Of course, after UFC 268, president Dana White threw his voice into the debate.

“Telling you this guy is very special, he’s damn good. I think he’s the best welterweight ever. Obviously pound for pound best in the world now, he’s one of the guys we can start arguing about soon with GOAT status.”

However, when talking about the welterweight belt, you have to start and end the conversation with the Canadian St-Pierre. On statistics alone, Usman is nowhere near “Rush”, who was a two-division champion to begin with and is a three-time welterweight champion. This means he’s defended a unified or interim belt nine times, and also won a staggering 13 title fights, second to only Jones at 14.

UFC: Kamaru Usman sizes up the contenders for his next fight

The 34-year-old Usman is starting to lap the competition in the division, a clear sign he should be getting serious accolades, but he definitely needs a few more notches on his belt to equal St-Pierre statistically and then we can have a more fulsome debate.

Usman was asked if he considered himself in this conversation, and he did little to bow to St-Pierre, but also showed a great deal of respect at the same time.

“I just keep doping what I’m doing, keep stacking ‘em up, it’s no secret who the best is right now,” he said after UFC 268. “Georges is one of those guys I would’ve loved to fight, I respect him a lot, he did a tremendous amount for the sport but fighters evolve, get better, hungrier, that’s just what I am right now.”

But it’s tough to make further arguments about Usman concerning any type of GOAT status and not have them fall apart when you stack them up against other fighters statistically who are currently in the UFC. Usman’s pound for pound ranking is warranted, but there are others still active inside the Octagon who have much more impressive resumes.

If we’re talking about the greatest fighter in the UFC right now, in 2021, it’s almost impossible to overlook Amanda Nunes, who holds both the women’s featherweight and bantamweight belts. Nunes has nine title wins, and then if we’re working our way down the list from there, next probably has to be women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko, who has seven title wins.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the former women’s strawweight champion, has six title wins, and even though she doesn’t have a belt, may very well be next in line, or close to another shot at Rose Namajunas’ crown. Stipe Miocic, the former heavyweight champion, also has six title wins, and could be in line for another shot at the heavyweight crown if Jones can’t sort his life out.

The argument is that the UFC has become a much more rounded sport, and it’s becoming harder to defend belts. Just ask Jan Blachowicz, Zhang Weili or Miocic. If you have an off day in the Octagon, or someone better comes along, it’s lights out and you are back to the drawing board.

But St-Pierre’s reign over the welterweight division is nothing to balk at. He finished his career with 13 straight wins, and some of those were against guys who have now made their way into the UFC Hall of Fame: BJ Penn, Michael Bisping, Matt Hughes and Matt Serra.

St-Pierre walked away from the sport with nobody left to fight, and his swan song victory over a trash-talking Bisping was essentially a GOAT contender saying there was nothing left to prove and it was time to walk away. Khabib Nurmagomedov made the same type of move, and it’s a shaky argument to deny that “The Eagle” was so good, walking away was anything but warranted.

Usman is a great champion, a superb fighter and deserves a shower of praise. His past two fights are resounding victories. He beat Jorge Masvidal, who cried foul for not having a full camp, then dummied him in their rubber match. Covington said Usman faked an eye poke and a nut shot to get a referee’s stoppage, then Usman responded by clinically beating “Chaos” in their rematch.

If Usman wants to jump a few notches up the ladder, he could move up a weight class and fight Israel Adesanya, much like “The Last Stylebender” tried to do against light heavyweight Blachowicz, but we all know how that turned out. Usman is the UFC’s top pound for pound fighter, it says so on the company’s website, but when we head into GOAT territory, it’s an entirely different realm, and Usman is lining up at the back of a very long queue.

Maybe he should have a chat with LeBron James, because unless you have the golden number, the argument tends to fall in someone else’s favour because as everyone knows, GOAT status does not come easy.