Georges St-Pierre is a UFC champion, future Hall of Famer and all-time great, but he isn’t a great martial artist, at least according to Steven Seagal.
The Aikido master and Hollywood action star has been very critical of St-Pierre.
Despite all of GSP‘s accolades and accomplishments, Seagal has never seemed to be that impressed with the welterweight champ. He doesn’t even consider him to be an all-time great.
On The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Seagal talked about what he believes separates a fighter like Anderson Silva from St-Pierre:
I think [St-Pierre] is a really nice guy. I think he is a good fighter and a good martial artist. Would I call him great? No, I just think he’s a wonderful and good martial artist and good guy. Some people are born with greatness, and some people sort of acquire it, but I think with time, he will become better and better.
Seagal can believe whatever he wants to believe, but St-Pierre’s résumé speaks for itself.
Throughout his career, St-Pierre has dominated some of the best fighters in the history of the sport. His recent win over Carlos Condit at UFC 154 tied Matt Hughes’ record for most successful title defenses in the UFC welterweight division.
If Silva’s skill set is the only representation of greatness, is anyone a great martial artist?
There has been talk of St-Pierre moving up in weight and challenging Silva in a catch-weight bout. While Seagal is definitely interested in a superfight, he doesn’t believe it would be a smart move for St-Pierre, who would be dwarfed by Silva.
In a fight, Seagal sees Silva holding every advantage over St-Pierre, who struggled a little over a year ago against Jake Shields.
Seagal continues in his interview:
If you look at Anderson’s worst fights, they’re not bad. They’re still pretty good. If you look at GSP‘s worst fight, you look at the thing he did with Shields in Canada, that was atrocious, and I think that is very telling. Aside from all of that, I think Anderson is just a lot more skilled, and I think he would win handily.
…I would tell [GSP] not to take the fight.
Seagal can save the advice for a rainy day. From the looks of things, St-Pierre still isn’t interested in moving up in weight to challenge Silva, and the often-talked-about superfight is becoming more and more unlikely.
Regardless, you would be hard pressed to convince the masses that St-Pierre isn’t a great martial artist.
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