Dana White: GSP vs Silva in 2011

K1NG · Post #1 » by **K1NG** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 5:24 pm

In a Q&A with the troops, Dana was asked about the super-fight between GSP and Silva. Dana responded by saying that if Anderson beats Belfort and GSP beats Shields, then he's "probably going to do that fight" and "that it makes all the sense in the world". 2011 is looking good. Strikeforce Grand Prix, GSP/Silva, what's next? The video is below. Skip ahead to about 1:50 for the GSP/Silva question.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkg3QJyTm64[/youtube]

Nemesis21 · Post #2 » by **Nemesis21** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 7:10 pm

Would this fight be at WW or MW or catch weight ?

malcrk · Post #3 » by **malcrk** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 7:24 pm

Nemesis21 wrote:Would this fight be at WW or MW or catch weight ?

There's no way Silva can make WW so probably MW or catch

K1NG · Post #4 » by **K1NG** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 7:54 pm

Apparently GSP is going to go up to 185 and stay there if he beats Shields. He said if he goes up, he wouldn't want to constantly be going back and forth between divisions. He's going to have to put on a lot of weight, and since it'll be his first time going up, a catchweight bout probably isn't out of the question.

Starkiller · Post #5 » by **Starkiller** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:54 pm

K1NG wrote:Apparently GSP is going to go up to 185 and stay there if he beats Shields. He said if he goes up, he wouldn't want to constantly be going back and forth between divisions. He's going to have to put on a lot of weight, and since it'll be his first time going up, a catchweight bout probably isn't out of the question.

He wont' have to put on a LOT of weight, GSP is one of if not the biggest WW's ever.

Post #6 » by **CPT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:11 pm

Starkiller wrote:
K1NG wrote:Apparently GSP is going to go up to 185 and stay there if he beats Shields. He said if he goes up, he wouldn't want to constantly be going back and forth between divisions. He's going to have to put on a lot of weight, and since it'll be his first time going up, a catchweight bout probably isn't out of the question.

He wont' have to put on a LOT of weight, GSP is one of if not the biggest WW's ever.

He probably needs to put on a good 10 pounds though, if not more.

Being a pretty big WW means you are a tiny MW, and Silva is definitely one of the biggest in that division.

Starkiller · Post #7 » by **Starkiller** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:25 pm

CPT wrote:
Starkiller wrote:
K1NG wrote:Apparently GSP is going to go up to 185 and stay there if he beats Shields. He said if he goes up, he wouldn't want to constantly be going back and forth between divisions. He's going to have to put on a lot of weight, and since it'll be his first time going up, a catchweight bout probably isn't out of the question.

He wont' have to put on a LOT of weight, GSP is one of if not the biggest WW's ever.

He probably needs to put on a good 10 pounds though, if not more.

Being a pretty big WW means you are a tiny MW, and Silva is definitely one of the biggest in that division.

Yeah, compared to Silva he'd be a small MW, but I imagine GSP walks around around 190 when not training for a fight. I don't think it'd be hard to put on weight for the fight. If anything, that may benefit him as he won't have to cut nearly as much as Anderson will.

Post #8 » by **LittleOzzy** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:22 am

I want to see this fight pretty badly but not at the price of having two belts basically being put on hold.

I would much rather wait until one of the two has lost their title.

Post #9 » by **CPT** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:46 am

LittleOzzy wrote:I want to see this fight pretty badly but not at the price of having two belts basically being put on hold.

I would much rather wait until one of the two has lost their title.

Well that would be stupid.

The whole point is that nobody in either of their divisions can beat them. One of them losing would take a ton of steam off this fight. Would it still be great to see? Sure. But just like with Fedor, once the guy loses, a lot of the intrigue is gone.

Let GSP vacate his title, move up to MW permanently, and give him an immediate shot (surely nobody would have a problem with that).

Then, maybe a WW tournament for the vacant title? That would kick ass, but it's not really the UFC's style.

Post #10 » by **CPT** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:58 am

I know it's more likely that they just put the winner of Fitch vs. Penn against someone, but as I have too much time on my hands at work today, I thought I'd throw together a WW tournament.

Relevant fights scheduled (some of the seeds would have to be rearranged depending on the winners...just kind of based it on who is expected to win)
Fitch vs. Penn winner = #1 seed (loser, #6?)
Condit vs. Lytle winner = #2 seed
Kampmann vs. Sanchez winner = #3 seed
Alves vs. Story winner = #4 seed
Thiago vs. Hendricks winner = #7 seed
Hardy vs. A. Johnson winner = #8 seed

Relevant guys without a fight scheduled:
Shields (whole premise is based on him losing to GSP, but he would still be a pretty high seed) = #5
Koscheck (will be on the shelf for a while)
Dong Hyun Kim (could arguably be in the top 8)
Swick (injured and not on the greatest streak)
Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald winner
Almeida vs. Pyle winner
Hughes (if he's not retired)
Serra (somewhat relevant)
John Hathaway
Mike Pierce
Jake Ellenberger

(Going through this made me realize how **** sick the UFC's WW division is...they could do a credible 32 man tourney if they really wanted to)

So the way I think it would shake down is...

#1 Fitch
#8 Hardy

#4 Alves
#5 Shields

#3 Kampmann
#6 Penn

#2 Condit
#7 Thiago

How **** badass would that be?

Then you have all those other guys to fill in for injuries, etc. Something a certain other promotion hasn't planned for.

