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Ali Abdelaziz: Kamaru Usman surpassed Georges St-Pierre as greatest welterweight of all time

Ahead of his fifth title defense, Kamaru Usman is already the greatest welterweight ever in manager Ali Abdelaziz’s eyes.

Coming of back-to-back knockouts of Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal, Usman (19-1 MMA, 14-0 UFC) has catapulted himself to the UFC’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, but Abdelaziz, the CEO of Dominance MMA, thinks it shouldn’t stop there as he believes Usman’s dominant and unbeaten run in the UFC’s welterweight division has eclipsed Georges St-Pierre, who holds the record for most 170-pound title defenses at nine.

“Kamaru Usman is the king, best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet,” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie. “I’ve been saying that. Finally, people get it. They understand it. I never cared what they thought anyway. Best welterweight on the planet, you have to start talking about Kamaru Usman up there with Khabib (pound for pound). If you stick the needles in your butt, you’re disqualified. No disrespect to nobody – fact. If you tested positive for any drugs, you’re out. Don’t talk about it.

“I believe Kamaru surpassed Georges St-Pierre. Love Georges, (but) Kamaru never lost. He tied his record, he’s gonna break his record on Nov. 6. He’s never been dropped, never been taken down, never put in any kind of danger in a fight. Georges did, Georges lost, Georges has been dropped, Georges got taken down. Love Georges. He’s a Hall of Famer, well deserved. Kamaru has to be talked about as the pound-for-pound king.”

Usman is scheduled to rematch Colby Covington in the main event of UFC 268 on Nov. 6 at Madison Square Garden. While Usman has a slew of contenders waiting for their shot, Abdelaziz wants to see his client move onto bigger and better things if he gets past Covington.

“Kamaru Usman has beaten everybody,” Abdelaziz said. “The closest person to deserve anything is Vicente Luque, the way he’s beating up people. But I want Kamaru to do bigger and better things. I want him to go fight a real, real boxer. Go to the middleweight division and go win a second title. I don’t want him to fight some guy like Jake Paul. No, that’s not what I want. I want him to go fight Canelo. Pound-for-pound king vs. pound-for-pound king.

“I’m not saying Dana is gonna make this happen, but Dana is excited in interesting fights, big fights, pound-for-pound kings – he’s a real promoter. He’s one of the greatest promoters I’ve ever seen, and I respect him enough to not to come to him with some bullish*t fight. But at the end of the day, if we see Conor McGregor hang with Floyd for 11 rounds, I’m sure Kamaru will hang with Canelo for 12 rounds.”

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