He won the middleweight title in his mid-late thirties. Pretty impressive IMO. n
Look at the top 10 and tell me how many of those guys the champ would beat? who wasn't in the top 10 almost beat him again. Bisping(who might have been the best MW at times earlier and was unlucky to not get a shot earlier) got his shot beating AS who was in a title elim coming back from a long break as a sign of respect not merit(not saying AS was washed just he wasn't a match for the newer old people who hadn't been in the UFC before). He then got a KO over the champ whod already beaten him in flukey matter and beat another guy outside the top 10 based on past history.
Despite fighting a MW champ most thought wasn't close to the best MW(it wasn't an easy win either for GSP) and getting the belt he then ditched the fights that would actually be an accomplishment which he'd be expected to lose. Which top 5 guys you think GSP would beat. Someone on another thread was complaining about Mousasi not getting a title shot, dude was barely top 5. You think GSP would beat Mousasi? How about Whittaker? Romero? Jacare? There's some lower level guys at MW like Branch and Thiago Santos who were just overshadowed by how stacked the division was who also could have beaten GSP.
Belts have meaning because it means you're the best. The way GSP won that belt makes it look oppurtunistic to become a "champ champ" by beating a champ. AS did the same shit with Forrest except he was an ex champ. Forrest got lucky to be in that spot and AS took advantage of an easy way to prove he could be an elite LHW without beating a real elite LHW. Tbf to GSP when he was champ I DO think he could have beat elite MW's. And the Bisping fight proves that with difficulty he could have. But he'd be embarassed fighting modern WW's given what Hendricks did to him nm MW's. Being clever and trying to take oppurtunities where reward is greater than risk isn't the same as organically earning a shot and defending the belt. Tried to do the same thing with Khabib(undefeated but LW and GSP's used to fighting the best grapplers great matchup for him).
GSP taking a shot from people with 5,8,9 fight win streaks, ex champs etc then refusing to fight them cause he knows he'd lose just made it clear the people accusing him of ducking the WW division were right by doing it again. And then tried it a third time cause if the first 2 didn't make it clear.
People attacking GSP's fight style for being too cautious after Serra(tbh started later he wasn't boring against Fitch and Penn) and boring were being unreasonable. Cause I think that argument is lazy and is unfair to lay and pray fighters just cause their skills are unmarketable, it's a sport not the WWE.
But the stuff he did at the end of his 2 careers retiring to duck fights he'd lose while returning for unearned title shots at winnable belts makes that lazy narrative just seem like it was the truth all along. He tried to repeat the same trick a third time and become triple champ at LW! Guys trying to poach belts off the memory of a title run that ended with him ducking Johnny fucking Hendricks. We debate whether long running champs get "instant rematches". And while they 100% do, since when did that logic apply to getting highly coveted title shots in different divisions years after the fact. He didn't earn that title.
