Georges St. Pierre rejects rumor he requires $50 million for Anderson Silva fight

On a recent episode of The MMA Beat, Mike Straka said that Georges St. Pierre would require $50,000,000 to take a fight with Anderson Silva. The GSP vs. Silva fight has become a focus of the UFC with Dana White repeatedly saying he'd make the fight happen regardless of what the fighters themselves have said.

Here's the quote from Straka (via MMA Mania):

"I was told by somebody very close to Georges that Georges today makes close to $8 million a fight. So to fight Anderson Silva he's going to ask for $50 million."

...

"Because he said that Georges has 10 fights left in his career at $8 million a fight. But he believes that Anderson could actually hurt him, could physically hurt him and end his career. So to take that chance he wants $50 million and that's exactly the number he's going to go to Dana White with."

It's actually reasonable to think in those terms. I see no real issue with it, but Georges St. Pierre has told 98.5 FM (985Sports.ca) that this rumor isn't true:

"I have not been informed of this, it is not true. Nobody told me about it and I am in France now, I have not seen the article (Mike Straka). I will not comment, "he said in ending this brief conversation.

I've talked about it several times but the big sticking point I've heard is that GSP and his team just don't seem interested in taking the fight at any weight other than 170 right now. If they're dead set on not taking it above welterweight, I assume it will take a lot of money to get him to take the fight at a catchweight.

These major fight negotiations always have weird things like this. Even after years of Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather talk we still have situations like this past September when Pacquiao said that he'd accept a 45/55 split with Mayweather only to have his own management come out and basically shoot down that idea (he was talking about a different deal, see?).

I'd still be shocked if we see Silva vs. GSP in 2013.