Former two-weight world champion, Georges ‘Rush’ St-Pierre is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, and to another group – he’ll be top of their Greatest Of All Time list, such as the nature of this type of opinion-based debate.
St-Pierre is a former middleweight and welterweight world champion, and along with the likes of Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Fedor Emelianenko, and now recent undisputed lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov to name a few – is always close to any such discussion within the mixed martial arts community.
With Dagestan native, Khabib’s second-round triangle win over Justin Gaethje to unify the lightweight crowns at UFC 254 this past weekend, and his subsequent decision to hang up his gloves from the sport, many have placed the undefeated 29-0 force at the very top of their respective G.O.A.T. piles.
It’s an almost endless discussion, with varying opinions – with the above-mentioned St-Pierre explaining how he believes the debate is just a “fugazi“, failing to nail down any one fighter as the sole greatest mixed martial artist of all time.
“There’s been many guys that have been the greatest fighter of all-time,” St-Pierre told in a recent interview with ESPN. “It’s an impossible thing to be, the greatest fighter of all time. We all have moments that we shine, that we share that greatest of all-time. Khabib, (Nurmagomedov) tonight [Saturday], what we saw in his performance was the greatest of all-time. Anderson Silva when he knocked out Vitor Belfort was the greatest of all-time. Jon Jones when he beat Daniel Cormier or (Alexander) Gustafsson) also, was the greatest of all-time. (Israel) Adesanya, when he beat Paulo Costa last time, it was the greatest of all-time. Everybody, B.J. Penn had his moment when he beat Matt Hughes, everybody has their own moment, their lights, their moment that they shine, but like everything in life everything has a beginning and everything has an end.“
“We all have our window of being the greatest of all-time. Everybody that has a flawless performance has that title, greatest of all time, but it’s just a fugazi. It’s something that appears and will disappear in a second. When your performance is over, it disappears, bacause that moment will never happen again. The universe has changed and it’s just a fugazi. I don’t believe in this debate. It’s a silly way to look at things in a way. There’s many guys that can claim to be the greatest of all-time and for sure Khabib is one of them, one-hundred percent, especially after what he had done tonight.” (H/T MMA Fighting)
St-Pierre himself has been continuously linked with a ‘superfight’ opposite, Khabib possibly for the latter’s thirtieth fight, but with his retirement last weekend, the kibosh has been firmly placed on that potential pairing.
The 39-year-old Québec native last featured in the Octagon at UFC 217 in November of 2017, snapping a four-year hiatus with a stunning third-round rear-naked choke win over then middleweight best, Michael Bisping.
Forced to vacate the 185-pound crown following a particularly debilitating case of ulcerative colitis soon after, St-Pierre also seen a proposed pairing with then and now number-one contender Robert ‘The Reaper’ Whittaker fail to come to fruition also.