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Morning Report: Georges St-Pierre argues against the concept of GOAT: ‘I don’t think there is nobody that is the greatest’

April 15, 2020
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

The question of who is the Greatest of All Time is one of the most discussed topics in MMA. But no matter who is debating the point, the same names populate the top of the list: Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre, and Jon Jones. Some people favor other fighters beyond those four and as time wages on, more will join their company but currently, the discussion of GOAT cannot be held without at least mentioning those four fighters, but perhaps the most undeniable of the group argues that the conversation is meaningless anyway.

Any way you slice it, Georges St-Pierre had one of the very best careers in MMA history. On top of his sterling 26-2 record, including nine welterweight title defenses in a row and titles in two divisions, St-Pierre was one of the biggest stars in UFC history. Also, his accomplishments are completely unmarred by positive PED tests like Silva’s and Jones’ are. But when asked point blank by Ariel Helwani if he was the greatest fighter ever, GSP instead, argued against the premise entirely.

“I don’t think there is nobody that is the greatest,” St-Pierre said. “Let me explain that to you. There is three guys, right? This guy will beat [that] guy, [that] guy will beat [the other] guy, and [the other] guy will beat this guy. That’s how it is in this game. . . It’s just a matter of timing. Everybody can beat everybody on any given day. You make a fight against a top guy 10 times, the guy will probably not win it 10 times. Depending on the situation, he might win nine out of the 10. And style makes fights, too. There are guys that have your number – you don’t know why. In the fight game, it’s not a straight line.”

St-Pierre’s philosophy is well earned. The consensus greatest welterweight of all time suffered defeat twice in his career, the first when he was still maturing as a fighter but the second happened to be the biggest upset in the history of the sport, when Matt Serra knocked him out in the first round. St-Pierre quickly avenged the loss with authority but the setback gave him a new perspective on how to view fighting and accomplishments in the sport.

“When I was young, I wanted to be the best of all time but when I got older and had more experience, I realized it’s just a fugazi – it doesn’t exist,” St-Pierre said. “You cannot be the best fighter on the planet. There will always be one guy that will beat you. I know some people say, ‘No that’s not true’ but if you train with many different training partners, with different people, you’ll find out it’s true. There’s guys better than you maybe who are not fighting but if you fight them in the gym you’ll see they are gonna beat you. It’s like that. That’s how the world works. There’s no better guy. There will always be one guy that will have your number, will beat you. That’s how it is. There is no better guy. Any given day, one guy will be better than the other.”

That mentality likely helped St-Pierre maintain a stranglehold over the welterweight division for six years but it also may have led to his early exit from the sport. St-Pierre knew there was always the potential to lose but admits he felt increasing pressure every time he fought to not lose the title. That’s why at 32 years old, he vacated his welterweight title and stepped away from the sport for nearly four years, only coming back to face Michael Bisping for the middleweight title in 2017. True to form, St-Pierre won that bout as well to become the undisputed middleweight champion of the world. But even that, St-Pierre says, was an illusion. He was not better than every other middleweight in the world, he was just better than Michael Bisping on that night.

“When you fight a guy and you’re champion, you’re champion because you only beat that guy, that night,” St-Pierre said. “It doesn’t give you the right to put you above all the rest of the roster. That’s how most people see it but that’s not how I see it, myself, right now. Before that’s how I used to think but now I realize it’s all an illusion.”

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APEX. Dana White: UFC APEX will host events ‘starting next month and for the forseeable future’.

Stacked. Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz and more targeted for UFC’s return on May 9.

COVID-19. Retired fighter Roger Gracie talks coronavirus infection: ‘I never felt that before’.

VIDEO STEW

UFC’s return reaction.

UFC fighters react to bare knuckle.

The history of the UFC lightweight division.

Best D’Arces in history.

Free fight.

LISTEN UP

Eurobash. Interviews with Valentina Shevchenko, Sean O’Malley, and Graham Boylan.

UFC Unfiltered. Interviews with Justin Gaethje and Matthew Iseman.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Justin declining to make weight on Friday because why the f*ck would he?

Tony playing the hits.

Beef.

Genuinely astonished Reebok hasn’t made this happen yet.

LOL.

Bisping has officially become that guy.

Future champ.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tony Ferguson (25-3) vs. Justin Gaethje (21-2); UFC 250, May 9.

Henry Cejudo (15-2) vs. Dominick Cruz (22-2); UFC 250, May 9.

Amanda Nunes (19-4) vs. Felicia Spencer (8-1); UFC 250, May 9.

Francis Ngannou (14-3) vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik (10-0); UFC 250, May 9.

Jeremy Stephens (28-17) vs. Calvin Kattar (20-40; UFC 250, May 9.

Fabricio Werdum (23-8-1) vs. Aleksei Oleinik (58-13-1); UFC 250, May 9.

Donald Cerrone (36-14) vs. Anthony Pettis (22-10); UFC 250, May 9.

Greg Hardy (5-2) vs. Yorgan De Castro (6-0); UFC 250, May 9.

Carla Esparza (15-6) vs. Michelle Waterson (17-7); UFC 250, May 9.

Ronaldo Souza (26-8) vs. Uriah Hall (15-9); UFC 250, May 9.

Vicente Luque (17-7-1) vs. Niko Price (14-3); UFC 250, May 9.

Charles Rosa (12-3) vs. Bryce Mitchell (12-0); UFC 250, May 9.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

EXIT POLL

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram, add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting, and like us on Facebook.

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