Midnight Mania! GSP: It’s Impossible To Be GOAT

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Khabib Nurmagomedov retiring unexpectedly on the heels of an absurdly dominant victory has heated up the greatest of all-time (GOAT) debate to unprecedented levels. Khabib surpassed Jon Jones on the official pound-for-pound rankings, prompting the former Light Heavyweight champion to declare the whole thing “No.1 Bullsh*t!”

Former Welterweight and Middleweight kingpin, Georges St. Pierre, is a common name to bring up when discussing the best to ever compete inside the Octagon. “GSP” is also among the classiest in the business, so it’s no surprise that “Rush” has his own thoughtful answer on what it is to be GOAT (and if such a thing exists).

“There’s many guys that have been the greatest fighter of all-time,” St-Pierre said in an interview with ESPN. “It’s an impossible thing to be, the greatest fighter of all-time. We all have moments that we shine, that we share that greatest of all-time. Khabib, tonight, what we saw in his performance was the greatest of all-time. Anderson Silva when he knocked out Vitor Belfort was the greatest of all-time. Jon Jones when he beat Daniel Cormier or [Alexander] Gustafsson also, was the greatest of all-time. [Israel] Adesanya, when he beat Paulo Costa last time, it was the greatest of all-time. Everybody, B.J. Penn had his moment when he beat Matt Hughes, everybody has their own moment, their lights, their moment that they shine, but like everything in life everything has a beginning and everything has an end.

“We all have our window of being the greatest of all-time. Everybody that has a flawless performance has that title, greatest of all-time, but it’s just a fugazi. It’s something that appears and will disappear in a second. When your performance is over, it disappears, because that moment will never happen again. The universe has changed and it’s just a fugazi. I don’t believe in this debate. It’s a silly way to look at things in a way. There’s many guys that can claim to be the greatest of all-time and for sure Khabib is one of them, 100 percent, especially after what he had done tonight.”

In past interviews, St. Pierre has also referred to Nurmagomedov and Adesanya as “perfect,” which fits well with this line of thinking — it’s a tier of excellent rather than a single defining trait.

Regardless of all the GOAT talk, “GSP” appears the only possible foe that could draw Nurmagomedov from retirement, but even then, the situation seems settled for both men.

Insomnia

Gegard Mousasi has the best delivery for unintentional hilarity.

Josh Thomson throws some serious shade at Jon Jones. Yeesh!

Just a few months before the Reebok deal ends, they finally deliver on some personalized camo shorts for Bryce Mitchell!

Not a lot of people watched the UFC 254 prelims (likely due to the early start), but those folks missed out!

Bellator released a pretty sizeable portion of their roster.

Josh Emmett works some body shots on his surgically repaired knee:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Alex Volkanovski proving that while weight matters, skill is pretty important in the fight game.

Sakabonov was too tired to control his opponent’s posture, and things got ugly.

Kurmashev gets his left leg to the outside before pulling guard with the guillotine — IMPORTANT!

Random Land

The future is now, old man.

Midnight Music: Tonight, I listened to Benny The Butcher’s recent release Burden Of Proof, his second full length LP. It’s bigger and more star-studded than his 2019 EP The Plugs I Met — which I really loved and still prefer — but his brand of coke rap remains pretty premium.

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.