The greatest of all time is a debate that will never have a winner. While there will always be the likes of undisputed heavyweight champion Jon Jones and icons like Georges St-Pierre topping the charts, others like Khabib Nurmagomedov will occasionally make an appearance, courtesy of popular sentiment. And then be taken out, thanks to a solid argument by an accomplished orator – which is precisely what former middleweight champion Michael Bisping is.
As it happens, the Brot weighed in on the GOAT debate during an interview with MailSport and surprisingly added modern great and lightweight champion Islam Makhahev to the list as well.
“Tricky, we’re different weight classes though so we’ll throw a Goated”, he said.
What stood out even more was that he placed Khabib in a separate “God-tier” category. While Bisping essentially doesn’t rate him as the GOAT, the Brit does consider his 29-0 run untouchable.
‘The Count’ put added former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and former middleweight champion Anderson Silva in the same category as Khabib.
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Although this angered the Khabib fans in the comments section, it is consistent with what he has said about ‘The Eagle’ in the past. Speaking on “The Pain Game” podcast back in 2021, Bisping had explained that Khabib’s decision to take an early retirement cost him a seat at the GOAT table.
“Yeah, he took himself out of it. And if you look, yeah, he didn’t fight the best until the end of his career. When you compare that with GSP or Jones or Anderson, their run against world-class competition was far longer”, Bisping had said.
This argument would also explain why he considers Islam to be amongst the greatest of all time. The Dagestani champion is currently on a 15-fight win streak with four title defenses at 155 lbs. During this time he has fought the top contenders in the division, including former world champions like Dustin Poirier, Alexander Volkanovski, and Charles Oliveira.
At 33, he is also in the prime of his career and is touted to eventually go up a division and claim another title before calling it a day.
So, while Bisping’s assessment of Khabib might be a little harsh, it’s also not far removed from the truth. Of course, Islam still has to do a lot more to prove the British veteran right.
In the meantime, Bisping had other suggestions for some former champions from his motherland.
Fight a striker, Bisping tells Leon
Former welterweight champion Leon Edwards is in a slump at the moment. After losing his title to Belal Muhammad last year, he hoped to recover with a win over Sean Brady at UFC London.
However, things didn’t quite pan out for him and he’s now on a 2 fight losing streak. Not only did he look bleak against the American last week, but he also made some incredibly poor decisions for a presumably calculated fighter and ended up tapping to a one-handed guillotine.
In light of this, he has further spiraled down to the bottom of the championship ladder and now must start another campaign if he so wishes to regain UFC gold one day.
Bisping believes he can do this by calling out a striker like Ian Machado Garry for his next fight.
“I’d like to see him against a striker so he can have a fun fight,” Bisping posted on X. “Ian Garry makes a lot of sense if you ask me.”
I’d like to see him against a striker so he can have a fun fight. Ian Garry makes a lot of sense if you ask me. https://t.co/89jitgzgoI
— michael (@bisping) March 24, 2025
Garry, who suffered his first career loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310, has been vocal about feeling snubbed for a title shot. Despite coming off a loss, he believed he deserved the opportunity over Jack Della Maddalena, who’s now slated to fight Belal at UFC 315 next month.
Garry’s personal history with Edwards also adds intrigue to the match-up; once training partners, their relationship soured, setting the stage for a grudge match that could define the welterweight division’s future.
