Georges St-Pierre Returning To Fight Anderson Silva At UFC 206?
The UFC is set to make its return to Canada on December 10, and Georges St-Pierre has made it pretty clear that he wants to make his return to mixed-martial-arts when the UFC heads to Toronto in two months.
Before the UFC 205 card was announced, everybody assumed that St-Pierre would challenge for the welterweight championship upon his return. But, unless something changes, the welterweight title will be defended at next month’s Madison Square Garden show, as the champ Tyron Woodley will defend against Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
If St-Pierre does get his wish, and he returns at UFC 206, who will he fight? That question remains unanswered. But, Kalyl Silva — the son of UFC middleweight Anderson Silva — posted a photo on Instagram over the weekend which suggested that the long-awaited dream match between St-Pierre and Silva will take place this coming December.
Of course, the post caused quite a stir. But, just one day later, UFC president Dana White told BT Sport that the Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre rumor isn’t true.
“That’s not true. So not true. I know everybody keeps talking about — GSP isn’t even close. I’m telling you again, I don’t think GSP wants to fight. I keep saying this.
“That fight is definitely not gonna happen. I don’t think GSP ever returns. And in some cases, that’s not a bad thing. The guy retired, he went out on top, he’s looked at as one of the greatest to ever do it and I just think he lost that fire a long time ago.”
St-Pierre retired as the UFC’s welterweight champion after defeating Johny Hendricks in November of 2013. But, as previously mentioned, GSP has recently made it clear that he wants to fight again, as he told UFC Tonight’s Daniel Cormier and Kenny Florian that he wants to return to the UFC as soon as possible and that he wants his return fight to take place in Canada, which is his home country.
Despite the fact that St-Pierre has publicly said that he wants to fight again, Dana White has continued to say that GSP will never return to the Octagon.
Of course, in the past, White has denied things that have later turned out to be true, with the most recent example being Brock Lesnar’s return to the company at UFC 200. So him saying that St-Pierre won’t be returning to the UFC doesn’t really mean anything.
According to Bloody Elbow, St-Pierre and the UFC haven’t been able to come to terms because of a money issue, with the main holdup being the UFC’s partnership with Reebok, which doesn’t allow fighters to promote their sponsors during their fights. Of course, St-Pierre made a ton of money from sponsorship deals during his first UFC run, which was before the Reebok deal happened, and he reportedly wants the UFC to pay him the money he’d be losing because of the Reebok deal.
Morning Report: Dana White shoots down rumors of Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre at UFC 206 https://t.co/0d9vLNtxWS
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) October 10, 2016
Earlier this year, it was rumored that the UFC was planning a Conor McGregor vs. Georges St-Pierre super fight, which would’ve easily been the biggest money fight in company history. But, McGregor ended up losing to Nate Diaz at UFC 196, which reportedly forced a change of plans.
As of this writing, the main event for UFC 206 will be a light heavyweight championship rematch between the champ Daniel Cormier and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. So far, there are only seven announced fights for the Toronto show, so the card is far from complete. Will the UFC add Georges St-Pierre to the card? Right now, it looks like the answer is no. But, the show is nine weeks away, and a lot can happen between now and then.
[Featured Image by Eric Jamison/AP Images]
