Retired UFC fighter Miesha Tate favors Conor McGregor over Georges St-Pierre in a hypothetical match-up.
Although former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre hasn’t revealed his long term plans, it’s obvious the fan favorite is looking for high profile, blockbuster fights in his MMA return. And there’s nothing that says blockbuster quite like Georges St-Pierre vs. Conor McGregor.
GSP’s teammate, Olivier Aubin-Mercier, believes the Canadian could call out ‘The Notorious’ after his middleweight championship tilt against Michael Bisping at UFC 217.
“I think what would be possible is if he called out Conor [McGregor] after,” Aubin-Mercier said last week. “If Georges wins, he's the biggest MMA fighter of all-time. If Conor wins, he is too and if [Georges] wins, I don't think people are going to hold it against Conor.”
Former women’s UFC bantamweight champ Miesha Tate, however, doesn’t think the fight would go in Georges’ favor.
Speaking to MMA Tonight in a recent interview, ‘Cupcake’ believes McGregor, who fights primarily at lightweight and featherweight, has what it takes to knock out heavier fighters such as St-Pierre.
“Conor McGregor, I’ve underestimated the guy a number of times, thinking he wasn’t going to win some of the fights that he won and he did it,” Tate said on SiriusXM Rush, per MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew. “The man is truly in a league of his own. When it comes to his game planning, when it comes to his trash talking, when it comes to getting inside people’s heads, nobody does it better than Conor McGregor. So I absolutely would not count him out in a fight like that.”
“So I just think he would probably do well. He’s evolving, he’s very athletic, he’s heavy handed. I think he could knock out a lot of guys bigger than him. Look how well he did against Mayweather. I was so impressed with how he did there. I thought he was gonna lose that fight handily and he hung in there tough.”
McGregor, the current UFC lightweight champ and former featherweight champ, fought Nate Diaz in back-to-back fights at welterweight but hit the scales at 168 lbs. The Irishman was submitted in the first bout but won the rematch at UFC 202 via majority decision.
It’s speculated that McGregor will face Diaz in a trilogy bout in late December or early next year, although UFC president Dana White tried to shut down the idea on social media earlier this week.
Meanwhile St-Pierre, 36, will challenge Bisping for the middleweight title in hopes of becoming a two-division champ at UFC 217. The highly anticipated pay-per-view, which also features a co-headlining championship bout between Cody Garbrandt and T.J. Dillashaw, takes place November 4 at Madison Square Garden, New York.
