We reported on Wednesday that Anderson Silva will be cage side at UFC 154 and could potentially challenge GSP if he’s victorious over Condit.
There was an interesting question on the UFC 154 conference call on Wednesday when UFC President Dana White was asked if Carlos Condit would fight Anderson Silva if he impressively beat Georges St. Pierre at UFC 154. White responded:
No. This fight, understand this fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre is a pound for pound fight. These guys have both been number one and number two, either way you want to call them, for the last however many years, and that’s really what this fight is all about. Carlos Condit wins the fight, he’ll defend the title against who’s next.
If Condit were to beat GSP one could say he just beat one of the top pound for pound fighters out there, so couldn’t you throw him in the mix with Silva? In short, No. GSP is coming off the long layoff , plus a major injury and nobody is certain that he’ll be the same fighter at this point. Also, Condit became the interim champion with a controversial decision win over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, and there are a slew of guys that he hasn’t fought yet.
Also, you have to consider that Condit is a bit smaller than Georges St. Pierre and would simply be giving up too much size against someone like Silva. In terms of contrasting styles, St. Pierre does have the wrestling ability that could give Silva problems if he’s able to return to form prior to the knee injury. Condit would more than likely have to fight Silva on the feet because his wrestling isn’t good enough to take Silva down, and that’s not a good recipe for anyone against Silva.
Finally, the potential fight between GSP and Silva basically comes down to how much money that fight would generate for the UFC. The PPV buys for that fight would be through the roof, whereas a fight between Condit and Silva would do considerably less.