“He’s raising the bar” – GSP shares classy answer when asked if Kamaru Usman is greatest Welterweight ever

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Aniket Rai

Kamaru Usman and GSP are certainly two of the best welterweights UFC has ever seen

Georges St-Pierre is one of the greatest, if not the greatest MMA fighters of all time. But according to some, his legacy as a welterweight champion is under threat.

Kamaru Usman looks unstoppable at 170 as he defended his belt for the third successive time after a win against Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 earlier this year.

And Ariel Helwani of ESPN MMA brought this question up when interviewing GSP earlier this week.

And the Canadian, as ever, had a classy response to it.

“in terms of accomplishments, it’s different. I’ve done stuff that he didn’t do yet. But I gotta tell you the truth, and as painful as it can be for any athlete to admit it; the athletes of today are normally better than the athletes of yesterday. And as good as athletes of today are, the athletes of tomorrow will be better. That’s how it is.”

GSP implies Kamaru Usman is better than him as an athlete

And the UFC Hall of Famer added that it doesn’t matter who the athlete is, the athletes of tomorrow will come up and beat the records of today; but not necessarily because they are ‘better’.

GSP implies that Kamaru Usman could be a better athlete than him.
GSP implies that Kamaru Usman could be a better athlete than him. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

“I don’t care who you are. Even if you are Usain bolt, you beat the world record. In a few years, there’s another guy that will come and beat your record. I don’t think it’s because the guys are better, it’s because the technology is better.”

He implies here that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is better than him as an athlete. It could (or could not) could be true, but it still highly underestimates how good GSP was during his 17-year MMA career.

As Helwani himself said, there is no logical explanation as to why Usman and GSP are being compared yet.

GSP has won 11 title fights against some of the best welterweights ever. Usman, on the other hand, has just 4. And of course, the quality of their opponents differ vastly too.

So that comparison can be saved for the future, but right now, it makes 0 sense.

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