If Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre won't move up to face Anderson Silva at middleweight or a catchweight, "The Spider" may just have to come down to make the fight happen.
And according to UFC President Dana White, the Brazilian can pull it off.
St. Pierre vs. Silva is a mixed martial arts (MMA) superfight that has been years in the making with both men dominating their respective weight classes in the UFC, fighting just 15-pounds apart from each other.
Talk regarding the match up really began to vamp up late last year around the time St. Pierre fought Carlos Condit at UFC 154. Silva was sitting cage side for the bout and it appeared as though the fight was finally going to become a reality before "Rush" decided he would rather remain at 170-pounds for a fight against Nick Diaz at UFC 158 on March 16, 2013.
With Silva likely to defend his 185-pound title against Chris Weidman in the summertime, it seems the breaks for the superfight are on for now.
While that news may come to the disappointment of many, don't completely count out the chances of the fight happening in the future. The UFC boss says the fight can and likely will happen, and when it does, St. Pierre won't have to do a thing - - Silva will come to him.
"Anderson would go to [170 pounds], too," White told media members following a conference in England last Wednesday (Feb. 13, 2013). "Yeah, he said he'd do it. He says he can make [170] easy. It's insane."
Silva (33-4) is no stranger to fluctuating his weight, as the Brazilian has fought as low as welterweight and as high as light heavyweight over the course of his 15-year career. However, the last time Silva fought close to the welterweight limit was over seven years ago when he lost to Yushin Okami in a fight contested at 174-pounds.
At 37 years of age, Silva dropping down to welterweight would be an unprecedented move in the world of MMA. But with that said, basically everything Silva does in and out of the cage is unprecedented.
Silva last fought in October 2012 at UFC 153 where he defeated Stephen Bonnar by technical knockout. The Team Blackhouse product holds UFC records for most consecutive wins, knockdowns and title defenses, to name a few.
It's unknown at this time if the UFC would book Silva vs. St. Pierre as a title fight if Silva could realistically make 170-pounds.