By: Felix Rodriguez, Staff Writer
Georges St. Pierre last saw action against Jake Shields at UFC 129 on April 30th 2011. When a knee injury forced GSP out of his UFC 143 fight with Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit stepped in as his replacement and defeated Diaz for the Welterweight division’s Interim Championship. Condit’s evasive game plan earned him a controversial win that derailed plans for a potentially lucrative GSP-Diaz fight. To make matters worse, Condit elected to wait for GSP to secure a title-unification bout. This decision, though smart for Condit, has left the 170lb division in a near state of irrelevance since February of 2012. Fortunately for fans of the pride of Saint Isidore, the UFC’s Welterweight Division, and especially for Zuffa’s bottom line, GSP will return and fight Condit at UFC 154 on November 17th, 2012. If everything goes GSP’s way at UFC 154 and Diaz is not available as an opponent his next (super) fight should be versus Anderson Silva at a catch weight of 180 lbs. The way things are playing out the timing could not be better for it to happen. Dana White has sought to replicate UFC 129’s 55,000 plus gate at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on American soil and it is no secret that he has had Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium on his sites. This venue coincidentally has been booked for a March event listed as “to be announced.” After some digging around a source wishing to remain anonymous confirmed our suspicion that the March date could be of the combat sports variety and its capacity would be set at 90,000. He then proceeded to make our heads spin by hinting that Ronda Rousey and Cyborg Santos are also being targeted to attend… as the potential co-main event fighters.
Recent comments made by White to S.I. have made clear that Rousey’s eventual entry into the UFC is a given, finding the right time is the difficult part. Although putting Rousey in a UFC card without a division for her to compete in seems farfetched, this would not be the first time Zuffa resorted to such measures. Urijah Faber represented the WEC in a UFC card to promote smaller weight classes in the Octagon. Rousey could be used in a similar way to test the reception of female MMA by UFC fans.GSP v. Silva and Rousey v. Santos at Cowboys Stadium in March, too good to be true? Possibly, but if it isn’t you heard it here. When it comes to Super Fights Anderson Silva vs. GSP is a lot more likely than Silva vs. Jon Jones.
This fight makes a ton of sense marketing wise because it pairs two of the promotion’s top earners in what could be their biggest blockbuster to date and hyperbole be damned, possibly ever. Although Anderson Silva may be one of the UFC’s top draws his numbers are helped by his longevity and a pair of blockbuster fights with Chael Sonnen. The only time Silva broke 600,000 buys before Sonnen was his snooze fest against Thales Leites. Since UFC 100 GSP fights have averaged between 600-800 thousand buys. Silva is notoriously fickle with the press and not renown for his ability to sell fights so without Sonnen doing the work for the both of them Silva is going to need to sell the thing himself or fight another top draw like GSP to help grow his cut of the PPV revenue.
GSP’s return could not come fast enough for Joe Silva, whose job as a matchmaker will get much simpler after UFC 154. The much awaited title-unification bout will help straighten out the Welterweight division and possibly set the wheels in motion for the UFC to emerge out of its current decline in ratings, ready to kick ass and take names once more. There is no doubt that Dana White & Co. are happy to count with one of the UFC’s main attractions again because win or lose against Condit the Zuffa Marketing machine will have a plethora of intriguing options at their disposal for GSP’s next assignment that will help drive up their PPV sales.
What do our readers think of a potential mega-card featuring Silva vs. GSP and Rousey vs. Cyborg at Cowboys Stadium? Would you be one of the 90,000 there to watch it?