GSP (26-2) kan inte låta bli att fundera på sina egna chanser mot den nya generationens mästare.
GSP analyserar hypotetiska möten mot dagens elit
Georges St-Pierre medverkade nyligen på en Q&A i samband med UFC Paris. Ett fan frågade hur han tror sig ha stått mot dagens fighter. Mer specifikt var det Kamaru Usman (20-2), nykrönte mästaren Leon Edwards (20-3, 1 NC) och Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0) frågan gällde.
It’s hard because they all have great qualities. They’re all very different.
GSP hyllade Leon Edwards för sin intelligens. Han misstänkte att deras match skulle vara den mest taktiska och utspela sig likt ett parti schack.
Leon would have given me a lot of trouble because he’s very smart. It would have been like a chess game. It would have been a hard puzzle to solve because it would be a very technical fight.
Kamaru Usman attribuerade han en råstyrka svår att matcha.
Kamaru is very physical, he’s very athletic, he’s a beast. He’s strong, he hits very hard, he’s a great wrestler. It would be very tough physically, very demanding.
Slutligen till det som kunde ha varit. Ett möte mellan GSP och Khabib var länge den stora snackisen. Khabib uttryckte gång på gång sin önskan att få möta GSP i buren.
Khabib is a legend in terms of his knowledge, his experience. He’s got so many tools in his bag. It would be a fight that I wouldn’t know how it would’ve turned out. I don’t know. It’s not the best fighter that wins the fight, it’s the fighter that fights the best the night of the fight, so to beat them I would have needed to be the best man of the night of the fight and be very, very well prepared.
Ger sin åsikt om welterviktens maktskifte
GSP, som under karriären etablerade sin närvaro i weltervikten, blev frågad om Edwards skrällseger mot Usman. Imponerad av ”Rocky” och dennes fight IQ pratade han om hur ett returmöte skulle se ut.
He is also so good at neutralizing his opponent’s strengths. He’s very good at shutting down his opponent’s strengths and bringing the fight where he is comfortable, to make his opponent fight outside of his comfort zone, and I think that’s why Leon Edwards is so good.
It would be boring if you always know who would win. … That night, Kamaru was winning the fight, but he made a crucial mistake that is unforgettable at this level. He zigged when he should have zagged and credit to Leon Edwards, he did a beautiful setup, that was amazing, and he won the world title. Now they’re going to have a rematch hopefully and we’ll see
But things change, you never fight the same fighter twice. You can fight the same name twice, but you never fight the same fighter twice. Every fight leaves a scar. It could be for the best or for the worst and after a loss very often we see fighters, that a loss can affect their confidence, and confidence is very important for a fighter because you can have all the skills in the world but if you don’t have confidence it’s like someone who has a lot of money in his bank account but no way of accessing it. For the magic to happen, you need the skills and the confidence. So we’ll see how mentally strong Kamaru Usman is and if he comes back and wins the title, I think he’ll add up to his legacy even more. It’s going to be a hell of a fight, a hell of a challenge.
