Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre believes he would have beaten one of the greatest UFC lightweight champions of all time.
On Thursday, St-Pierre appeared on the Pound 4 Pound podcast and confidently said he would have won in a potential fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov if the two had fought in their primes.
“I was confident enough to take that [Khabib] fight that I was thinking that if I take that fight I’m gonna beat him that day.
“I think I would’ve beat him because… if he would’ve come to put pressure I would have put him down.”
GSP explained why he felt he would have won vs Khabib.
“I think most guys that fought Khabib were afraid of Khabib’s takedowns, so they were fighting on their heels and they were getting backed up to the wall,” “Three guys that fought Khabib did very well: Gleison Tibau, very, very close fight, if you watch that fight it’s very, very close; Michael Johnson was my training partner…
“If you watch the early minute of the fight, he’s doing a fantastic job until he lost his confidence because Michael Johnson is incredibly gifted, very, very talented, but when things start not going his way, the floodgate opens. I think that’s one of the mistakes he did and if he would have started the second round as good as he did in the first he would have had a better performance.”
GSP believes he would have beaten Khabib had they fought around 2020:
“I was confident enough to take that [Khabib] fight that I was thinking that if I take that fight I’m gonna beat him that day.
I think I would’ve beat him because… if he would’ve come to put pressure I would… pic.twitter.com/LHYdTplbAx
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 28, 2024
Nurmagomedov saw GSP’s comments and issued a classy response.
“I learn from this guy a lot. Even hear he talk about me is so interesting. GSP all day ✊”
