Nothing too earth-shattering coming from today's UFC 129 presser in Toronto, but it seemed a lot of buzz was inevitably surrounding the possible matchup between UFC champions Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva. St. Pierre is of course set to face Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April, making Shields the only thing standing in the way of this mega fight being pushed into action. While media members were often polite in wording their questions with Shields present, it was obvious many folks are looking past UFC 129's main event and onward to bigger, better things for GSP.
Dana White Pumps Brakes On ‘St-Pierre VS Silva’ At UFC 129 Press Conference
Dana White is doing all he can to keep fans and media alike focused on the task at hand, but that’s really his first job as a promoter. He does, after all, have to market and sell this fight.
"Everybody wants to talk about the Georges St-Pierre-Anderson Silva fight," UFC president Dana White said. "Well, he's got to beat Jake Shields first."
"It's a fantasy fight right now," White said. "Half of it's over, [Silva] just beat Vitor Belfort. That was a very dangerous fight and now Georges St Pierre is in a dangerous fight up here in Canada. [Shields] is so stealth, it's unbelievable. But that's how he's been his whole career."
Shields is in a tough spot here. In addition to having almost no one picking him to take this fight, no one wants him to. He is in a sort of 'me against the world' mode right now and it could be interesting to see how he reacts. He wasn't favored in a fight with Dan Henderson back in April fighting under the Strikeforce banner, but went on to dominate the fight before joining the UFC as a free agent. He has his work cut out for him. 42,000 screaming fans, almost all of whom are hoping for you to fail, is probably more than most people could stand.
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