Welsh UFC star Jack Shore admits that he is a big admirer of Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre as he looks to carve out a legendary career of his own inside the Octagon. 

"For me, the two that stand out are Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre. Jon Jones, one of my favourite fighters ever. There is the controversy with the USADA test and stuff like that, I know he's been proven innocent now, but I think that'll always linger over him, and maybe some of the stuff that he's done outside of the Octagon overshadows how good he actually is. I think because of that stuff people don't necessarily always want to admit that he is the best in the world."

GIVEMESPORT spent an afternoon last week with Shore chatting about some of the greatest UFC fighters in MMA history over an Instagram livestream. As you might expect, the 14-0 prospect also provides expert analysis, of the kind you often might hear from Dominick Cruz or Michael Bisping. 

Trained from an early age by his father Richard "Shakey" Shore, the 26-year-old from Abertillery, Wales, has also previously spent time training with former UFC light heavyweight champion Jones (26-1, 1 NC) at Jackson-Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is roughly 5,000 miles away from the Ebbw Fach valley in the south-eastern county of Monmouthshire.

Despite this however, Shore (14-0) leans slightly towards St-Pierre (26-2) when it comes to determining who is the greatest fighter of all time, though he concedes that it is a tough one to call.   

"GSP for me, I don't like to use the phrase, but he's the greatest of all time in my eyes," Shore exclusively told GIVEMESPORT. "It takes a lot to be as dominant as he was at welterweight, then takes four years off, comes back and beats a legend and a Hall of Famer himself in Michael Bisping for the middleweight belt, and just sails off into the sunset.

"He stayed true to himself, was respectful, was a martial artist outside of the cage, but would take you apart inside the cage, and the way he conducted himself outside of the cage, for me, is why I see him as the GOAT because he's always kept to his core martial art values.

"And again, if someone got a little bit chopsy with him, he was never afraid to fire a little bit back at them as well.

"But he always produced the results on the night and as far as being well-rounded goes I think him and Jon are the two best all-rounded fighters in the world. 

"I mean, GSP's not undefeated but he's avenged all his losses, and Jon's as good as undefeated so, you know, they're the top two for me, but if you forced me into a corner, if I had to pick one, I'd probably go GSP."

The Welshman is an ardent student of the game and admits he watches as many MMA fights as he can in order to learn as much as possible. 

Former Cage Warriors bantamweight champion Shore (14-0) also spent plenty of time with Jones in the run-up to the former light-heavyweight champion's clash with arch-rival Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 217 in July 2017. 

"It was a really good experience," the 26-year-old said. "When I went out there, I didn't actually physically train with Jon myself, but I was on the mats with him, me and Jack Marshman flew out there, Jack had a fight coming up, and it was around about the same time that Jon was training for his rematch with DC, so as you can imagine the buzz about the gym at the time was insane.

"And yeah, I picked loads up like, what it opened to my eyes to... at the time, back in Wales, I was probably running like a 5k run in the morning and training at night and I considered myself a full-time athlete. 

"But then to go out there and see the gym open 24 hours a day, and, you know, it wasn't until I went out there, that I appreciated how many hours and how much you can actually get done in one day. 

"You know, you watch people like Jon and the other pros there, they spar in the morning, then they're doing something straight after that, and then they're off running, they're back at night to do the techniques and they get in like four or five sessions a day.

"Don't get me wrong, I learned great techniques out there, great striking techniques, great wrestling, great grappling techniques, but the main thing is it sort of opened up my mindset and flipped my mindset a lot.

"You've got this many hours in the day, there's no reason why I can't be doing more than just my run in the morning, just my sparring in the night, there's plenty of hours for me to recover and go again and recover and go again. 

"Ever since I've come back from Albuquerque about five years ago now almost - I think it is actually five years ago this month I came back - I've trained three or four times a day ever since because I remember looking at those guys and thinking, 'Skills-wise, I know I'm not far behind these guys', but I remember thinking, 'I'm not training the way I need to be training, I can't just be satisfied with running in the morning and training at night, I need to make sure I'm doing the bits in-between, my S&C, you know, my striking sessions, my grappling sessions'.

"So, you know, it was a real eye opener on that front as well, and obviously living in the gym, living in the dorms, the buzz, constantly being around the fighters, meeting people from all over the world who were on the same sort of journey as me. It was just a great month or so for me and Jack and if anyone can get out there and experience it for a month it's definitely worth it."

Shore currently competes in the men's bantamweight division, where he has stopped all but one of his opponents so far to date. He won his first UFC fight in 2019 against Nohelin Hernandez with a rear naked choke at 2 minutes and 51 seconds of round number three. 

Just don't expect him to face Petr Yan anytime soon; not that he would shy away from the challenge, however; quite the contrary, in fact. 

"I've got to be realistic; with where he is and where I am, there's a long list of guys in between, and there's probably a long list of guys right on my coattails who want to be where I want to be as well," Shore said. "I could be cocky and say, 'I'm going to be fighting for the belt within a year', but we've got to be realistic. 

"First thing for me is to get that ranking; once I get that name and get that win against a guy who's ranked, then I can really sit down and look at, 'Right, what is my path to fighting for that belt?' 

"I'd like to say in two-to-three years I'll probably be in the mix with those guys in the top five, you know, I'm doing really well so far, and I just want to get that ranking now, that's my short-term goal.   

"Get a guy who's ranked, get that number next to my name, and then start to progress from there and, you know, then it really does become fighting those guys who I grew up watching, like TJ Dillashaw, Cody Garbrandt, Rob Font, those type of guys.

"I remember being at shows with Jack Marshman and those guys have been warming up and I'd nudge him and be like, 'Look, it's what's-his-name over there', and now I'm in the same division as them.

"I look forward to it, you know, it's not going to be long, keep going the way I'm going, then I won't be a million miles off. I'm happy to fight anyone."

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