Although UFC President Dana White did not trumpet an upcoming fight between Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields at the UFC 124 press conference, he reiterated plans for that matchup in media interviews following the show.
Despite a lackluster performance in his UFC debut against Martin Kampmann at UFC 121, the victorious Shields remained on the path to a title shot forged by his big Strikeforce win over Dan Henderson.
Speaking to MMAFighting, White confirmed that Shields remains next in line for a shot at GSP’s Welterweight Championship and that talk of an Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre dream match must wait until that fight takes place.
As for GSP, under the presumption that a fight with Silva would take place at Silva’s divisional weight of 185 pounds, he appeared in no immediate rush to make the dream match happen. Fighting in the 170 pound division, St. Pierre labeled his current fight weight at 189 pounds and noted that he would want to be at a minimum of 200 to feel comfortable fighting at 185. St. Pierre explained that his middleweight training partners can be as heavy as 210 pounds.
If St. Pierre were to commit to gaining an additional ten-to-fifteen pounds of muscle, he would want to do it for a permanent jump to middleweight. The Welterweight Champion explained that he has absolutely no interest in fighting in multiple weight classes.