This MMA ‘GOAT’ lays out the perfect strategy to solve the Khabib Nurmagomedov puzzle in the Octagon

MMA GOAT George St-Pierre talks about the perfect strategy to defeat the undefeated fighter Khabib in a potential MMA fight.Nurmagomedov

<strong>This MMA ‘GOAT’ lays out the perfect strategy to solve the Khabib Nurmagomedov puzzle in the Octagon</strong>

Georges St. Pierre - Khabib Nurmagomedov (Image Courtesy - Sports Illustrated)

Former middleweight and welterweight champion and one of the GOATs of MMA, George St-Pierre, has laid out the perfect strategy to solve the undefeated puzzle that is Khabib Nurmagomedov. In the past, rumours circulated about a potential fight between GSP and Khabib, but nothing ever materialised even as GSP announced his retirement in 2019. Khabib retired a year later, in 2020, after defeating Justin Gaethje.

GSP reminds us that Khabib’s chain wrestling works very well against the fence, so his strategy is to take control of the centre of the Octagon and never take a step back. As we have seen, Khabib wins every fight easily once he gets his opponents to the cage to implement his chain wrestling strategy. It was evident in the Dustin Poirier fight, where Khabib kept pushing Dustin towards the cage and implemented his game plan. Hence, it makes a lot of sense when GSP asserts the need to take control over the centre of Octagon when fighting Khabib.

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GSP’s strategy for fighting Khabib was somewhat implemented by Alexander Volkanovski during his fight against Islam Makhachev. Volkanovski took the centre of the Octagon and tried to establish control rather than get pushed into the cage. This way, Volkanovski was able to counter the wrestling threat of Islam Makhachev and “win the fight”, according to many people.

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GSP last fought Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight championship in 2017, defeating ‘The Count’ to win the title. Unfortunately, that was the last time GSP fought in MMA. GSP can be seen going on various podcasts during his retirement days.

Related: “His tips are very important,” Khabib Nurmagomedov’s absence ‘100 percent’ affected Islam Makhachev

Georges St-Pierre on taking a different approach in MMA career if he could time travel

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(Image Courtesy – Toronto Star)

Looking back at his period of transformation from welterweight to middleweight, and given a chance to make amends, GSP says he would advise his younger self to stay at his natural weight. GSP reflected on his experience in an interview with MMA Fighting.

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GSP said, “If I would have to do it again, if I could come back and tell a younger Georges before he tried to put on weight, I would’ve told him to just stay the way [you were] at your natural weight, because you’re not going to have any health issues and you will perform even probably better. But certain guys have different abilities.”

Inevitably, ‘MMA GOATs’ will eventually move up a weight class to continue their journey. Anderson Silva used to fight in Light Heavyweight, GSP fought in Middleweight, and Demetrius Johnson moved up a weight class when he joined ONE FC. All of them had success, and it remains to be seen if Jon Jones can replicate the success.

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