Freddie Roach: St-Pierre vs. Silva is the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather of MMA by Steven Marrocco on Feb 10, 2011 at 3:30 pm ET Count boxing guru Freddie Roach among those who can't wait to see UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (21-2 MMA, 15-2 UFC) fight middleweight champion Anderson Silva (27-4 MMA, 12-0 UFC). After watching boxing's biggest fight go the way of the dodo bird, the trainer, who's been a fistic consultant for both champs, thinks it's the biggest possible draw for MMA. "It's Pacquiao-Mayweather in MMA," Roach told UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan on this week's episode of "UFC Ultimate Insider." "It's one guy going up in weight to fight the bigger and better – supposedly better – guy." Roach, who's trained some of boxing's biggest stars including multi-division champ Manny Pacquiao, knows about the heartache that comes with lost opportunity. After endless months of rumors about a possible megafight between Pacquiao and welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather, he gave an interview this past November in which he said the fight would never happen. To see a meeting of MMA greats in their prime must be a small consolation. At this point, the 50-year-old Roach said he has a closer relationship to St-Pierre. The welterweight champ sought him out as he prepared for his sixth title defense at UFC 124 against Josh Koscheck, and later asked Roach to be his cornerman (Roach declined due to prior commitments). Roach marveled at the discipline St-Pierre brought to the table during their work together and predicted a left hook knockout of Koscheck. (No such luck for St-Pierre, though he broke Koscheck's orbital bone in the first punch of the fight and dominated the standup action en route to a unanimous decision.) It's been more than a year since Roach worked steadily with Silva, though his time with the middleweight champ certainly left an impression. "Anderson is a better boxer at this point," Roach said. But while Roach believes St-Pierre is somewhat of an underdog, he thinks he might be able to change that. "There's some things I've learned about Anderson that I think I can help Georges with," he said. "Because I've worked with [Anderson] closely, and Anderson is a very clever fighter." So clever, in fact, that Roach thinks Silva has often mailed it in during his long reign as middleweight champion. That won't be an issue for this fight, he added. "That's one fight I don't think you have to worry about Anderson not getting up for," he said. "He will get up for [St-Pierre]. Because he doesn't always get up for fights like talented people do at times. Sometimes it comes so easily and natural to them that they get a bit lazy. "But for that fight, I expect both guys to be at their best. Georges is stronger physically and can rough him up on the inside. Anderson's more of a technician and knows distance. Distance is the key to that fight." Now, it's just a matter of St-Pierre getting past Jake Shields (26-4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) at UFC 129, which takes place April 30 at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Roach will have to cool his jets until then.
GSP isnt doing the talking. Everyone else is. That being said Shields hasnt lost in how many years now?
I thought he might have lost his last fight. That was the first time I had ever seen him. He looked like he was having trouble with the weight. Why did he suck so much?
You might have hit the nail on the head. It could be the weight, could have been the rust. He hadnt fought in a while. Im not a Sheilds Fan and i dont like his style of wrestling, but he is a threat. We are going to see two the best pure wrestlers in MMA going at it.
it was the first time he cut to 170 in quite a while. I think his last fight at 170 was in 2008 against Paul Daley. His 3 fights before Kampman were at 185.
Shields had a rough time because Kampman is no joke. The dude was sniffing a GSP shot himself. All I know is that this is Shields' last couple years: He twist off Paul Daley's arm at 170 He chokes out Robbie Lawler at 182 He beats Mayhem Miller via clear UD at 185 He dominates Dan Henderson at 185 He guts out a very close win over Kampman at 170 That's a pretty decent 24 months in MMA.
