Georges St. Pierre vs Anderson "The Spider" Silva?

The MMA world has been buzzing about a possible future match-up between welterweight Georges St Pierre and middleweight Anderson Silva.

Industry observers have been writing about the possible "dream" match-up for months now. Even St. Pierre himself alluded to a possible "super" match-up in a recent article, saying that "of course" he would fight Anderson Silva if given the opportunity.

The benefits of such a match-up are clear. This would pit arguably the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world against each other. The amount of money that would be made from this match-up would be mind-boggling.

This would of course involve St. Pierre moving up a weight class. I have no doubt that St. Pierre would jump at the opportunity, as he clearly seems to want to cement his legacy as one of the best fighters of all-time. A victory against Silva, whom many regard as the best all-around fighter in the world, would certainly go a long ways towards doing that. I am sure that Silva wouldn't turn down such a potentially lucrative match-up as well.

The big question is - would the UFC go for it? The answer might not be as simple as you think.

Of course the UFC would make a ton of money off of this match-up. However, one of their biggest fighters, either St. Pierre or Silva, would lose this match-up. A loss would damage their reputations, even if slightly. The UFC makes a lot of money from their "invincible" fighters in the welterweight and middleweight classes, St. Pierre and Silva. Would they want to risk damaging the reputations of either fighter? I'm not so sure.

The lure of a "big money" match-up between these two might be too much for the UFC to pass up. You could milk two, possibly three matches out of these two, similar to Ortiz vs Liddell. Ask the UFC how much money they made off of those match-ups.

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