Anderson Silva over Georges St-Pierre, says “The Count.” The former UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping recently discussed who would have won in a fight in their prime, Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre? Both St-Pierre and Silva were long-reigning champions in the UFC, both top-ranked on the pound-for-pound list, and are both considered all-time greats in MMA.
The English-born fighter has experience facing both of these men. In early 2016, Bisping defeated Silva over a five-round decision. In 2017, “The Count” lost his middleweight title to the Canadian St-Pierre by way of submission. He shares his thoughts on Anderson Silva vs Georges St-Pierre.
“Rush” ruled the welterweight division having nine total title defenses and even retired with the UFC middleweight title as well. He defeated other UFC champions such as Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, and Carlos Condit. Anderson Silva had an incredible ten successful title defenses as UFC middleweight champion defeating fighters such as Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Vitor Belfort, and others.
Anderson Silva Beats Georges St-Pierre according to Michael Bisping
The former titleholder broke down the match while speaking on his YouTube Channel. Bisping explained:
“In their primes, from 2009 to 2012, fighting at middleweight, I’ve got to go with Anderson Silva … Now look, overall, I think it would have been an extremely close fight. Georges no doubt would have come in with a tremendous strategy. He would have implemented a lot of takedowns, and I think he would have a lot of control time. But as you know, 185, Anderson Silva in his prime, the knockout power, the inventiveness, the creativity that the man possessed, it was absolutely mind-blowing…”
“And I think maybe somewhere around Round 3, Round 4, in a fight that Anderson Silva would have been losing, Georges would’ve come in for a takedown and he would’ve walked into a knee, an elbow, a punch, a kick, something, and I do think that Anderson Silva would’ve been victorious. There it is. In their primes, I think Anderson might have got the job done.”
While both were champions, competing in their primes, “The Count” picks the middleweight champion over the welterweight champ. But he explains that along the way, Silva likely would have been losing the match. But, his knockout power was legendary and eventually would have caught St-Pierre.
Silva and St-Pierre were rumored for quite some time to have a champion vs champion showdown. Bisping explains in his video that the UFC chose not to go down this path due to how well Silva was performing at light heavyweight. “The Count,” says:
“Georges stepping up to middleweight to challenge Anderson Silva for the 185-pound title. Anderson did do a couple of interviews in 2010 about moving down to welterweight and challenging Georges, but by then he’d already had two big wins at light heavyweight knocking out James Irvin and Forrest Griffin in the first round. Amazing performances. And after seeing Anderson look so strong at 205 pounds, well Dana [White] didn’t really want to entertain the idea of Anderson having to literally kill himself to make 170. No matter how big the fight would be. So the fight would have to take place at middleweight. Georges even expressed doubts about moving up while retaining his full competitiveness. But, as we know, when Georges did go up to 185 he did just fine. I’m the only guy to ever fight the middleweight version of Georges St-Pierre, and I can tell you he was very physically strong. He was fast but maybe not quite as fast as what I thought he would have been given what we’ve seen at welterweight.”
Bisping, speaking from experience, says that strength and power would have been equal between Silva and St-Pierre. However, if they did face each other at welterweight, “The Count” says St-Pierre would have won due to how drained Silva would be, but at middleweight, Anderson would have eventually found the knockout strike. Bisping finishes by saying:
“I am so proud to have shared the Octagon with both of these people. Both absolute legends from the sport, both gentlemen, and both just two of the nicest guy that you could ever meet.”
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