On Saturday evening at UFC 217, Georges St-Pierre returned to the UFC in spectacular fashion, becoming only the fourth man to win belts in two different weight classes in the UFC. St-Pierre had not fought in four years and was moving up 15 pounds from his natural weight class and early on, he did appear to struggle with UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping before sinking in a fight-ending rear-naked choked in the third round. It was a remarkable performance and one that has everyone talking about what it means for St-Pierre’s legacy to return to the UFC and return to form in such a magnificent way.
Recently on his Beyond the Fight series, former UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen talked about St-Pierre’s struggles with coming back and how the fact the welterweight GOAT could look worse than ever and still win a UFC title is proof positive that St-Pierre never stopped being the best.
“People said, Georges St-Pierre with four years off, he’s not gonna be as fast as he was. Well, he wasn’t. People said he wouldn’t be big enough to just come in underneath a 185-pound Michael Bisping and just take him down like he did everyone else. Well, he couldn’t. He struggled there. People said his timing was gonna be a little bit off, he’d second guess himself after this long layoff. He did. It was the worst Georges St-Pierre I’ve ever seen, but what the world found out is Georges St-Pierre’s skills as a mixed martial artist, there’s a big gap between St-Pierre and the rest of the field. . .
“Yeah it was a rusty Georges St-Pierre, maybe a little bit slower. I thought maybe his conditioning wasn’t quite what we used to see. He’s still the best in the world.”
St-Pierre’s title claiming victory over Bisping reignited conversations about the who is the greatest fighter ever and once again thrust his name back into the debate that has recently been dominated by Demetrious Johnson. Johnson has built his case for GOAT status on the back of an unprecedented run of dominance over his division, setting the UFC title defense record with 11 (and counting), but Sonnen says St-Pierre’s case is more compelling because of his own level of dominance spanning a much wider space of time.
“Do not ever go into a conversation about who the greatest fighter of all time is and not come out of that saying Georges St-Pierre. . .
“It’s very hard to deny reality. It’s very hard to deny what we’re seeing. It’s very hard to deny a two time world champion in two different divisions that spans back to 2001 and has one loss. One loss since 2001. Beat all of the guys in the previous generation. Beat all of the guys of his generation. Beat all of the guys in the next generation, and left. He comes back four years later, changes weight classes and wins it again. I don’t know what more a guy needs to do. Georges St-Pierre is the greatest fighter to have ever done it.”
St-Pierre has a number of possible fights available to him for his next bout with interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and current welterweight champion Tyron Woodley both lobbying for the opportunity but nothing has been made official yet.