Nemesis21 · Post #11 » by **Nemesis21** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:47 am

CPT wrote:I know it's more likely that they just put the winner of Fitch vs. Penn against someone, but as I have too much time on my hands at work today, I thought I'd throw together a WW tournament.

Relevant fights scheduled (some of the seeds would have to be rearranged depending on the winners...just kind of based it on who is expected to win)
Fitch vs. Penn winner = #1 seed (loser, #6?)
Condit vs. Lytle winner = #2 seed
Kampmann vs. Sanchez winner = #3 seed
Alves vs. Story winner = #4 seed
Thiago vs. Hendricks winner = #7 seed
Hardy vs. A. Johnson winner = #8 seed

Relevant guys without a fight scheduled:
Shields (whole premise is based on him losing to GSP, but he would still be a pretty high seed) = #5
Koscheck (will be on the shelf for a while)
Dong Hyun Kim (could arguably be in the top 8)
Swick (injured and not on the greatest streak)
Nate Diaz vs. Rory MacDonald winner
Almeida vs. Pyle winner
Hughes (if he's not retired)
Serra (somewhat relevant)
John Hathaway
Mike Pierce
Jake Ellenberger

(Going through this made me realize how **** sick the UFC's WW division is...they could do a credible 32 man tourney if they really wanted to)

So the way I think it would shake down is...

#1 Fitch
#8 Hardy

#4 Alves
#5 Shields

#3 Kampmann
#6 Penn

#2 Condit
#7 Thiago

How **** badass would that be?

Then you have all those other guys to fill in for injuries, etc. Something a certain other promotion hasn't planned for.

Fitch over Hardy
Shields over Alves

Kampmann over Penn
Condit over Thaigo

Sheilds over Fitch
Condit over Kampmann (rematch)

Condit shocks the world, avenges 2006 loss to Shields. :wordyo:

I can dream right?

CapeCrusader · Post #12 » by **CapeCrusader** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:46 pm

GSP already walks around at like 185 before he drops down to WW, so it won't be a problem for him at MW.

Kaizen · Post #13 » by **Kaizen** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:06 pm

GSP was 187.5 after weighing in for the Koscheck fight.

Starkiller · Post #14 » by **Starkiller** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:32 pm

A WW tournament would be awesome. It'd have to have

Penn
Fitch
Sanchez
Kampmann
Alves
Condit
Hardy
Johnson
Almeida
Kim
Diaz

Post #15 » by **CPT** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:35 am

Why do people think that because GSP fights at 185 or 190 that he will be fine at MW? It's not like he's the only guy who cuts weight.

Guys like Alves, Johnson, and Fitch fight at 190-195 for fights at 170. Guys at MW are routinely that size, with plenty going over 200, and the biggest guys probably pushing 210. Marquardt, Silva, Sonnen, etc.

There's a 15 pound gap between the weight classes. Even as a big WW, GSP will have to put on some weight to be a small MW. To be about average he should put on at least 10 of that 15 pound gap, and if he wants to be as big relative to his class as he is at WW, it would be more like 15-20 (though that would probably not be good for him).

High 5 · Post #16 » by **High 5** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:32 am

How long do you think it would take GSP to get ready for MW? He takes better career of his body than anyone, so if he makes the jump he's going to do it the healthiest and most effective way possible.

Post #17 » by **CPT** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:17 am

High 5 wrote:How long do you think it would take GSP to get ready for MW? He takes better career of his body than anyone, so if he makes the jump he's going to do it the healthiest and most effective way possible.

I seem to remember him saying something about 6 months. With a fight at the end of April, he could probably put on the weight and get a camp in by November-ish, but they may hold off for the year end show or even next year's Super Bowl weekend card.

High 5 · Post #18 » by **High 5** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:34 am

CPT wrote:
High 5 wrote:How long do you think it would take GSP to get ready for MW? He takes better career of his body than anyone, so if he makes the jump he's going to do it the healthiest and most effective way possible.

I seem to remember him saying something about 6 months. With a fight at the end of April, he could probably put on the weight and get a camp in by November-ish, but they may hold off for the year end show or even next year's Super Bowl weekend card.

Thanks for the info. I figured it would take a lot longer than Silva's jumps to LHW.

SDM · Post #19 » by **SDM** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:50 am

Starkiller wrote:A WW tournament would be awesome. It'd have to have

Penn
Fitch
Sanchez
Kampmann
Alves
Condit
Hardy
Johnson
Almeida
Kim
Diaz

If they were smart, they'd do a Fight Night/free card with four of the tournament matches on the maincard, then a few weeks later, another free card with the remaining four. Wait a couple more months and have the remaining eight fight on various cards. When you're down to four, you have two co-headlining bouts for a PPV (and likely four names that wouldn't be anywhere near a headlining slot at WW unless GSP was involved), buoyed by the 4M+ households that tuned in to see the earlier brackets on free cards. UFC can reward long-time fans by bringing back the tournament format, create new stars in a more organic manner (opposed to the forced McCorkle/Struve **** show from a few cards back), and create a storyline for newer fans to follow.

Post #20 » by **singh_shady** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:51 am

SDM and CPT great ideas, too bad there's zero chance of something like that happening.

Regarding GSP-Silva, let's not forget that Anderson can easily fight and most likely run through the LHW division. I'm sure he could take a handful of guys at HW as well if he put the time into it, he's a big ass dude. GSP may be big for a WW but he has some work to do before he can comfortably fight at MW. He's used to being the guy who is bigger, stronger and faster..