Donna of Gal's Guide to MMA invited me to fill in for their regular Dream Fight feature and I chose to write up a break-down of the fight everyone is dreaming of this week: Anderson Silva vs Georges St Pierre. 

I got a little carried away and did a chart breaking down the fight aspect by aspect for all three ranges of fighting: range, clinch and ground. 

Here's a taste:

Breaking it down aspect by aspect, it would appear to be a classic striker vs grappler match-up.

But this is deceptive. GSP's wrestling is probably the best in MMA, but he has always used it as part of an integrated game plan that makes his stand up far more effective than it would be in a straight kick-boxing bout where his opponent doesn't have to worry about being taken down. According to FightMetric, GSP outscored the threee best strikers he's faced -- B.J. Penn, Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy -- on the feet.

Of course, Anderson Silva is far more dangerous than either Penn, Alves or Hardy. He's faster, has a much longer reach, has far more weapons at his disposal, and hits much harder. But conversely, if you look at Silva's fights against stronger strikers -- I'm thinking Patrick Cote and Lee Murray -- he hasn't been as devastating as he can be against brawlers like Chris Leben or even Rich Franklin.

I'll be very interested in reader feedback on the categories I attempted to break an MMA fight down into. 

For those who want to geek out on this, may I recommend some of the technical pieces we've done featuring Silva and GSP:

• Anderson Silva Pulls a Wrestling Switch on Nate Marquardt at UFC 73
• Georges St Pierre and the Superman Punch
• Thiago Alves Could Not Stop Georges St. Pierre's Chain of Takedowns
• Book Review: Anderson Silva MMA Instruction Manual STRIKING

Read the whole thing -- Dream Fight: Anderson Silva vs Georges St Pierre.