Georges St-Pierre reveals what his strategy would have been vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Georges St-Pierre vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov is the super fight we never got.
Both fighters are adamant on staying retired which makes a fight highly unlikely. But that doesn’t mean former two-division UFC champion St-Pierre hasn’t envisioned how a fight with undefeated former lightweight champion Nurmagomedov would have gone.
St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) broke down Nurmagomedov’s biggest strengths, and broke down how their approaches differ.
“Khabib has got a very good overhand right,” St-Pierre said the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast. “He’s very good at measuring distance and creating a dilemma in the mind of his opponent between a takedown and an overhand right. He’s at his most dangerous when he puts you with your back against the fence because he’s a master at chain wrestling.
“My style is different. My style is more in the middle. I’m very good at using fakes and creating destruction to get in your legs. I’m more the dynamic guy. I call it proactive and reactive takedown from the center, but Khabib is better when he’s got his opponent’s back against the fence.”
As for how St-Pierre would have approached fellow UFC Hall of Famer Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC), the longtime welterweight champion says he would have been offensive with his wrestling, too.
“My strategy if I would have gone against Khabib would be to keep the fight as most as I can in the middle and not be afraid to take him down,” St-Pierre continued. “I would have maybe been the first guy that he fought or one of the only guys that would have tried to take him down, and I’ve put down everybody that I’ve fought.”
St-Pierre never looked at Nurmagomedov as a matchup he’d win 10/10 times, but is confident he did have the skills to hand him his first-career loss.
“I can say whatever I want but I think Khabib could have beat me,” St-Pierre said. “I’m not saying I would have beat Khabib all the time. I was confident enough to take that fight that I was thinking if I take that fight, I’m going to beat him that day, at that particular place.
“That doesn’t mean I’ll beat him all the time, but I was confident. “But, maybe I’m wrong. I think I would have beat him because in a way if he would have put pressure on me, I would have put him down. I would have been confident to try to go for it.”