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Khabib Nurmagomedov Responds to Georges St-Pierre Bragging That He Could “Have Put Him Down” in a Fight

Published 03/28/2024, 10:27 PM EDT

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Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov are fighters who could light up a whole stadium all by themselves. Now imagine what would happen if they fought each other. While it is only our greatest misfortune that both of them are retired, it is still amazing to see them interact.

‘GSP’ recently came down to the Pound4Pound podcast and was asked about a bunch of things regarding his career. One of the things he spoke about was the fighting style difference between him and Nurmagomedov. Now, ‘The Eagle’ seems to have seen the interview. Here’s what he had to say about it all.

Khabib Nurmagomdeov is the number 1 ‘GSP’ fan

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Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the best fighters to ever grace the lightweight division. Many would even have his name on their lists of the greatest of all time. While Georges St-Pierre didn’t list him down as one of his GOATs, he still has respect for ‘The Eagle’.

However, he also has reasons to believe he would have won a fight against him. “… I think that I would have maybe been the first guy that he fought or one of the only guys that would have tried to put him down, and I’ve put down everybody that I’ve fought,” he said on the podcast prompting a response from Khabib Nurmagomedov.

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“I learn from this guy a lot. Even hear he talk about me is so interesting ))) GSP all day,” Nurmagomedov tweeted recently. Clearly, there is much love and respect between the two retired fighters who are both known for their amazing wrestling and grappling skills.

Saint-Pierre and Nurmagomedov are both legends in their own rights but both of them retired for their own reasons. While ‘The Eagle’ retired a bit young with an unbeaten record of 29-0, ‘GSP’ stepped away from the cage with his record shining with two belts at 26-2. Here’s why they did it.

Why did ‘GSP’ and Nurmagomedov retire?

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Khabib Nurmagomedov very famously retired after defeating Justin Gaethje in a fight back at UFC 254. ‘The Eagle’ managed to submit Gaethje in the second round and then, he took his gloves off announcing that it was his last fight and he couldn’t continue after the passing of his father.

On the other hand, Georges Saint-Pierre retired once he started facing the pressure of being one of the best fighters out there. He mentioned that he was going into a “depression” and it felt like no one would understand him. Moreover, he also felt vulnerable because he was fighting against performance enhancing drugs and felt like he was at a disadvantage in the cage.

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Would you have done the same in his position? Let us know in the comments what you feel about the legend’s retirement from the cage.

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Written by:

Prit Chauhan

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Prit Chauhan is a UFC writer at EssentiallySports. His portfolio shows him as the go-to event coverage writer at ES and his work on UFC 297 is proof of the same. As an experienced writer and a longtime MMA fan, Prit’s strong suit lies in telling the relatively unknown and more personal stories of fights and fighters.
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Edited by:

Joyita Das