UFC's Anderson Silva Is Still The Best Pound-For-Pound Fighter, Says Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre was correct in his prediction, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champion still believes that Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter inside the Octagon.

St-Pierre reiterated that despite suffering a stunning knockout defeat against Chris Weidman on July 6 in Las Vegas, Silva is still the best in business although the fighter known as "The Spider" dropped from the top spot to third in the latest UFC pound-for-pound ranking.

Before the Silva-Weidman showdown, St-Pierre forecasted that the 29-year-old Weidman, who only had nine fights under his belt before the July 6 showdown, will pull off an upset against Silva via knockout.

But while his prediction turned out to be correct after Weidman, one of his training partners, knocked out Silva in their middleweight title showdown, St-Pierre said Silva was defeated because he made a critical mistake, which was taken advantage of by Weidman.

"I still believe Anderson Silva is the best in the world pound-for-pound. It's a mistake he made. He got beat by Chris Weidman," St-Pierre said in an interview with Heidi Fang of MMA Fight Corner.

"I believe it was a style match-up and he got caught. I believe he's the best in the world. Even the best can lose sometimes. When I saw that fight, you know, of course Chris Weidman is my friend and training partner, I was cheering for him and I thought he was going to win because the style match-up and he was very well prepared."

Learning a lesson from Silva's loss, the long-time undisputed welterweight champion St-Pierre vowed to step on the Octagon 100 percent prepared when he defends his title against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on November wherein St-Pierre's 12-match streak will also be on the line.

"It made me realize that what I got, I'm the world champion now - it can go away in the blink of an eye. If I don't pay attention, one punch, one submission, one mistake, and it can change the whole thing. It made me realize that I need to work very hard to maintain what I have. It gave me that motivation. It kind of woke me up a little bit," St-Pierre said.

The St-Pierre-Hendricks welterweight title showdown, the main event of UFC 167, will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.