Georges St-Pierre has given his perspective on what it would take to beat Islam Makhachev.
“I think right now he’s probably, on paper, the best fighter. Probably pound for pound. I would say my best pound-for-pound (fighters) would be Islam Makhachev, Ilia Topuria, Merab Dvalishvili, and Khamzat Chimaev. I think that these four guys are right there.
“To beat Islam Makhachev, it doesn’t mean…it’s not because you’re the best that you’re not going to lose," GSP said this week during an appearance on The Break Talk. "It’s not the best fighter that wins the fight. It’s not the best team that wins the game. It’s the team that plays the best the night of the game. Same thing in fighting. People, for some reason, believe that fighting is different. Always the strongest man that wins. Not true. If you zig when you should have zagged, you make a mistake. Boom. You’re cut.”
Perhaps solidifying GSP’s point, the sole defeat on Makhachev’s resume came when he fought Adriano Martins over a decade ago. A simple mistake cost the future champion dearly and he was knocked out in the opening round, something St-Pierre could see happening again in the future.
“Yeah, it could happen again.” The former welterweight champion said. “I believe if you would fight that guy ten times out of ten times, he would probably beat him nine times, but that one time he got clipped, and that can happen.
“To beat Islam Makhachev, he’s very skilled. I think you would need a guy that can match his wrestling in a way that, either to counter his takedown or, if he gets put down, manages to scramble back up and create distance, and also fight him standing up. I think you need a guy that puts pressure on him with a lot of fakes and feints.”
St-Pierre recalls one particular opponent who gave Makhachev a difficult time from a stylistic point of view early in his career.
“There’s a guy that gives him a lot of trouble. He was from France. He was one of my training partners. If you go and check that fight online, his name was Mansour Barnaoui. He was one of my best training partners when I was getting ready for fights, and he gave him a lot of trouble. It was in America during his early career, but if you look at this fight, it could have gone the other way as well. It went to decision, and the way Mansour Barnaoui fought Makhachev, that’s the way you need to fight.
“A lot of pressure. Create a lot of scrambles. Pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. You got to catch them off guard. Flying knees, stuff like that. Like doing stuff like that is crazy.”
