Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Spor

If there was any doubt that former longtime UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva plans on returning to the Octagon, his management already has his next opponent in mind: Georges St-Pierre.

The ex-welterweight kingpin vacated the strap last month, per Yahoo! Sports, indicating that he needed an extended break from the sport.

Silva recently suffered his second loss to current 185-pound champ Chris Weidman, shattering his left shin when a hard leg kick landed flush on "The All-American's" knee.

Nevertheless, according to an interview with MMA Junkie, "The Spider's" managers, Ed Soares and Jorge Guimaraes, feel it's about time to pull the trigger on the long awaited superfight between Silva and GSP.

"Don’t you think that’s an option?” Guimaraes told MMAjunkie when asked about a Silva vs. GSP matchup ... “Man, if we were able to pull something like that off, it would be a win-win for everybody: the fans, the UFC,” Soares said in a separate interview. “I think that would be awesome.”

Fight fans have been speculating about a possible Silva vs. GSP showdown since early 2009 after "Rush" defeated BJ Penn for a second time at UFC 94.

Many, including UFC president Dana White, thought 2013 would be the year that the two juggernauts collided in the center of the Octagon, but of course the bout never came to fruition.

After GSP defended his belt for the eighth time against Nick Diaz at UFC 158 in March, the French-Canadian superstar had won 11 straight bouts and appeared untouchable at 170 pounds.

Likewise, at that time, Silva had won 17 fights in a row and had the UFC record for consecutive middleweight title defenses with 10.

Of course, times have changed a lot in 10 months.

Silva has lost back-to-back title fights to Weidman, an occasional training partner of GSP, while St-Pierre narrowly walked away from UFC 167 in November with his belt.

While St-Pierre earned a split-decision victory over Johny Hendricks, nearly all MMA media outlets, fans and fighters believed "Bigg Rigg" had done enough to unseat GSP from his throne.

While their stock is unarguably down right now, would GSP vs. Silva be a fight the fans still want to see at the end of 2014?

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.