Potential Georges St. Pierre-Anderson Silva Super Fight Casts Shadow on UFC 154 Main Event

St. Pierre will return from a lengthy injury-induced layoff to defend his welterweight crown against interim titleholder Carlos Condit in the UFC 154 main event on Saturday at the Bell Centre in Montreal. The 31-year-old Canadian last fought in April 2011, when he defeated Jake Shields by unanimous decision. Soon after, a serious knee injury and resulting surgery stalled his career.

While many consider the St. Pierre-Condit unification bout a blockbuster in its own right, White has designs on a far more ambitious pairing, one featuring St. Pierre and Silva in a pound-for-pound super fight between UFC champions. The UFC boss expects the Brazilian to be in attendance to watch St. Pierre in Montreal.

“There’s no doubt Anderson Silva is there to cheer Georges St. Pierre on,” White said during a pre-fight media call. “He wants him to win this fight, and he wants to fight him after. The fight has to happen, people.”

White already has mapped out three potential locales for the Silva-St. Pierre super fight: Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Rogers Centre in Toronto or a soccer stadium in Brazil. Cowboys Stadium may be the most intriguing of the three. Home to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, it seats 80,000 fans for football games but can be reconfigured to hold more than 100,000. It drew 50,994 to a boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey in March 2010 and could conceivably draw far more to a UFC event featuring St. Pierre and Silva.

“We’ve been talking to the Cowboys guys for a while,” White said. “Whenever we want to do an event there, they’re ready for it.”

St. Pierre, who has remained non-committal on the idea of facing Silva, has kept his focus on the man in front of him.

“I don't care about Anderson Silva; he can do whatever he wants,” he said. “I’m focusing on Carlos Condit, and that’s all that matters for me.”

Though the St. Pierre-Silva discussion leaves him as something of a forgotten man, Condit understands the interest behind a potential showdown between two of the sport’s most accomplished fighters.

“Yeah, a GSP-Anderson fight intrigues me,” he said. “They’re the two best fighters to step into the Octagon. You want to see who’s the best, but first thing’s first. I have to do my thing. It’s definitely motivating. I like playing the role of spoiler.

“There’s a lot of people in the sport and media that are overlooking me and are looking forward to a super fight between Georges and Anderson,” Condit added. “I’m looking to get in there and do my thing and hopefully change [their] plans.”