UFC champ Georges St-Pierre: Lightweight move likely easier than middleweight

For years, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has teased the idea of moving up to 185 pounds. While he’s not ruling out such a change, he believes a cut to lightweight would be much easier.

“I don’t do much cutting,” St-Pierre said on Tuesday’s new edition of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “It would be easier for me to go fight at 155 than fighting at 185. I would be more at my weight naturally at 155.

“There’s guys at 155 that walk around at 190 like me. They think I’m big because I have a large frame, but I’m not a big guy. I’m not thick.”

St-Pierre was on Rogan’s show to promote the Tuesday release of his autobiography, “The Way of the Fight.” But the 70-minute discussion touched on a number of topics, including St-Pierre’s fighting future.

The welterweight champ recently defended his title against Nick Diaz, and many fans and pundits alike have suggested now is the time to book a long-discussed superfight with middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva. But as he has suggested many times before, St-Pierre again pointed out fighting at 185 pounds isn’t necessarily an ideal move.

“Anderson Silva is very big,” St-Pierre said. “He’s 230 pounds. He’s a very big guy walking around, and I’m 190 pounds. It’s a lot of weight difference. If this fight happens one day, we’re going to have to decide what weight class and everything.”

It’s often been suggested that St-Pierre and Silva could meet at a catchweight, but UFC President Dana White has generally said he would prefer the fight take place at either 170 pounds or 185 pounds to ensure a championship belt is on the line.

Silva has in the past competed as low as 168 pounds, but that was nearly 12 years ago. Still, “The Spider” has sometimes hinted that he could drop all the way down to welterweight. If he can pull it off, St-Pierre said he’d be happy to accept the fight.

“If he can make 170, he can weigh 170, I can weigh 170, and everything is fine,” St-Pierre said.

And so the long-discussed superfight still seems to have a few hurdles before it can become a reality. In the meantime, of course, Silva still needs to beat Chris Weidman at this summer’s UFC 162 event. And at welterweight, top contender Johny Hendricks is itching for his shot at St-Pierre. White said he has yet to ask the French-Canadian champ what he’d prefer to do next, but St-Pierre seems to be leaning toward staying at 170 pounds for the time being.

“We’ll see,” St-Pierre said. “Anderson is fighting Weidman. Hendricks is freaking out. He wants to fight me. We’ll see what’s going to happen in the future – probably Hendricks.”

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(Pictured: Georges St-Pierre)