Colby Covington claims he would brush aside a prime Georges St-Pierre because his cardio is 'completely different'.

Former UFC welterweight champion St-Pierre (26-2), of Quebec, Canada, was one of the promotion's early stars, having held the record for most championship fight wins and the second-longest title run in UFC history while defending his title nine consecutive times.

After months of negotiations, 'Rush' made a sensational return to the octagon against Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 217 in November 2017, when he submitted Bisping in the third round to win the middleweight title. 

'GSP' is widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest mixed martial artists of all time with his second loss in 28 fights coming courtesy of a stunning upset to Matt Serra at UFC 69 in April 2007.

St-Pierre would then avenge this loss to Serra a year later in front of a home crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal. 

But Covington believes the best version of him could have beaten St-Pierre if they fought each other in their prime. 

"I don’t think I could beat Georges St-Pierre – I know I’d beat St-Pierre," Covington said to MMA Roasted. "He was able to take a lot of guys down and hold them down and ground and pound.

"He’s not taking me down. My cardio is completely different.

"I’ve never been taken down in the UFC octagon, so he’s not going to be the first."

"Georges St-Pierre – his striking was very basic, very kindergarten," he added. "He didn’t have a lot of tricks.

"He just had that really good jab, but that’s pretty easy to counter if you’re moving your head and using footwork.

"I think Georges St-Pierre would have been a very extremely easy fight for me. He was ahead of his time.

"There were a lot of guys that time that were one-dimensional. They were either strikers or they were wrestlers, but they weren’t good at blending both."

Covington (17-2), the former interim UFC welterweight champion, was defeated by Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC 245 in December 2019 and has been demanding a rematch ever since.

But Usman (19-1) has made it clear he wants to see some activity from the self-proclaimed 'The People's Champion' before giving into his demands. 

However, UFC president Dana White has admitted that Usman may have no option but to face Covington in a rematch.

He said: "The clear cut guy now is Covington and we'll see how these other things play out.

"The guy right now is Colby."

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