Georges St-Pierre at a media event in 2021. | Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Coin Cloud
GSP is high on Jake Paul’s chances in the boxing ring against a fellow former UFC champion. UFC welterweight GOAT Georges St-Pierre recently appeared on his head coach Firas Zahabi’s podcast to discuss a whole host of issues. Together the pair talked about one of the more intriguing upcoming combat sports events on the calendar; Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley.
That bout pits a 3-0 YouTuber in Paul, who recently KO’d Ben Askren, versus a UFC veteran (and 0-0 boxer) in Tyron Woodley.
And you can count St-Pierre among those who are high on Paul’s chances of beating a fellow former UFC welterweight champion.
“He could, definitely,” said St-Pierre when asked by Zahabi if he felt Paul could win (ht MMA Fighting). “It’s a different sport. In MMA I would say no, but in boxing he’s much bigger than Tyron Woodley, and also he trains very hard. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen, but I think he definitely can do it.”
St-Pierre added that he’s not a “hater” when it comes to the Paul brothers and that he thinks Jake Paul is “a very nice guy.”
“It’s a different sport,” continued St-Pierre. “When I was training when I was world champion, I was boxing with some great amateur boxers that, they were not world-class amateurs but they were great amateur boxers, and it was good training. It’s a completely different sport, and just to put that into perspective, I believe if you would allow dirty boxing in boxing, you would have a total different set of champions. Because you change a rule, you change the game. Woodley has more experience in combat sports than Jake Paul, but it’s a different game. It’s interesting. As a fan, I’m going to watch it for sure.”
St-Pierre also said that he knows Paul is training hard for the fight because he knows some people who have been training alongside him. ‘Rush’ added that he knew that Askren only trained for a week with Freddie Roach ahead of his Paul bout and that, by all accounts, “was not doing great.”
Comfortable in his position as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, St-Pierre has expressed an interest in moving over to boxing. Recently a fight with Oscar De La Hoya under the Triller banner was vetoed by the UFC. St-Pierre has stated that he will be free of his UFC contract in around two years. So watch this space!
