Legendary UFC fighter Georges St.Pierre has been included on ESPN’s list of the ‘100 Greatest Athletes Of 21st Century’.
ESPN are steadily unveiling the list over a number of days, beginning with 100 down to 76, and it’s GSP who takes the No.76 spot.
“Arguably no fighter in UFC history bridged the gap better from the sport’s “older days” to its modern form. Particularly from 2006 to 2013, St-Pierre represented everything mixed martial arts was looking for. He was essentially perfect in those years, winning 14 of 15 bouts, including 12 title fights. At one point, he won 33 consecutive rounds. He was solely responsible for an explosion of fan interest in Canada and was one of the promotion’s biggest stars globally. His style was ahead of its time, known for blending a variety of skills seamlessly together. He is also remembered as one of the most outspoken critics of performance-enhancing drugs during his era. — Brett Okamoto”
As such that puts the former long-time UFC welterweight champion and one-time middleweight champ above the likes of boxing’s Bernard Hopkins (No.77), Baseball’s Bryce Harper (No.79), Basketball’s Chris Paul (No.83), Tennis’ Venus Williams (No.86), American Football’s Aaron Rodgers (No.91), Golf’s Rory McIllroy (No.93) and Soccer’s Ronaldinho (No.94).
ESPN apparently cast their net wide to compile the list, drawing on the opinions of a large panel of experts.
“ESPN.com utilized a panel of experts and ESPN’s renowned Stats & Information Group to rank the top 100 athletes across all sports,” the article says. “More than 75,000 votes were cast by ESPN’s reporters, analysts, producers, editors, and experts around the globe to whittle the initial list of 400 athletes to 100.”
St. Pierre’s inclusion in the list feels like a must as he continues to remain in the conversation whenever a conversation sparks up about who is the G.O.A.T. in MMA, and rightly so with nine successful welterweight title defenses to his name as well as winning the middleweight belt in the final fight of his career before retiring on a 13-fight winning streak.
With the rest of the Top 100 set to be unveiled in the coming days it’ll be interesting to see if other 21st century MMA stars make the list, and whether their inclusion will be seen as justified or not.
The list appears to be compiled based on athletic performance, so if he his numerous transgressions over the years are overlooked then former multiple-time light-heavyweight champion and current heavyweight champ Jon Jones has a strong case.
Long-time middleweight champion Anderson Silva was on fire in his prime, but would his accomplishments eclipse GSP’s on a list like this?
What about another fighter who is frequently in the G.O.A.T conversation these days, Khabib Nurmagomedov, though? He retired as the UFC’s lightweight champion with a flawless 29-0 record at the time, but can someone with only three defenses of the belt count be ranked above GSP’s nine consecutive title defenses? And with females being included alongside males on the countdown does women’s G.O.A.T. Amanda Nunes have a chance at a spot on the list?
Or with such a broad spectrum of so-called experts selecting, will those who transcended the sport to become household names like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey be more likely to spring to mind than others who may have more impressive records and bigger trophy cabinets?
And one final thought – if GSP is only No.76 then does that mean there won’t be any other MMA fighters included on the list?
We’ll find out for sure by the end of the week when the full Top 100 list is unveiled.
