Tyron Woodley doesn’t feel he needs to beat GSP to become greatest welterweight ever

Former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre is pretty much the consensus best welterweight ever. Yet current champion Tyron Woodley is most definitely  closing in on that lofty title himself.

In the eyes of many fans, however, it will be difficult for Tyron Woodley to cement himself as the welterweight GOAT without first defeating Georges St-Pierre. St-Pierre is, after all, still teasing a comeback.

While Woodley was once very interested in a blockbuster title fight with St-Pierre, he no longer considers this a necessary fight.

“I told myself that I had to beat him to be the greatest, but I don’t,” Tyron Woodley said at the UFC 228 post-fight press conference on Saturday, shortly after submitting Darren Till (transcript via MMA Fighting). “This sport is different. These guys are better. They’re more well-rounded, they punch harder, they’re faster. And they’ve been training at a younger age. It’s not the wrestler that just learned how to punch. Everybody can do everything now, so I think the fact that I’ve been able to beat the last specialists in the game [Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson], beat the up-and-coming rising star [Darren Till], beat Robbie Lawler, who’s one of the most vicious fighters we’ve ever seen with two title fights that I think are probably in the top 10 of title fights of all time.”

“It don’t take much more for me to solidify that spot [as the greatest welterweight ever],” Woodley said. “But if [GSP] wants to fight me, of course I’m gonna fight Georges St-Pierre. I just don’t think he has to, I don’t think he has any interest in it and I’m kind of over it at this point.”

Who do you think would come out on top in a fight between Tyron Woodley and Georges St-Pierre? Who do you consider the greatest welterweight ever?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/10/2018.