The Anderson Silva-Georges St. Pierre-Jon Jones Triangle Likely To Leave UFC Fans Frustrated

UFC fans have been hoping to see champions Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre face off in a super fight for almost two years now. Silva has been middleweight champion since 2006 and GSP has been welterweight champ since 2007. In that time both men have all but cleaned out their respective divisions and fans want to see both men challenged. 

In January of this year UFC president Dana White was even openly talking up the fight as a possibility for 2011. 

Nothing came of that talk and according to the rumor mill it was St. Pierre's reluctance to commit to moving up to the middleweight division for one fight that held things up.

GSP is still talking about the difficulty of bulking up sufficiently to face Silva and what he would want from the UFC to make that commitment. St. Pierre told Sports Net Canada recently that he would expect Anderson Silva to be inactive while GSP worked to bulk up for the bout.

"I could do it, but it depends on the matter of time that I can do it in. It will definitely take time, but is the UFC willing to give me the time to do so? Same for the fans.

"I will not be able to fight during that time and the same for Anderson, because what if he loses? No one is invincible; then this fight would be thrown out the window."

More recently there's been an additional clamor for Anderson Silva to face light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. UFC president Dana White seems even less ready to book that bout than GSP is to face Silva.

White spoke to MMA Weekly Wednesday about Jones, "I know everybody loves the idea of a super fight. But the thing you've got to understand, Jon is 24 years old. He's got some business to handle in the light heavyweight division without thinking about Anderson Silva right now."

The reality is that with the very real possibility of Chael Sonnen beating Anderson Silva and the less likely but still possible chance of Lyoto Machida beating Jon Jones at UFC 140 or Carlos Condit beating GSP at UFC 137, the odds of either super fight happening are extremely slim. 

The reality is that Anderson Silva is 37 years old and rapidly approaching the end of his peak athletic years. He's facing a very formidable challenge in Chael Sonnen and it may very well be that Sonnen will shut down all the super fight talk by beating Silva and taking his title.

For his part, St. Pierre has too much to risk. He's said repeatedly that moving up to middleweight will be a one-way trip, that it's just too hard on his body to bulk up only to strip back down to return to welterweight. If GSP were to move up to face Silva and lose, he could very well be facing a future as a so-so middleweight, no longer getting the big championship fights, no longer being one of the best in the game. That's not the GSP way. 

As for Jones, he's still extremely young at 24 years old and it seems much more likely that he'll end up moving up to heavyweight as his rapidly growing body fills out his lanky frame before Silva moves up to face him.

Cross your fingers, but don't hold your breath. True inter-divisional super fights are few and far between and we're not likely to see Anderson Silva in the cage with either GSP or Jones anytime soon.