The 5 greatest UFC Welterweights of the decade (2010-2019)

#1 Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre is the greatest Welterweight of all time

The greatest Welterweight of the previous decade (2000-2009), Georges St-Pierre will also go down in history as the greatest Welterweight to compete between the years of 2010 and 2019. Coming into the decade, ‘GSP’ had already held UFC gold for the best part of two years, defending it successfully on three occasions, but as 2010 dawned, we were in for an even more dominant run from the French-Canadian.

St-Pierre started the decade by defending his title against top contenders Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck in dominant fashion, and then in early 2011, he turned back the challenge of former StrikeForce Welterweight and Middleweight champion Jake Shields, again in what was a complete shut-out.

Disaster then struck for ‘GSP’; he tore his ACL while preparing to defend his title against Carlos Condit, and found himself stuck on the shelf for over a year. But when he returned, the Canadian hadn’t slowed down at all, and he overcame the challenge of Condit – by then the interim UFC champion – to affirm his spot as the world’s best 170lber.

Two more title defences followed in 2013; first, bitter rival Nick Diaz was whitewashed at UFC 158, before top contender Johny Hendricks was narrowly outpointed at UFC 167. The Hendricks fight would be St-Pierre’s final one as a Welterweight during the decade, as he vacated his title and stepped away from the sport afterwards for a period of four years – returning in 2017 to submit Michael Bisping for the UFC Middleweight title before retiring again, this time for good.

In the end though, ‘GSP’ was the only top UFC Welterweight to go undefeated for the entire decade, and to make his run more impressive, he only ever fought the very best contenders available to him. Not only does he go down as the best Welterweight of the 2010’s, he should probably go down as the greatest fighter in MMA history, too.