Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva: The UFC's Mayweather vs. Pacquiao?

It is the fight that would bring boxing back to the forefront. However, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather can't come to an agreement to meet each other inside a boxing ring. While boxing can carry on without the blockbuster matchup ever happening, it will always be in the back of the minds of fans.

While the same could be said of a bout between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and 170-pound king Georges St-Pierre, the matchup is nowhere near as important to MMA as a fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather would be to boxing.

For whatever reason, boxing has been unable to develop more than a handful of superstars at a time. Conversely, the UFC has been able to market its fighters to the point that there will always be intriguing matchups for all of its champions.

While superfights between UFC champions are fun to think about and hope for, they are not a necessity. In boxing, fighters like Pacquiao and Mayweather have very few opponents remaining that will spark more interest than usual from the mainstream.

We have already seen St-Pierre compete in a superfight against a fellow UFC champion, B.J. Penn. While the fight was extremely intriguing and brought new eyeballs to the sport, it didn't really have a massive impact on the growth of the sport in the grand scheme of things.

Although a bout between MMA best pound-for-pound fighters would draw huge pay-per-view numbers and bring some clarity to which fighter is the best in the world, it is a much different situation than the one boxing faces with attempting to put together a match between Pacquiao and Mayweather.

A superfight between Pacquiao and Mayweather would have the potential to bring boxing back to glory days if marketed effectively. Unfortunately, it looks like time is running out on both of these epic matchups.  

Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. Sean has also had his work featured on UFC.com, LowKick.com and TheMMACorner.com. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.