Not many fighters can challenge Jon Jones as the greatest MMA fighter of all time. But one fighter who can put up an argument against that is Georges St-Pierre. He is widely regarded as the greatest welterweight fighter, who has wins over Nick Diaz, Michael Bisping, Josh Koscheck, and Carlos Condit. In his last-ever MMA fight, GSP became a two-division UFC champion at UFC 217 when he submitted Bisping via a rear-naked choke.
However, if UFC President Dana White is to be believed, GSP is not the welterweight GOAT! During a recent appearance on ‘Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry’, Dana labeled Kamaru Usman as the best 170lbs fighter of all time! While he did not address Georges St-Pierre directly, White added his reason for putting “The Nigerian Nightmare” on the top of his welterweight GOAT list.
White said, “When you become a f*cking world champion in the UFC, you went through death f*cking row of the baddest motherf*ckers in the sport in your division that you could possibly fight. right? So when you talk about Kamaru Usman, who went through them f*cking twice. You might not like Kamaru, you might not like whatever you don’t like about him, but you can not f*cking deny that he’s the greatest welterweight of all time!”
Dana White’s comments were in reference to boxers not fighting the best fighters in their respective divisions enough. Hence, he used Usman as an example to illustrate that a UFC champion has to fight the best and the most deserving contenders in order to become the champ and maintain that status. But, it is interesting that the 54-year-old took Kamaru Usman’s name as the GOAT, not GSP. Is he right to do it? Let’s find out.
Is Dana White right to pick Kamaru Usman over Georges St-Pierre?
This is not the first time when Dana White has picked Kamaru Usman over the French-Canadian fighter. So the question is, who has a better career between Georges St-Pierre and Usman? The Nigerian-born fighter has an MMA record of 20-4. He won the 170lbs championship against Tyron Woodley at UFC 235. The 36-year-old had 5 title defenses with two bouts against Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington each and the other one against Gilbert Burns.
However, after losing the title against Leon Edwards at UFC 278, Usman has been on a three-fight losing streak with the last loss coming against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294. Kamaru has had 7 title fights in his career whereas GSP has had 14 title bouts before walking away from the sport. In his championship 14 bouts, St-Pierre has won 13. But it is important to mention that one of those wins came against Matt Hughes at UFC 79 for the interim welterweight belt.
As for his undisputed title defenses, GSP still holds the record for 9 welterweight title defenses, which is much higher than Usman’s 5. On top of that, his wins have come against legends like Johny Hendricks, Jake Shields, B.J. Penn, and more. GSP is also a former two-division champion in the UFC, which Usman is yet to accomplish. So GSP undoubtedly has a better resume between him and Usman.
However, Usman has not walked away from fighting and vacated the belt after winning the title and he has always moved the division along, which was not the case during Georges St-Pierre’s reign. He vacated the belt twice after winning at UFC 167 and UFC 217 respectively. It caused some tension between him and Dana White. Perhaps that is the reason behind White choosing Usman over GSP.
Other than that, Usman was 15-0 in the UFC at one point and he was just one win away from equalling Anderson Silva’s 16-0 record in the company. Hence, there is also a valid reason for Usman to be in the welterweight GOAT discussion. But, what are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments below.