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The ‘GOAT’ conversation is something that fans across all sports bicker over. MMA is not exempt from that, with fans bickering as to who is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. The likes of Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva, among others, make strong cases for being considered the best to ever do it. 

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All the aforementioned athletes have strengths and weaknesses in their particular records that make them a strong contender for ‘GOAT’ status. 

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However, as the sport grows and new fighters start to pave their way in the UFC, they also start to throw their names in the mix for being called the ‘GOAT’. ‘The Eagle’ and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ are two such fighters. Both will consolidate their position in the conversation if they can continue the work that they’re doing.

Read: Paulo Costa refuses to shift his fight with Robert Whittaker ahead by one week 

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Georges St-Pierre picks an unlikely name for the ‘GOAT’ of mixed martial arts 

On a recent podcast, ‘GSP’ spoke about the evolution of athletes over the years. Not just in the UFC, but other sports as well.

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 “As painful as it is for every athlete’s ego, you have to bow down and say that yes, my time is done. And things won’t get better and won’t continue to get better. Of course, you can not repeat things exactly the same that some people have done.”

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GSP’ continued, “Royce Gracie for me has done stuff that it’s unbelievable. Like the stuff he did is never going to be done again. Because it’s very unique to its time. What he did was never surpassed in my book to me”

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Royce Gracie hails from the highly revered Gracie family. The MMA community credits them with developing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a martial art. 

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He made his UFC debut on UFC 1. At a time where most fighters just brawled senselessly. Gracie surprised everyone by grappling and using his Jiu-Jitsu moves to secure submission victories.

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He won 10 out of his 13 fights in the UFC via submission. He brought a lot of interest towards the Brazilian martial art.

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Fans credit him with the growth and fame of Jiu-Jitsu, not only in the UFC but also across the world. Gracie is a UFC Hall of Famer and what he has done can not be undermined. 

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Kevin Binoy

1,289 Articles

Kevin Binoy is a senior UFC author at EssentiallySports. He earned a Bachelor's degree from Fergusson College and has been covering sports professionally for over two years. Besides working with the MMA desk, Kevin is a core member of the organization's web stories team and is responsible for delivering engaging MMA web stories. He has also written for a soccer website named Dribl. Kevin has covered monumental MMA moments such as Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement at UFC 254 and Conor McGregor's maiden MMA TKO defeat at UFC 257. He was attracted to MMA when he watched Ronda Rousey demolish Cat Zingano in 2015. Following 'Rowdy's departure, he has gravitated towards fighters like Jon Jones and 'The Eagle' Khabib Nurmagomedov. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys the sport of horse riding and also plays soccer regularly.

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