With all the talk surrounding a potential Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre super fight, the UFC would like to send a reminder out that St-Pierre still has to face Jake Shields at UFC 129 on April 30.
On Tuesday, a press conference for UFC 129 was held at the site of the event, the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, and before discussion of UFC 129 could commence, the issue of Silva had to be addressed.
"Everybody wants to talk about the Georges St-Pierre-Anderson Silva fight," UFC president Dana White said. "Well, he's got to beat Jake Shields first."
The first question was directed to St-Pierre, who quickly shifted the attention of the room to his challenger.
"I don't even think about this (Silva fight) right now," the UFC welterweight champ St-Pierre said. "I never thought about it, I always live in the present moment. My biggest problem is Jake Shields and it would be foolish for me to look past Jake Shields. He poses the biggest threat to my title."
Meanwhile, Shields said he understood why others are already talking about a St-Pierre vs. Silva super fight, but promised to prove everyone wrong by putting a stop to the dream fight.
"I think they both have been so dominant in the UFC the past few years, people are talking about it," Shields said. "But I think it'd be a big mistake to overlook me because i plan on coming out there and spoiling that fight."
Shields is comfortable in the role of a heavy underdog. Last April, Shields, then with one fight left on his Strikeforce contract and assumed UFC bound, was matched up to lose against Dan Henderson. However, Shields won four of the five rounds to retain his Strikeforce belt.
"It's a fantasy fight right now," White said. "Half of it's over, [Silva] just beat Vitor Belfort. That was a very dangerous fight and now Georges St Pierre is in a dangerous fight up here in Canada. [Shields] is so stealth, it's unbelievable. But that's how he's been his whole career."
In support of the St-Pierre vs. Shields headliner is a co-main event featuring Jose Aldo defending his UFC featherweight belt against Canada's Mark Hominick.
Aldo shrugged off his challenger's recent comments that Aldo has yet to face a striker like Hominick.
'That's all part of the game, whatever he's going to say before the fight," Aldo said. "It all comes down to training I do in Brazil. I think all my opponents have been very tough and he's going to be no different."
Hominick, who was born in Ontario, spoke about fighting on his home soil.
"This is the dream I've been thinking about since I've been 13 years old," Hominick said. "This is my passion. Since I've been 13 years old, every morning I've woken up thinking about training, about the sport and getting better. And every night I went to bed with the same thoughts. This is the culmination of 10 years as a pro and I'm ready to do it on April 30."
UFC 129 will be the first major MMA event in Ontario since MMA was legalized there last August. Considering the capacity of the Rogers Centre and the amount of fan interest in Canada, the UFC is expecting UFC 129 to register the highest gate ever for an MMA event in North America.
To retain a similar live experience of other UFCs, the Rogers Centre, which could hold 60-70,000 in attendance, was configured to seat 42,000.
"We're going to do things in this area that we've never done in any arena before," White said. "So people worrying about the experience not being the same, it's not. it's going to be better. We're taking it to a whole new level."
2/08/2011 2:30 PM ET By Ray Hui
