MMA dream match-up: Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre @ Friday June 6

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BY MARKO ILIC

Pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world, Anderson "The Spider" Silva seems to lack any serious competition in the middleweight division.

After six consecutive wins (over Chris Leben, Rich Franklin–twice, Travis Lutter, Nathan Marquardt, and Dan Henderson), "The Spider" is getting bored, so he looks for a challenge in another sport, trying to fulfill his childhood dream and square off with legendary Roy Jones Jr.

Unfortunately, this bout is not going to happen unless Silva leaves UFC. Dana surely doesn't want to see his best fighter annihilated in a boxing match. Having avenged his loss to Matt "The Terror" Serra in a devastating fashion, welterweight champ Georges "Rush" St. Pierre is in a similar situation with only one worthy opponent left – John Fitch.

Should he best Fitch, he'll have cleaned up the entire division. A possible solution for GSP would be to move up a weight class and face "The Spider". How would this dream match-up go down?

Strengths and weaknesses:

Anderson Silva

"The Spider" is widely recognized as the most lethal striker in MMA today. His striking arsenal is amazing: exceptional boxing skills with pinpoint accuracy and knockout power, deadly knees from a Thai clinch, elbows, kicks, and all that combined with great footwork and timing. Not only did "The Spider" finish everyone that UFC put in front of him, he beat all of them in the first two rounds.

Twelve of his twenty-one victories came by the way of knockout. In a stand-up battle everything favors Silva.

"The Spider" owns a BJJ black belt, which he earned from Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Although two of his four losses came by submissions (a flying scissor heel hook from Ryo Chonan and a triangle choke executed by Daiju Takase), Silva displayed his superb ground game against Travis Lutter (a BBJ black belt under Carlos Machado), Nate Marquardt (a seven-time middleweight King of Pancrase Champion ), and Dan Henderson (a former Olympic wrestler.) Silva submitted Lutter with a triangle and chocked out Hendo.

It's difficult to talk about the weaknesses of P4P the best in the world, but there are a lot of "experts" claiming that Silva's weakness is his takedown defense exposed in his bout with Lutter who was seconds away from finishing Silva on the ground.

However, "The Spider" is a fighter who constantly evolves and works on his weaknesses, getting better every time he steps into the octagon.

Hendo took him down in the first round, but Silva came out strong in the second and finished Hendo with a rear naked choke.

Georges St. Pierre

GSP is considered to be one of the most well-rounded fighters in the sport. His athleticism is second to none. He's beaten Karo Parisyan, Matt Hughes (twice), Frank Trigg, BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, etc.

Every part of his game is exceptional. He even outwrestled Josh Koschek, a former collegiate wrestling champion. Seven of his victories came by the way of knockout; he submitted his opponents five times.

Undoubtedly, he's got a great stand-up, but he was clearly outboxed by BJ Penn, though he won the fight via questionable split decision.

In his first fight against The Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt "The Terror" Serra, "Rush" was caught with Serra's right hand in the first round. A few seconds later, GSP was lying on his back with "The Terror" raining punches on him. After this shocking loss, "Rush" decided to see a sports psychologist. There were a lot of questions regarding GSP's mental strength, but he put those questions to rest when he outclassed Josh Koscheck at UFC 74: Respect.

In my humble opinion, GSP's striking is not on the same level as Silva's. BJ Penn sent Georges to a hospital. Had it not been for GSP's takedowns, he would have lost that fight.

Having submitted five of his opponents, it's obvious that "Rush" has mastered everything is the ground department, including takedowns, throws, wrestling, and submissions. He can put everybody on their back, even world-class wrestlers., and that is GSP's only advantage in this bout. He can put Silva on his back and try to land some ground and pound, but he has to be careful because "The Spider" is extremely calm and comfortable on his back.

Were this fight to happen, it would surely be one of the biggest draws in the UFC history. Prediction: Anderson Silva, 2nd Round, TKO.

You can read from me here at OddsPreview.com and from next week over at MMAPreview.com, our new website dedicated to the world of MMA. Stay tuned for more details! 

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