Georges St-Pierre has revealed that the UFC approached him about a potential superfight with Anderson Silva during their respective championship reigns, but discussions never progressed beyond an initial conversation.

St-Pierre, widely regarded as one of the greatest welterweights in MMA history, said the proposed matchup was raised by UFC executives Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta when both he and Silva were at the height of their careers. The fight was long considered one of the sport’s most anticipated dream matchups but never materialised.

Speaking to another former champ, Demetrious Johnson, St-Pierre explained that he had several conditions for accepting the bout. “What happened is that, at the time and when I was in my prime and Anderson Silva was in the prime… I can only speak from my side,” said St-Pierre, according MMA Fighting. “I don’t know what was happening on Anderson Silva’s side.”

He added that moving up in weight would have required significant changes to his preparation and warranted additional compensation. “I was only asked once by Dana and Lorenzo… and I had the request because I was like, OK, you want me to get out of my way to go up a weight class, I need to be compensated because it’s different,” said St-Pierre. “I’m full of challenges in my weight class, so if I’m fighting someone bigger I need to change my training, try to get bigger, maybe.”

St-Pierre said his requests included a new contract, improved financial terms, a catchweight contest and enhanced drug testing measures. “So my request was to fight Anderson Silva, I want to be put under contract,” he added. “I want to be compensated better, one. I wanted this to be done in a catchweight, because Anderson fought in PRIDE at 170, and I knew he could go down.” He added that he also wanted drug testing implemented but said the UFC did not follow up on the proposal.

According to St-Pierre, the discussions ended after that initial exchange, leaving the bout unrealised. “That was my intention: ‘If you make that happen, I’m in, no problem,’” he said. “If you made it 180 [pound] catchweight, I’m in. And if you compensate me, and it was reasonable… and also the drug testing. But they didn’t follow up with that.” He added: “I don’t know if they asked Anderson about that, but they only asked me once.”