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“He’s a perfect fighter. He’s clean. Great image, great dancer as well, very entertaining.”
Georges St-Pierre was blown away by Israel Adesanya’s flawless victory against Paulo Costa at UFC 253, hailing the reigning UFC middleweight champion the “perfect fighter.”
Speaking to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi in a recent interview (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA), ‘Rush’ explained what makes Adesanya such a greater fighter and entertainer.
“He’s fantastic. I watched his fight the other day. He’s amazing,” St-Pierre said. “He’s a perfect fighter. He’s clean. Great image, great dancer as well, very entertaining. He’s got it all, he’s got the charisma and everything. He’s a good role model, he has his own style in the way that he does stuff that sometimes shocks people in terms of stuff he does after the fight.
“But it’s all about ‘love me, hate me but don’t ignore me.’ He has his own style. He’s very entertaining. We live in the entertainment business and our job is to entertain the audience and he’s doing it very, very well.”
Asked whether he would come out of retirement to face Adesanya, St-Pierre laughed at the question before completely dismissing the idea.
“For me, it’s always better to stay at your weight,” he added. “Your body has an optimal weight for performance.”
St-Pierre, the former welterweight champ, retired in the months following his middleweight title win over Michael Bisping at UFC 217, citing health problems in his move up to 185 pounds.