Morning Report: Firas Zahabi says ‘no doubt about it’ Georges St-Pierre is the greatest fighter of all-time

When Georges St-Pierre announced he would return to MMA after a four-year retirement to pursue the UFC middleweight title last year, he made it clear that coming back was about more than money, it was about securing his legacy. Now his coach thinks he has definitely accomplished that.

Speaking with Fight Hub TV recently, St-Pierre’s head coach Firas Zahabi said there was “no doubt about it,” that GSP had secured his claim to the pound-for-pound greatest ever title and went on to explain why St-Pierre’s claim is better than other MMA luminaries like Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, and Jon Jones.

“He’s No. 1, no doubt about it,” said Zahabi. “Who else could there be? Give me a name.

“Conor [McGregor] hasn’t defended a title. [Fedor] had too many losses. [Anderson] had too many losses and you know what happened. The testing didn’t go well. [Jon] – testing. There’s nobody else! There’s nobody else. I’m not just saying that because I train him. Put me aside, the guy is the greatest martial artist of all-time. That’s it. He did it. Let’s give him his due props. He worked for it, he deserves it. If another name comes along that does more than what he did, I’ll be happy to say that there’s a new best of all time.

“Before the testing, and all the losses happened, I would say he was one of the best of all time. Now I’m telling you he is THE best of all time. That’s just the way it is. After the tests come back the way they did the losses happened the way they did, the hands were dealt the way they were, now the best of all time, today, is GSP. No doubt about it.”

St-Pierre is currently the consensus best welterweight in history, sporting a 25-2 record in the division and having avenged both of his career losses. From 2007 until his retirement in 2013, St-Pierre went undefeated as the welterweight champion, defending his title nine times. He currently holds the record for most title bouts (15) and is tied for the record of most wins in UFC history (20). He is also one of only four men to win belts in two separate weight classes.

Of course, Zahabi left off one important contender for the throne of GOAT – Demetrious Johnson. Johnson is the only flyweight champion the UFC has ever known and has recently begun to crop up in the GOAT conversation more often, especially after he set the record for longest UFC title reign with 11 consecutive defenses. But Zahabi says, when you stack his resume up against GSP’s it comes up a little short.

“Demetrious Johnson is No. 2 in my opinion,” said Zahabi. “Absolutely. The only reason I wouldn’t give it to Demetrious – and I think the world of Demetrious, I can’t say enough good things about him – he didn’t have the hornets nest, the challengers that Georges had. He just didn’t have those legendary guys that went on a win streak, that were unstoppable, and then were stopped by the champ. He didn’t have that. And it’s not his fault. It’s not his fault at all. He took down everybody they put in front of him and he did it in style; however, he never had that guy.

“The division is not that deep. There’s not that many people, per capita, that weigh 125 pounds, that can make that weight class. There’s not that many people in the population. How many of those guys were studs that haven’t lost in 10 years like a Jake Shields, Matt Hughes, so many guys, legends that Georges beat. Also, he didn’t win the championship in a weight class above.”

Johnson’s strength of schedule has been a key sticking point for many in the GOAT argument, since flyweight is a newer division and is perceived to be weaker than many others in the UFC. Still, Johnson’s dominance over the division has been unquestioned, and unlike St-Pierre, Johnson appears to still be in his prime and still keen on fighting regularly. Given that, Zahabi says when all is said and done, “Mighty Mouse” might end up wresting the crown from GSP.

“Demetrious could still do it,” said Zahabi. “He’s got time. It could happen it just hasn’t happened for him yet.”