Georges St-Pierre argues “you can’t be the best guy on the planet” in MMA

Former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time. In fact, at the height of his dominance, he was viewed by many fans as the best fighter on earth.

Speaking with ESPN recently, however, St-Pierre refuted the notion that any fighter can truly call themselves the best fighter alive. By his estimation, even the most dominant fighter can be beaten by somebody — though many are lucky enough to avoid crossing paths with that person.

“It’s just a matter of timing,” St-Pierre said of his dominance in MMA (transcript via MMA Junkie). “Everybody can beat anybody on any given day. There are guys that have your number – you don’t know why. (But) they have your number. In the fight game, it’s not a straight line.

“When I was young, I wanted to be the best of all time,” St-Pierre added. “But when I got older and had more experience, I realized it’s just a fugazi – it doesn’t exist. You can’t be the best guy on the planet. There’s always one guy that will beat you. … There’s guys better than you who maybe are not fighting. That’s how the world works. There will always be one guy that will have your number, and he will beat you. There’s no [best] guy.”

Georges St-Pierre hasn’t fought since 2017, when he returned from a lengthy hiatus to swipe the UFC middleweight belt from Michael Bisping. This victory made St-Pierre, the long-time welterweight champ, one of just a few fighters in UFC history to win belts in two divisions.

Since then, there’s been ample discussion about St-Pierre potentially returning to the cage. He’s most commonly mentioned as a potential opponent for UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. That being said, the Canadian seems to be happy in his retirement, and at 38 years old, it seems unlikely he dusts off his gloves again.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/15/2020.