Ben Askren Weighs-In On Khabib Nurmagomedov And Georges St-Pierre’s Wrestling
The argument is real here as who’s the best grappler between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St Pierre well it’s hard to predicate as both are the greatest of all time. But an interesting question here is who’d win if they had fought in the past?
St-Pierre was lobbying for a super fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov however the talks failed to come to fruition, and shortly after he officially hung up his gloves for good.
Former Bellator MMA and ONE FC champion Ben Askren speaking with former title challenger turned commentator Dan Hardy in a recent interview, where he compared both Khabib and St-Pierre’s wrestling styles.
“How’s his [St-Pierre] wrestling for wrestling? I don’t know,” Askren said (h/t Bloody Elbow ). “How’s his wrestling for MMA? Really, really freaking good,” Askren told Dan Hardy in an interview last month. “I think he has great timing. Like his timing on the punches into takedowns, you can argue that it’s the best ever.”
“I would argue that Khabib does a better job staying on top and certain other aspects of wrestling. But as far someone who uses punches into takedowns, there’s not a lot of people who are better than him at that, if any.”
‘Funky’ thinks GSP’s hand would have raised had these two talented wrestlers fought inside the Octagon, but it’d be one hell of a tough fight. Since that super fight never happened, Askren still wondering how Rush would have retaliated to Khabib’s wrestling.
“I would lean towards GSP for sure. The one thing that’s hard, if you watch GSP, he definitely gets tired and when he gets tired, he relies more on his ability to go get the takedown and hold them down and then they can’t do anything against him.”
“We’ve never seen him against someone who — you can say Josh Koscheck was a high-level wrestler — but Josh Koscheck didn’t always use his wrestling in MMA. He wasn’t like a Khabib or me who someone that uses a lot of wrestling. So we never got to see GSP versus that super high-level wrestler so it’s always curious to me how it would have turned out.”
Well, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t be able to see these two great’s to throw down inside the Octagon, as MMA Gods are evil. Khabib is currently serving his UFC 229 post-fight brawl suspension, but rumors are that upon his return he’d take on the winner of Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier. Meanwhile, GSP is enjoying his retirement, and Ben Askren has verbally agreed to fight with Jorge Masvidal at UFC 239.
Do you agree with Askren that GSP would have beat Khabib?
