Usman believes he could defeat UFC legends

Kamaru Usman is a former UFC welterweight champion. He claims he would have beaten many great fighters, including Georges St-Pierre. Usman also argues that there is no greatest of all time in mixed martial arts.

Usman shared his thoughts on his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo. They talked about the long debate on who is the greatest fighter. Usman said, "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."

He explained that each generation of fighters has its own strengths. He said, "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."

Usman is often compared to St-Pierre in talks about the welterweight GOAT. He believes he could have won a fight against the Canadian. He said, "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 also noted that St-Pierre likely had similar thoughts about himself. He said, "I am sure he felt, because he was a dog, he felt he could have definitely beaten everybody."

The conversation started with Petr Yan, who defended the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 333. Some people have called Yan the GOAT of the division. Cejudo, however, is not ready to put Yan in that category yet since he has only defended his title once.

Usman, known as the Nigerian Nightmare, won the welterweight title by beating Tyron Woodley in March 2019. He made five successful title defenses before Leon Edwards defeated him in August 2022.