154. St-Pierre defeated Carlos Condit by decision in the main event of the card in Montreal, and in doing so removed one more obstacle to that superfight taking place. The remaining obstacle? St-Pierre himself.
He refused to commit to the fight after defeating Condit, saying he needed to take a little vacation, talk things over with his camp, and figure out what the best decision is for him moving forward. Complicating things is the emergence of Johny Hendricks as a legitimate No. 1 contender in the welterweight division after knocking out Martin Kampmann, as it gives St-Pierre a realistic option in his own division.
However, despite St-Pierre's hesitations, UFC President Dana White honestly thinks the fight will come together, and expects to promote it for May.
"I'm going to make the GSP-Silva fight," White said after the event on Fuel TV's post-fight show. "GSP is sore, he just got hit by a bus, and he hasn't fought in 18 months. But I'll make this fight. They'll fight and it'll probably be around May. It'll either be in Toronto, Dallas, Texas, or Brazil... I don't think it'll be an epic negotiation period. Both of these guys are under contract. We'll sit down with Anderson probably in the two weeks, and then we'll sit down with GSP."
Though he knows it's not necessarily fair to Hendricks, he's looking at the bigger picture of this super fight right now, and thinks Hendricks will take another fight to keep himself busy and paid.
"He looked awesome," White said of Hendricks. "There're a lot of guys in line for title fights at 170 and 185. But we're trying to make a super fight happen. We'll see how it goes. We're trying to determine the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. It's a big fight, people want to see it and we want to see it. But maybe Georges St-Pierre won't want to do it, but I don't see that happening. Johny Hendricks will keep fighting. He wants to keep making money."
Penick's Analysis: If I had to bet on it, I'd lean to this fight being made. St-Pierre rightfully has reservations about it, and it's a fight he's never been as interested in as the UFC and Silva have been. Still, he knows it's a fight a lot of fans want to see, it's a major fight, and to be honest, even though he's the underdog, it's a fight he can win. If anyone can plant Silva on his back for five rounds and avoid the submissions, it's St-Pierre, but he's going to have to get within Silva's reach, which is far from an easy task. And we know St-Pierre can still be hurt. He survived a scare last night, but that's dangerous against the best finisher in the UFC. It's a fight I still want to see, but I wouldn't blame St-Pierre for not wanting the bout.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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