UFC 162 Preview and Silva versus St-Pierre?

UFC 162 is tomorrow (July 6) and two of the fights on the card have previously been declared by BettingSports as must-see fights for the month of July.  Among all the UFC 162 hype there is also some new news on the most-wanted superfight in all of MMA, the potential battle between Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

UFC 162 Preview

The two fights on this card Bettingsports has declared as must-watch fights this month is the UFC 162 main event, a middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman and the co-main event at UFC 162, a battle between Frankie Edgar and Charles Oliveira.

If you have been paying attention to the recent media blitz done by UFC fighters to promote UFC 162 it is not secret who most UFC fighters think is going to win this fight.  In numerous interviews the likes of Frank Mir, Chael Sonnen and Jonny Hendricks, just to name a few, have predicted that Silva’s seven-year run as the top Middleweight in the UFC is over and Weidman will defeat him.

Their reasoning is a sound one.  Silva has exhibited one clear weakness throughout his career.  He performs poorly against wrestlers.  In his last outing against Sonnen, Sonnen was able to take Silva to the ground several times throughout the fight.  Weidman is a stronger wrestler than Sonnen, is a lot less susceptible to submissions to Sonnen, has a better top guard and is a great submissioninst himself.  Weidman is a nightmare to Silva.  Regardless, Silva is still the favorite to win this match over at Bovada with a -240 moneyline compared to Weidman’s +190 moneyline.

The co-main event between Edgar and Oliveria pits two featherweights who are in desperate need of a win.  After dropping his lightweight title to Benson Henderson and failing to get back on two separate occasions Edgar dropped down a weight class only to lose to Jose Aldo.  Edgar needs a ‘W’ to get his career back on the tracks.  Oliveria is coming off a loss as well and wants to prove that he is a featherweight contender with a high profile win against Edgar.

Oliveira is a submission specialist, however, getting Edgar in a position to slap on a submission will be difficult considering Edgar is a better striker and wrestler than Oliveira.  The odds are also overwhelmingly on Edgar’s side.  He has a moneyline of -550 compared to Oliveira’s +375.

Silva versus St-Pierre?

A superfight between Welterweight Champion St-Pierre and Middleweight Champion Silva has been a fight that fans have wanted to see for one time now.  If fact, my first MMA article here on BettingSports was about this potential superfight.

Both fighter have said they would like to face each other eventually.  However, if Dana White is to be believed, GSP may not be as excited about this fight as he seems.  A reporter questioned GSP’s willingness to fight Silva, implying GSP was not interested in the fight.  Here is what White had to say:

There’s no doubt about it.  That’s a fact [St-Pierre is not interested in fighting Silva].   If that was the case, he’d say f**k Weidman, I’ll take that fight, I want that fight, I really think Weidman’s going to beat him.  I don’t want Weidman to have that fight.  I want to be the guy to beat him.

White was referencing a quote from GSP where he said he believed that Weidman would beat Silva.  He expressed this belief with great enthusiasm.  If Silva drops his fight to Weidman, then the odds of seeing this fight will drop even further.