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Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman believes he had the skills to defeat Canadian legend Georges St-Pierre during their respective prime years, insisting that comparisons between fighters from different generations should not determine who is the greatest of all time.
Usman made the remarks during an episode of his Pound 4 Pound podcast with fellow former UFC champion Henry Cejudo, where they discussed the longstanding debate over the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history.
The Nigerian Nightmare argued that fighters should be judged by their achievements and abilities within their respective eras rather than through comparisons across generations.
“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 the sport continued to evolve, with successive generations developing different techniques and approaches to mixed martial arts.
“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.
Despite his admiration for St-Pierre, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest welterweights in UFC history, Usman maintained that he would have backed himself to defeat the Canadian if they had competed during the same era.
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“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, given his competitive mentality, would likely have held a similar belief about his own chances against fighters from other generations.
“I am sure he felt, because he was a dog, he felt he could have definitely beaten everybody,” Usman said.
The discussion was also centred on Petr Yan, who retained the bantamweight championship against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333 and has been described by some as the greatest fighter in the division’s history.
However, Cejudo was reluctant to include Yan in the GOAT conversation, arguing that one successful title defence was not enough to justify such recognition.
Usman, popularly known as the Nigerian Nightmare, won the UFC welterweight title after defeating Tyron Woodley in March 2019.
He went on to record five consecutive title defences before losing the championship to Leon Edwards in August 2022.
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