Georges St-Pierre is the Greatest of All Time – Chael Sonnen

Having made history with his stunning victory over UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping on Saturday night, Georges St-Pierre is the hottest name in MMA

Having recently refused to confirm his intentions for the next move in his career, speculation persists in linking GSP with a number of potential opponents.

Many observers feel that the 36-year old cemented himself as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time with his performance over Bisping, yet “Rush” isn’t too keen to bring that up just yet:

“There is no such thing as the greatest of all time or the best fighter,” St-Pierre said (transcribed by Damon Martin for MMA Weekly). “Listen, there’s no such thing. We all compete under different environments, we all have different problems. Even though you’re the best, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to lose. It doesn’t mean that nobody is going to beat you.

“Example, I fought Michael Bisping Saturday at Madison Square Garden — at that particular night, at that particular moment, at that particular place, I beat Michael Bisping Saturday night. It doesn’t mean that if I fight him tomorrow, that he’s not going to beat me. It’s the same thing in other sports like hockey or baseball or football. The best team sometimes cannot always win. The team that wins is the team that plays the best the night of the game. It’s the same in fighting. People think fighting is different. ‘Oh, this guy’s stronger than this guy, so he’s always going to win.’ That’s not true. Maybe one day I’m going to make a mistake and I’m going to lose to a guy who’s not as good as me, but maybe nine times out of 10 I will beat him.”

St-Pierre has always been renowned for his immense athleticism and strength. As a result, many were keen to see how he would fare against his ‘larger’ opponent on Saturday night. One observer who wasn’t entirely blown away was former UFC middleweight contender, Chael Sonnen:

“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.”

Despite his comments, Sonnen was keen to insist that St-Pierre is the greatest of all time. In fact, “The American Gangster” claims that no one should have the ‘G.O.A.T discussion’ without concluding that the Canadian holds that particular title:

“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.”

Always humble, St-Pierre disagrees. In fact, the Tri-Star Gym pupil believes that there is simply no way of measuring who the greatest is or was as ‘everybody can beat everybody’ in the sport:

“There’s no such thing as the greatest of all time. It doesn’t exist. It’s an illusion,” StPierre said. “We can speculate about it in terms of achievement. Because that’s the way I think now because of the experience that I gained over the time.

When I was starting fighting, I wanted to be the strongest man in the world. But there is no such thing as being the strongest man in the world. Everybody can beat everybody on any given day, at any given time. There’s no such thing as being the strongest man in the world. You can be the best one day, but tomorrow you’re not. That’s the truth about the sport.”

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