Kamaru Usman doesn’t buy the idea of an MMA GOAT.
The former welterweight champion, who made five straight title defenses, is often mentioned alongside Georges St-Pierre in the division’s GOAT debate. On his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo, Usman said the debate itself doesn’t hold up.
There’s no greatest of all time. There’s greatest of your time. That’s what that is: Greatest of your time, not greatest of all time because they’re different skill sets.
This generation is good at one skill, this generation is good at two skills, this generation is good at mixing it up. Now you’ve got little ninjas that are 15, 16, 17 years old doing spinning triple back kicks, flips, and all of this stuff.
Usman still believes he would have beaten St-Pierre.
I am a humongous fan of Georges St-Pierre, and I think Georges St-Pierre is great. I think in his time he was the greatest. And me being the competitor that I am, that I was, I think in my time I was good enough to beat him. But that is my opinion. That’s not saying that’s exactly what would have happened.
I’m sure he felt, because he was a dog, he felt he could have definitely beat everybody.
The discussion started with Petr Yan, who retained the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333 and has been called the division’s GOAT by some. Cejudo isn’t ready to put Yan in that conversation yet, since he has only one title defense.
