GSP v Diaz!

[Woodie]

Yeah Silva has mentioned a couple times that he wants to retire at a specific age (number slips my mind now) and GSP said that if he were to move up it would be a permanent move up and he'd need about a year off to pack on the weight.

IIRC, he's said he wants to retire at 36, but I don't know if he still feels that way.

Silva has fought at LHW knocking out James Irvin and Forrest Griffin but I think he's always been a middleweight otherwise (185).

Earlier in his career, Silva did have some fights at 170, but I don't think he could get that light anymore. I think the only move he could make now is LHW...it would be a heck of a fight between him and Jones.

Koshcheck was supposed to give GSP a challenge on the feat thanks to his defensive wrestling skills but GSP just jabbed his face apart and 6 months later Kosh still doesn't have a fight lined up, that's how fuged up he was.

The other "knockout artist" that GSP faced recently is Dan Hardy from England but GSP just took him down and tried to rip his arm off.

This is why GSP is both one of my favorite fighters and one of the most frustrating ones. He is so well rounded and skilled, not to mention smart, that he can dictate the fight and take it wherever his opponent is most uncomfortable. However, I think he also is so good that if he wanted to he could give much more devestating beatdowns and score more finishes. But he fights so smart and minimizes his riskes while still getting dominant decisions that it's hard not to respect what he does.

Diaz is probably the most well rounded guy GSP has faced in a while and even if GSP takes him down, Diaz has good BJJ to make it interesting. GSP is more well rounded on the feet with kicks and all but Diaz has better hands.

It should make for a great fight. It seems as though all the guys that get in there with GSP freeze up but I don't think Diaz will. One fighter can only make a fight so exciting.

I think you're going to see a lot of jabs from GSP, and when Diaz starts overcommitting, I think he'll likely take him down and use his superior wrestling to control Nick and try to ground and pound out a win. However, Diaz has great boxing, so early on I could see both fighters relying on the jab. But, IMO, GSP has much more power along with solid kicks, so I expect Diaz to get the worst of their exchanges and eventually get frustrated and try to force things, which is when I believe he'll get caught with a takedown. Either way, I think this will be a great fight that should be well worth the cost of admission.

On the other hand, GSP and Anderson would be a classic stylistic matchup between two of the all time greats. Anderson would have the advantage because he is naturally bigger and faster than GSP but GSP improves every single fight and Chael exploited Anderson's wrestling a little.

I too think stylistically this would be a great fight, but I worry that GSP would just be too small for Silva. While he's a big welterweight, GSP reportedly walks around at only 185-190, while I've heard Silva walks around at about 220. So even with time to put on weight the right way, I am not certain GSP could get big enough to eliminate the size advantage Silva would have. And without at least being close in size, I am not sure GSP would be able to effectively use his wrestling to take advantage of Silva's lone weak spot.

I don't think we've seen anything close to Anderson's best because no one has challenged him recently (except Chael) but if you throw a huge fight at him like Forrest Griffin was, like Jon Jones would be, like GSP would be, you'd see the best Anderson Silva ever and that would be scary.

I agree. I think the only reason we have seen some lackluster fights from him lately is because he is bored. I don't think he has really felt challenged for quite awhile (with the exception of the Sonnen fight, where he supposedly went into the fight with injured ribs). Anyway, this is why I think Silva really needs to be looking at permanently moving up to 205. I believe the elite at that weight class might give him the challenge and motivation he needs to display the same focus he had when he first showed up in the UFC...of course the whole Machida friendship thing is the big monkey wrench in this plan.

If they fought, I think Anderson KO's GSP @185

I agree, as much as I like GSP, I think Anderson is too good a striker and would be able to negate Georges wrestling.