3 Reasons Georges St-Pierre Is the Pound-for-Pound King, Not Anderson Silva

Since Fedor Emelianenko lost to Fabricio Werdum back in 2010, the MMA pound-for-pound rankings have been a constant debate over who deserves the top spot.

The argument always comes down to two names, Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre, and for the most part fans are comfortable with either answer.

But recently the trend has been bucked, and fans have awarded Silva the top spot after he earned his latest impressive victory over Yushin Okami in August.

This is insane.

Not only should St-Pierre be in the discussion, he should own the top spot—but fans and journalists alike have taken Anderson’s ability to finish and made it the sole reason he is the top fighter in the sport.

Georges St-Pierre is the top fighter in the world and here are three reasons why.

All-Around Game

Although Silva has won multiple UFC fights by both KO and submission, there is an obvious hole in his game and it is his wrestling.

The middleweight champ has been taken down and beaten up in a few of his fights, notably his UFC 117 fight with Chael Sonnen, where he had to pull out a fifth-round triangle choke in order to save his belt.

On the flip side, GSP has been called the most well-rounded fighter in MMA, showing no weakness since winning his belt.

He controls where the fight takes place and uses it to his advantage, since he is comfortable on the feet and on the mat.

Silva doesn’t have this luxury and when the fight hits the floor, he is still dangerous but is almost always stuck on bottom.

Quality of Opposition

On paper it might look like the two have fought close to equal competition, but if you actually think back to the time period when the fights took place, it shows how much more dominant GSP has been.

St-Pierre defeated Jake Shields, BJ Penn, Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch and Matt Hughes when all five were arguably in the top 10 pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.

Only Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson were in the top 10 when Silva defeated them.

While both have fought some fighters that were obviously not deserving in the first place, it should be the wins against the absolute best in the world that make you great and St-Pierre has more of those than anyone. 

Complete Domination

I agree that Silva’s ability to finish a fight in a moments notice is impressive and extremely fun to watch, but should it really be the thing that pushes him above GSP in the rankings?

As awesome as Silva has been during his career, he has never completely dominated an opponent for a full five rounds and his decisions in the UFC have been his worst fights by far.

Fans openly mocked Silva for his abysmal performances against Thales Leites and Demian Maia, and his only other fight that went into the championship rounds was the Sonnen fight, where he was dominated for almost the entire fight.

Meanwhile, St-Pierre has destroyed the top guys in one of the toughest divisions in the sport, beating them for a full 25 minutes while never showing the slightest sign of losing control of the fight.