What Last Weekend Tells Us About A "Silva-St-Pierre" Superfight

One week removed from one tough performance from Anderson Silva—who was in danger of losing his first fight since a DQ loss to Yushin Okami in 2007 at Rumble On The Rock 8—when he fought Chael Sonnen last weekend at UFC 117, and now the opinion on a superfight with George St-Pierre seems to have more definite opinions.

Everyone has a side in the discussion of the superfight, which may or may not actually happen, but for those of you who once thought that no argument could be made for GSP beating Silva, you've officially learned that GSP does have a chance.

Those who would back GSP can thank Sonnen.

Granted, the sport's most complete fighter—and now OFFICIAL pound-for-pound king according to the good folks at Fanhouse MMA—is still not the sport's most solid striker, but the weaknesses Sonnen exploited showed us something about the superfight, and what Ed Soares needs to help Silva include in his game plan should a superfight with St-Pierre ever happen.

Plain and simple, the problem is with people who are wrestlers, the class of the crew at Team Quest, specifically Sonnen and Dan Henderson (although Henderson's performance was outdone by Sonnen's last week).

Silva actually did drop his hands and try the Roy Jones Jr. shuffle against Sonnen, and he got dropped, so perhaps overconfidence falls in the problem department as well.

That problem is easily solved by keeping the hands up and throwing shots, though.

With takedowns is where Silva needs the most focus.

He needs at least a little bit of wrestling experience to understand them, and how to combat them in the cage.

I've said every now and then, though not really at all on B/R, that Silva may need a wrestling coach in order to understand both how to get a takedown and how to sprawl on the ground to avoid getting taken down.

It wouldn't hurt.

Sonnen proved that while Silva does have notable BJJ, notable Judo, and one of the three most feared uses of Muay Thai in the sport, his ability to defend a solid wrestling game is far from even one of the 10 best in the sport.

Maybe it really was the rib, or maybe Silva wasn't expecting Chael to do what he did, but nevertheless he had no answer for the takedowns and the ground-and-pound of Sonnen.

All he did was weather the storm.

With GSP, Silva would face that same problem, but on a different level than what Sonnen produced.

Even when GSP has to struggle for a takedown, he still finds a way to get it.

As far as the moves—the spinning strikes, the flying knees, the Muay Thai Clinch Madness, and the like—Silva can expect GSP to react to them the same way Sonnen did.

Rush has said time and time again that he wants a legacy to be left behind in his name.

He can certainly do that if he beats Silva, just as Silva can do that if he beats St-Pierre.

Sure, GSP isn't the most solid welterweight striker in the UFC, but he's not terrible at it.

He's out struck some good people in the cage before, and he's never been beaten by the judges before.

I don't think a mention of the first fights with Matt Hughes and Matt Serra are really necessary.

He tapped to Hughes and got knocked out by Serra, but he's a different fighter since those losses.

GSP has lost fights in the UFC, and in fights like his first with BJ Penn that was a split decision win for GSP, he's been thought to be the guy who got the worst end of fights.

Did it stop him from going after the Welterweight title?

Of course it didn't.

GSP has had rough fights that some said he lost, and the only two losses on his pro record were in the UFC against two of the sport's toughest welterweights, but those haven't overshadowed the way he bounced back from those losses.

With Silva, the Sonnen fight was the first title defense since Dan Henderson at UFC 82 in which he's been in that situation.

If the fight had gone the full twenty-five, GSP Vs. Silva would still only be a dream and it would stay a dream for most fans of the sport.

The fact that the fight even went 23 minutes out of Silva's favor against a greatly underlooked wrestler tells me something about The Spider.

If a fight with GSP is still a possibility, he's going to have to up his game on the takedown defense, he's going to have to show the world that for a Muay Thai guy, he can still work off his back, and most importantly, he's going to have to answer one question:

After a fight in which he was greatly pressured by an unrelenting opponent, after a fight in which he had to pull out a Hail Mary in order to stay the champ, can Anderson Silva prove that he's still the pound-for-pound king of the sport after a fight in which he was about two minutes away from losing it all?

Many asked the same question about St-Pierre after he lost to Matt Serra, and now many are back to believing that Georges St-Pierre is MMA's Most Complete Fighter.

For the sake of his own legacy, let's hope Silva can do the same.