I would beat UFC greats – Usman

Kamaru Usman. Photo: Geety Images

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has said he would have beaten many of the sport’s greats, including Georges St-Pierre, while insisting that there is no such thing as the greatest of all time in mixed martial arts.

Usman spoke on his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo, where the two discussed the long-running GOAT debate.

“There is no greatest of all time. There is (a) greatest of your time. That is what that is: greatest of your time, not greatest of all time, because they are different skill sets,” Usman said.

He explained that each generation of fighters excels in different areas.

“This generation is good at one skill, this generation is good at two skills, this generation is good at mixing it up. Now you have got little ninjas that are 15, 16, 17 years old doing spinning triple back kicks, flips and all of this stuff,” he said.

Usman, who is often mentioned alongside St-Pierre in the welterweight GOAT conversation, still believes he would have won a fight against the Canadian.

“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 is not saying that is exactly what would have happened,” Usman said.

He added that St-Pierre would have felt the same way about himself.

“I am sure he felt, because he was a dog, he felt he could have definitely beaten everybody,” Usman said.

The discussion began 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 is not ready to place Yan in that conversation yet because he has made only one title defence.

Usman, popularly known as the Nigerian Nightmare, won the welterweight title with victory over Tyron Woodley in March 2019. He went on to make five successive defences before Leon Edwards dethroned him in August 2022.