Sunday, November 6, 2011
GSP vs. Silva: St-Pierre's Weight Issue Is Just an Excuse
If UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre doesn't mind taking the proper steps to essentially putting his Welterweight days behind him en route to a superfight with UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, why is he so reluctant to do it?
Even fans of St-Pierre have to ask themselves that question, because every time they turn around, it seems like his weight is always something of an issue when it comes time to talk about Silva.
St-Pierre has said in the past that he walks around at close to 190 pounds, so he's naturally a pretty undersized Light Heavyweight in respect to weight, and we all know that Silva walks around as a Heavyweight when he's not cutting down to Middleweight.
The reason why Silva is not at all drained from the cut when he's healthy (meaning he comes into a fight with slight soreness at worst) is because when Silva cuts weight, he does everything he needs to do to ensure that he'll be able to fight competitively at the Middleweight or Light Heavyweight level.
So, if Silva can cut weight properly to make Middleweight for all but the two fights he's had in his UFC run, and if SIlva could easily win every single fight with no problems—aside from the Chael Sonnen fight—then what is stopping St-Pierre from putting up instead of shutting up and trying to do the same at Middleweight?
It's understood that even a fighter with an ectomorph-type physique like St Pierre—that is, a fighter who always will look like an animal no matter what weight he fights at—has some bit of trouble packing on the poundage needed to compete well at a higher weight class. However, St-Pierre says he still wouldn't mind packing on the fifteen extra pounds as long as he's given the time to do it and as long as neither he nor Silva is lined up for a fight in that allotted time frame.
Should Silva face and defeat Sonnen in a rematch, followed likely by the winner of Michael Bisping vs. Jason Miller as well as a potential Middleweight summit meeting opposite the winner of either Chris Leben vs. Mark Munoz, perhaps St-Pierre might get his wish.
Wins over UFC 143 foe Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit would leave St-Pierre with no other options, aside from atrocious mismatches against guys that have not yet earned any business opposite St-Pierre.
The same goes for Silva's next options if he should tear through the few challenges he has left at 185, but if St-Pierre really wants this to go down, he's going to have to suck it up about the whole "weight issue" thing.
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The issue isn't whether St-Pierre could make the weight or not, because he cuts to make weight and has had little trouble so far.
The issue is actually pretty two-fold. First, there's the already-established case of the rather thin UFC Welterweight and Middleweight title pictures, but we already know how that goes.
The second issue is what makes the whole thing puzzling and that issue revolves around St-Pierre's unwillingness to move up in weight, despite admitting that he had no problem taking the time he needed to put on the weight.
We're fine with waiting nine months for St-Pierre to pack on as much weight as he needs to be competitive at 185, but the fact that he always seems to point the weight issue as if it is really such a detriment for him to properly do it even though he claims to know how...well, that leads us back to our original question:
If St-Pierre is confident that he can properly put on the weight he needs to become a legitimate Middleweight and pose a true threat to Silva, why is he so reluctant to do it?
Is it because he still has Diaz and Condit chasing him while Sonnen still stalks Silva? Is it because St-Pierre really doesn't know how to properly stay at 185 without the Dolce Diet? Or is it just possible that St-Pierre is downplaying the weight cut because he is not 100 percent sure that he could beat Silva even with a successful jump in weight?
Whatever it is, St-Pierre needs to stop running scared of a the aftereffects of a jump in weight and give it a shot if he should get past Diaz and Condit.
After all, it's almost a certainty that St-Pierre really does look out of place at 185, but what if he doesn't?
