Last week, Tyron Woodley’s coach (and former UFC veteran) Din Thomas told Luke Thomas on The MMA Hour that he thinks ‘T-Wood’ will be considered the greatest welterweight of all-time with a couple more title defenses under his belt.
That title currently belongs to former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre, who defended his belt nine times against the creme de la creme of the welterweight division.
Speaking to Nicole Bosco of FanSided in a recent interview, ‘Rush’ — as humble as ever — didn’t get defensive about coach Thomas’ claim but pointed out that there are other fighters (such as former 170-pound champ Matt Hughes) in the running for that prized top spot in the welterweight rankings.
“The greatest is hard to say, there is also another guy named Matt Hughes who at one point was one of the greatest,” St-Pierre said. “There are some fighters, I’m not saying Tyron Woodley is one of these guys he is an incredible fighter, but there are guys in this sport sometimes they become champion and they have an easier time than others in terms of opponent, in terms of challenges. Tyron had to go through great fighters like Stephen Thompson and his last performance was outstanding against Darren Till. There was a lot of hype on Darren Till because he was undefeated. Tyron just shut him down incredibly good. Tyron is in a good way in terms of legacy and in terms of being the greatest.”
Woodley wanted to settle the debate by challenging St-Pierre to a title fight, but GSP has other opponents in mind at this late stage of his career. After a four-year hiatus, St-Pierre returned to the Octagon last year at UFC 217. The 37-year-old beat then-middleweight champ Michael Bisping to become the promotion’s first ever welterweight and middleweight titleholder.
“In terms of coming back to fighting, you have to realize I have a lot more to lose than to win. Tyron Woodley wants to fight me because he has a lot more to win than to lose because if he beats me in terms of legacy, in terms of popularity, he has a lot more to win,” St-Pierre explained. “It’s not that I’m scared, actually, I’m always scared when I go fight, I’m scared of everybody but being scared is irrelevant because I’m going to walk the walk if I have to do it. I have to choose carefully what is my next move. For at this point I am with cementing my legacy it is not a straight line. I have to check what can I gain, what can I lose. That is why when I fought Michael Bisping it was a win/win situation from both sides. If I were to lose I lose but if I win, I win big so it was good. Fighting Tyron Woodley right now, now that he won his last fight it elevates his stock a little bit more but it’s still not a complete win/win situation for me.”
St-Pierre was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after last year’s championship win over Michael Bisping, which forced the Canadian to relinquish the middleweight title and put his MMA career temporarily on hold.
The former champ said he will never move up to middleweight again and is not willing to sacrifice his own health for the sake of a world title.
“For me, it was a bad experience, I won my fight, everything was great, the result was ok, however, I compromised what is the most important thing for me which is my health,” St-Pierre said. “I never want to compromise my health ever again. However, now I feel a lot better, I feel great. I’ve done some intermittent fasting with some medication and with some anti-inflammatory to help with the symptoms of my ulcerative colitis.”
Although St-Pierre seems to have his ulcerative colitis in check, the Tristar talent is not ready to return to the Octagon just yet. The MMA legend gave no hint as to when fans can expect to see him back in the UFC.