...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Jake Shields may yet be next in line for a shot at the UFC Welterweight Championship, but there's a possibility that the UFC could wind up going in an entirely different direction, as UFC owner and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta is one of many who wants to see a fight between Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva.
"I want to see that fight," Fertitta said at MMAJunkie.com. "That's probably the one fight I really want to see the most."
Both fighters have to get past their next respective challenges, however, as St. Pierre is set to face off against Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, and Anderson Silva meets Vitor Belfort at UFC 126. But, should both fighters win, they could be matched up against one another next.
"'GSP' has to get past Koscheck; Anderson Silva has to get past Vitor Belfort," Fertitta continued. "If that happens, there's a really good likelihood that we could see that fight – probably some time next summer. ... If these guys keep winning their fights, I think it will definitely happen.
"One of the things we wanted to do was allow both of these guys to continue to get through their divisions – meaning there were a lot of contenders that deserved title shots. Because they're in different weightclasses, we wanted to let that all play out before we put those two guys together. But I mean we're getting to a point where they've pretty much cleaned out the division. Maybe it's time to watch them and see what happens."
If that happens, it's very possible the two best welterweights not named GSP could be matched up against one another. A GSP-Silva fight likely leads to a Shields-Jon Fitch fight, with GSP returning to defend his title against the winner of that bout. It's still too early to say, but if the fight happens it will be one of the biggest super fights in UFC history.
Penick's Analysis: This is the fight I think fans will really want to see. There's arguments for both Jake Shields and Jon Fitch to be the next welterweight challenger, and Jason Amadi and I have both made cases for one or the other. I have to disagree with one of Jason's assertions about Shields' fight, and that's that it was a clear victory. In all honesty, none of the judges scored that fight incorrectly. While Shields was asserting his will in the grappling department, he wasn't doing much with his position at times, and Kampmann landed the only significant blows in the fight. He definitely could have taken the second round and the third round could have legitimately been scored a 10-10. I personally scored all three rounds for Shields, but I can see the arguments for Kampmann taking the second or third. And if Shields was already ahead of Fitch in the UFC's eyes then there's no problem giving him the next shot if they don't put GSP-Silva together. I simply had Fitch's recent welterweight accomplishments as putting him in the #2 spot in the division.
As for this super fight, I sincerely hope the UFC puts it together if both GSP and Silva win. Having Fertitta as a backer of putting this fight together can only help in making it a reality. Now all the two champions need to do is win like they've been doing. Hopefully it happens.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
