Anderson Silva says a fight with Georges St-Pierre could still happen

Yesterday, we learned that the United States Anti-Doping Agency had determined that Anderson Silva’s recent failed drug test had been due to a tainted supplement, and that he’d been handed a one-year suspension for his ingesting this supplement. This suspension is retroactive to October, 2017, which means Silva will be able to fight again this October.

As always, Silva will have plenty of interesting options in terms of opponents for his anticipated return to the cage. Perhaps the most compelling option of all, of course, would be his long-time rival Georges St-Pierre.

Throughout their primes, Silva and St-Pierre rode shoulder-to-shoulder at the top of MMA’s pound-for-pound lists, dominating the UFC middleweight and welterweight divisions respectively. Despite the fact that they stood out as the two best fighters on earth, and that they were only separated by 15 lbs, however, they never ended up fighting.

Today, this potential matchup has undeniably lost quite a bit of its lustre, but it’s definitely still one that most fans would love to see, and Silva says it’s still possible. Especially in this current era of the UFC, when matchups based on rankings and competition seem to be taking a back seat to fights based purely on entertainment.

“Anything is possible in the UFC, man,” Silva told MMA Fighting shortly after he was vindicated by USADA. “It’s a very eclectic company, with a broad vision of the sport. They are going through a new moment, a moment of entertainment, so anything can happen.”

Interestingly, St-Pierre did eventually move up to middleweight, where he defeated Michael Bisping to win the title last November. Silva doesn’t think St-Pierre was avoiding him during his own reign as middleweight champion. Instead, he feels the Canadian simply saw an opportunity for a good fight and took it.

“I think the decisions have to be made at the time they have to be made,” Silva said when asked about St-Pierre’s move to middleweight. “I think he had a good strategy, did a good fight with [Michael] Bisping. They are both great fighters. If we didn’t fight that’s because it really shouldn’t have happened.”

Would you be interested in seeing a fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre in the year 2018 or 2019?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/19/2018.