British UFC heavyweight and self-declared future champion Tom Aspinall has some major wins under his belt, including his recent first-round submission win over Alexander Volkov. He remains a huge fan of the fight game despite his impressive professional pedigree, and recently told The MMA Hour that he considers Georges St-Pierre the MMA GOAT.
Aspinall explained, in detail, precisely why.
““Let me just tell you, this morning, the greatest UFC fighter of all-time, GSP, commented on my picture. Oh my goodness. Honestly, I had goosebumps. I couldn’t believe it. GSP, man! Oh my goodness.”
Tom Aspinall Declares GSP MMA GOAT
Other names are frequently thrown around in the MMA GOAT conversation. Khabib Nurmagomedov. Jon Jones. Demetrious Johnson. What makes GSP so special to Aspinall?
“Of course he’s No. 1, who else is it gonna be?
This is what I think: To be the greatest of all time, this is gonna sound like madness, but GSP first of all did it in two weight divisions.
Also, GSP had some bad losses and came back. To me, that is a sign of a real champion. Of course you can be like Khabib, and you can be all the rest of it, and that’s brilliant, but what does he do under the adversity?
We still don’t know because he’s that much better than everybody else. But in my opinion, two weights, that’s the difference. The two weights.”
That probably means Tom Aspinall himself won’t be in the GOAT conversation any time soon, considering the towering 6 ft 5 Englishman is a comfortable heavyweight at 250 pounds. A 50-pound weight drop to make the nearest division, where the weight limit is 205 pounds, is exceedingly unlikely for Aspinall, but he has a few names to check off his list before he even considers moving divisions. He called out Australian sensation Tai Tuivasa from the Octagon at UFC London in March, and he already has another all-time great on the list.
“In my opinion, Stipe is the best heavyweight of all-time. I think he deserves an instant rematch. Stipe doesn’t get the love he deserves, in my opinion.”
Aspinall, ranked no. 6 in the UFC heavyweight rankings, may well get his hands on Stipe Miocic if a purported Jon Jones fight falls through.
Should the UFC heavyweight elite be worried about the rise of Tom Aspinall? Is he right to call GSP the MMA GOAT? Let us know what you think in the comments.
