UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre has been recognized by ESPN as one of the greatest athletes of the 2000s.
With 2024 marking the 25th year of the 21st century, ESPN.com on Monday began unveiling its list of the Top 100 Athletes of the 21st Century, with St-Pierre checking in at No. 76.
St-Pierre, who last year was named MMA Junkie’s greatest UFC fighter of all time in celebration of the promotion’s 30th anniversary, announced his retirement in early 2019, just a few months after he ended previous four-year retirement to claim the middleweight championship from then-champion Michael Bisping at UFC 217. Winning a title in a second division only reinforced St-Pierre’s legendary status as he’d spent more than five years as UFC welterweight champion in which he had nine consecutive title defenses. During his prime, St-Pierre was the UFC’s top pay-per-view draw and put Canadian MMA on the map.
ESPN released only the first 25 athletes (Nos. 100-76) and will continue with 25 each day this week through Thursday.
St-Pierre is ahead of such big names as Bryce Harper (baseball, 79), Chris Paul (basketball, 83), Kawhi Leonard (basketball, 85), Venus Williams (tennis, 86), Aaron Rodgers (football, 91), Pedro Martinez (baseball, 92), Rory McIlroy (golf, 93), and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer, 95), among others.
ESPN said its list accounted “only for athletic accomplishments since January 1, 2000. ESPN.com utilized a panel of experts and ESPN’s renowned Stats & Information Group to rank the top 100 athletes across all sports. More than 75,000 votes were cast by ESPN’s reporters, analysts, producers, editors, and experts around the globe to whittle the initial list of 400 athletes to 100.”
