When Georges St-Pierre retired in 2019, he had last competed 1.5 years prior, defeating Michael Bisping to win the Middleweight title before vacating it. Still, many felt “Rush” had more to give to the sport, perhaps taking part in big-money fights to add to his legacy.
Fast forward three years later, and fights against former Welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, and former Lightweight title holder, Khabib Nurmagomedov, are at the top of the list of fights fans would love to see. Of course, Nurmagomedov didn’t win the title until 2018, with Usman winning the 170-pound strap in 2019, so fights against either of them weren’t exactly on “GSP’s” radar when he last competed.
Still, one can’t help but wonder how fights against those two former champions would have gone. That’s why St-Pierre recently gave his assessment on how things would have played out, even breaking down a potential scrap against the new king of the Welterweight’s, Leon Edwards.
“It’s hard because they all have great qualities,” St-Pierre said during a recent Q&A in Paris, France ahead of this weekend’s UFC Paris event (via MMA Fighting) “They’re all very different. Leon would have given me a lot of trouble because he’s very smart. It would have been like a chess game. It would have been a hard puzzle to solve because it would be a very technical fight.
“Kamaru is very physical, he’s very athletic, he’s a beast. He’s strong, he hits very hard, he’s a great wrestler. It would be very tough physically, very demanding,” he added before sizing up “The Eagle.”
“Khabib is a legend in terms of his knowledge, his experience. He’s got so many tools in his bag. It would be a fight that I wouldn’t know how it would’ve turned out. I don’t know. It’s not the best fighter that wins the fight, it’s the fighter that fights the best the night of the fight, so to beat them I would have needed to be the best man of the night of the fight and be very, very well prepared.”
Before “Rush” officially retired, he and Khabib were trying to secure a fight against one another but there never seemed to be much urgency on UFC’s side. And that’s probably due to the fact that Dana White wasn’t interested in the possibility of St-Pierre defeating Nurmagomedov, taking his belt, and then vacating it just like he did when he took out “The Count.”
You’ve heard St-Pierre’s breakdowns, how about you give us yours in the comment section below.