Dana White refutes GSP’s claim that UFC never tried to put together fight with Anderson Silva

When Georges St-Pierre steps back into the Octagon on Nov. 4 at UFC 217 he will not only be making his return after nearly four years away but for the first time ever he’ll be competing as a middleweight.

St-Pierre long lamented the move to 185 pounds when he was competing in the UFC as the welterweight champion because of the toll it would take on his body to put on that much extra weight to ensure he was truly ready to face bigger fighters at middleweight.

Still, a rumored super fight between St-Pierre and then middleweight champion Anderson Silva was all anyone could talk about for several years while both fighters were on top of the world but sadly the matchup never came together.

Just recently as he prepares for his fight against middleweight champion Michael Bisping, St-Pierre claimed that he had only been offered a bout against Silva once during his tenure with the UFC and that came following his win over Johny Hendricks when he took a four year sabbatical from the sport.

“One time I’ve been offered the fight when after I stopped fighting, after my fight with Hendricks,” St-Pierre said at the UFC 217 pre-fight press conference. “Dana [White] called me and said ‘do you want to fight Anderson Silva?’ but I didn’t want to fight nobody.

“You could have put a midget three-foot tall, I just wanted to take a break. That was the only time. There was talk of fighting but never anything significant been proposed at the time so it’s all rumors.”

Well, UFC president Dana White seems to remember differently because he told TSN in Canada just recently that Silva pursued that bout with St-Pierre for quite some time, but the former welterweight champion just didn’t seem interested.

“I do not remember things the same as GSP,” White said. “Because for a long time Anderson Silva wanted to fight GSP. Yeah, I would have absolutely made that fight.”

Unfortunately it never came together and now it’s tough to say if it will ever happen.

St-Pierre is about to compete for the middleweight title and with a win he’s expected to unify the belt with interim champion Robert Whittaker next year. As for Silva, he’s preparing for a fight against Kelvin Gastelum in November but still seems quite far off from title contention or a matchup against St-Pierre any time soon.