Kamaru Usman found the one GOAT argument you can’t lose, and I respect the hustle.
MMA Junkie posted it on X on Friday night: Usman says that in his prime, he beats Georges St-Pierre. His supporting evidence would fit inside a fortune cookie. “It’s greatest of your time,” he said, and he built the rest of his pitch around ruling his own division in his own era, then crowned himself the best of that era.
I love this for two reasons. One, a former UFC welterweight champion poking the most sacred bear in welterweight history is the exact kind of chaos I signed up for. Two, the framing is smarter than it looks, even if the conclusion is pure ego.
View post on X
The Unbeatable Hypothetical
Prime versus prime is fantasy booking with better lighting. Nobody can check the answer. There’s no tape, no scorecard, no Joe Rogan screaming at cageside. Every fighter wins that fight in his own head, which is why every fighter eventually brings it up.
Usman knows that, so he did something clever. He didn’t try to win a fight that never happened. He moved the debate to ground he can actually stand on, which is how thoroughly you owned the guys in front of you while you were there.
And that yardstick is fair. It’s the only honest way to compare fighters from different years, because the sport itself changes underneath them. Training changes. Camps change. The guys standing across the cage change.
Here’s where he trips, though. If “greatest of your time” is the standard, it produces a tie. GSP was the guy of his window. Usman says he was the guy of his. By Usman’s own logic, the head-to-head is unanswerable, and claiming the W anyway is the part that’s pure fighter brain.
I’m fine with that. I’ll take a guy who says the outrageous thing out loud over a guy who gives me a polite answer about mutual respect every single time.
View post on X
Why Now
Look at the calendar. MMA writer Dovy posted a list on X this week that read like the guest list for a very expensive reunion: Conor McGregor, 38. Alex Pereira, 39. Usman, 39. Justin Gaethje, 37. Israel Adesanya, 37. Alexander Volkanovski, 38. Spinnin Backfist replied with the cold shower: “But you remember Joshua Van is 24.”
That’s the whole mood of 2026. A generation of stars is staring down the back nine, and when you’re 39, legacy talk is where you have the most leverage. Usman can’t fight his prime self into existence. He can absolutely argue about it on a microphone, and he’s good at it.
GSP Is Busy, Thanks
Meanwhile, the man being challenged spent the week doing GSP things. He had magician Chris Ramsay on his podcast, which MMA Fighting’s Morning Report tagged as “real GOAT behavior” and also weird, and honestly both are correct. The same report noted that PFL prospect Patrick Habirora has been training with St-Pierre. Habirora is 9-0 and meets Omar El Dafrawy (16-6) at PFL Dubai on Nov. 14.
GSP doesn’t need to answer Usman. He’s out here doing card tricks and coaching undefeated kids. That’s the most St-Pierre response possible, which is no response at all.
Greatness Gets Messy
The timing is funny for another reason. This same week turned into a referendum on what greatness even means, thanks to Volkanovski.
View post on X
After stopping Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333 to keep his featherweight belt, Volk pitched a superfight with lightweight champ Gaethje where both guys retire afterward. Chael Sonnen called it “one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard” on his YouTube channel and labeled the move “a cop out,” pointing out that Volk already lost twice to Islam Makhachev without vacating at 145. Volkanovski later told Ariel Helwani he’d vacate and fight Arman Tsarukyan for the title instead.
Then MMA Fighting’s Morning Report dropped a line that should make every GSP purist squirm. The writer argued that a Volk win and instant retirement wouldn’t make him the best lightweight on Earth, and compared it to GSP, who the writer said wasn’t the best middleweight either.
That’s the quiet gift to Usman’s argument. Under a rule-your-own-division standard, extra belts collected on the way out the door don’t add much. GSP has that footnote. Usman’s pitch skips the trinkets entirely and stakes everything on one weight class and one era. As GOAT pitches go, it’s the cleanest one on the table this week, even if the head-to-head claim is something he made up.
So here’s my ruling. Usman wins the framing. He loses the hypothetical, because by his own rules nobody can win it. And GSP wins the week, because while Usman was arguing with a ghost, St-Pierre was hanging out with a magician and sharpening a 9-0 fighter for Dubai on Nov. 14.
