Georges St-Pierre has one key piece of advice to stop Islam Makhachev‘s dominance.
UFC welterweight champion Makhachev is on a 16-fight winning streak and has just one career loss – a knockout to Adriano Martins in 2015. He has since dominated the lightweight division en route to a record four title defenses, and captured the welterweight belt with a lopsided decision win over Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322.
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Former UFC dual-champion St-Pierre isn’t sure if there’s a better fighter in the sport than Makhachev (28-1 MMA, 17-1 UFC) right now, but says there is a way to beat him.
“I think right now, he’s probably on paper the best fighter pound-for-pound,” St-Pierre said of Makhachev on “The Break Talk.” “My best pound-for-pound would be Islam Makhachev, (Ilia) Topuria, Merab (Dvalishvili), Khamzat Chimaev. To beat Islam Makhachev, it doesn’t mean you’re the best. It’s not the best fighter that wins the fight. … It happened to Islam Makhachev.
“I believe if he would fight (Martins) 10 times, he would beat him nine times, but that one time he got clipped, and that can happen. To beat Islam Makhachev, he’s very skilled. You would need a guy that can match his wrestling in a way that either controls his takedowns or if he gets put down, manages to scramble back up, create distance, and also fight him standing up. You need a guy who puts pressure on him with a lot of fakes and feints.”
St-Pierre pointed to Makhachev’s eighth professional win, where he defeated Mansour Barnaoui by unanimous decision at M-1 Challenge 38, as an example of how to fight him.
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“There’s a guy that gave him a lot of trouble. He was from France and he was one of my training partners. His name was Mansour Barnaoui,” St-Pierre continued. “He was one of my best training partners when I was getting ready for fights, and he gave him a lot of trouble.
“It was in Makhachev’s early career, but if you look at that fight, it could have gone the other way, as well. It went to a decision, and the way Mansour Barnaoui fought Makhachev is the way you need to fight: a lot of pressure, create a lot of scrambles, and pressure, pressure, pressure.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Georges St-Pierre reveals ideal game plan against Islam Makhachev
