Observations on the Spider vs. Rush Discussion

On the battle of two (or eleven, depending on how you count) belts.

Before Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin was officially moved to UFC 101 in Pennsylvania, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of a fight between Anderson and welterweight king Georges St. Pierre, under the presumption that he would defeat Thiago Alves at UFC 100.

I sort of resented this claim because I didn’t think it was much of a fight. Anderson has a decisive size advantage (four inches of height and probably between fifteen and twenty pounds of weight) and is used to destroying fighters either his own size or larger, while Georges, great technician and complete warrior that he is, has fought guys his own size or smaller. There’s no one that Georges has fought that has been much bigger than him, certainly not in the way Anderson would be.

Now, that’s just my opinion on the fight (and I’ve talked a great deal about how I thought this bout would play out on the message boards), but more recently, as I’m looking at the way Anderson Silva has chosen to move through the lightheavyweight division, I’ve started to wonder why it is that fans were so eager to put the Canadian in a title shot, while Anderson has had to pay his dues and work his way through the pool of contenders with everyone else.

The truth is, one might have said the same thing about a potential fight between B.J. Penn and St. Pierre, as B.J. had only ever lost at welterweight in recent memory, but got a title shot anyway, though I tend to ignore that, as the bout was clearly put together as a rematch for what was a great bout when they fought initially, and an attempt to put on a great show for fans (not to mention that B.J. had a history at 170, however far removed he was from it, while Georges has little, if any, credentials in the 185 pound weight class).

Those observations aside, I think there are a few factors that have played into why Georges would have been picked up immediately as a title contender if the fans made matches, and why Anderson wasn’t.

1. The perceived lack of contenders as 185 vs. the perceived abundance at 205
2. The star power of a charismatic, young St. Pierre vs. the non-English speaking Brazilian who has long acknowledged being on the verge of retirement
3. The equation of the dominance of defending champions, even when it’s not equal

It’s important to address these factors one-by-one, but it’s also important to point out that none of these things give a reason for Georges to be tossed immediately into a title fight. They may explain why people want it, but they don’t make it right. For a fighter to be bumped ahead of all other contenders is, in my opinion, disrespectful to the contenders in a division (and there are contenders in both divisions). Of course, respect for the contenders doesn’t always rank high on the list of the UFC’s priorities, but it does help the organization to move a fighter up a weight class slowly to build a highlight reel and build credibility, both in the higher weightclass and in their own (the Irvin fight has been a great demonstration of this for Anderson).

Firstly, there seemed, for some time, to be no opposition for Anderson. Especially when Thales Leites was announced as a contender and many (myself included) were a little bit confused as to how that was possible, given Leites’ mediocre UFC record and not-really-stellar video montage. Still, there are contenders at 185 in Demian Maia and a handful of guys looking to make an argument for a rematch (Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson). Wanderlei Silva’s name has been added to the mix, and we’ll see how that pans out, but, in the meantime, Anderson does have potential opposition.

In sort of an inverse situation, there seem to be an abundance of contenders in the welterweight division, making it very tough, but there aren’t that many immediate contenders once Alves passes. Koscheck is out. Jon Fitch could make an argument for a second bout over the course of the next few months, but that’s a little way off, and he’s alone in making that argument. Perhaps Matt Serra, if he beats Matt Hughes, can make an argument for a rubber-match with Georges, but I think a lot of people are over Matt Serra, and he’s going to need more than one win to get himself back in contention. There’s a notion that Georges is coming out of a stacked division, but the competition isn’t quite as stacked as the names (which we know really well, as they’re all veterans) would indicate. This creates a feeling that Georges has been working harder, when the level of competition is more or less equal (though the performances against that competition aren’t, but I’ll mention that later.

Secondly, there’s an allure to Georges St. Pierre because of his charisma and appearance as a figurehead for the UFC. Anderson Silva has become a figurehead because of his dominance. That’s not to say that Georges’ victories haven’t played a huge role in his success (Georges would be a helluva lot less relevant if he wasn’t the champ), but Georges’ charisma has brought him to the forefront of a lot of people’s minds, while Anderson’s reputation doesn’t have anything to do with his charisma because, coming through a translator, it’s almost impossible to catch any of it.

This image of the young, tough, likeable athlete fighting the strong, seemingly invincible warrior is one that appeals to a lot of people, and it has a huge amount of drawing power. Georges has a huge fan base, and so does Anderson, but when you listen to Georges’ fanbase, they often talk about how humble he is and how personable and how good a face he is for the sport (all of which are absolutely true), while Anderson’s fans focus on his performance and not on his mainstream appeal and what he can do for the sport as a whole. There’s no reason why one set of fans is better than the other, but bringing both groups of fans together really helps to stir the pot and starts a big conversation about the fight, and the amount of discussion always fuels the apparent necessity of the fight, which increases the amount of discussion. This is one of the reasons why the discussions got as impassioned as they did.

Finally, there’s an understanding that the champions, as the elite warriors in their weightclass (once they have codified that #1 position), that their status as elite is equal. It’s part of what makes the pound-for-pound conversation so contested, because it becomes more about personal bias than technical ability (which is where the discussion, in my opinion, should focus).

People feel that Georges’ status as the champion is the same as Anderson’s status as the champion. Where that’s true or not is something that should be, in my opinion, hotly contested (because I happen to think there is a disparity between the value of Anderson’s UFC title reign and Georges’), but it wasn’t. Nobody, as far as the debates I was a part of, said, simply “Anderson is a better, more dominant champion than Georges,” and that surprised me, because consistency and dominance is one thing that sticks out to me in looking at their UFC careers (even just on paper, but also on video). I think that would have made the conversation a lot more interesting, but also forced people to acknowledge that Georges may not be in a position to simply jump into the challenger’s spot in a totally new weight class, because they have to acknowledge that he has shown lapses in his ability when making leaps in his career and, as a result, might need some time to acclimate at 185 pounds before taking on Anderson.

All that aside, the debate has already largely dissipated, but I thought that these observations are worth making and might apply if we start talking about champions taking the step up to a higher weightclass again.