Khabib named BJ Penn as the 2nd best Lightweight, BJ got something to say about that...

[Changeisinevitable]

That Diego had a record of 21-2 at the time. His only two losses before BJ were Fitch and Koscheck, two guys who would be ranked high at Welterweight for years and would also earn WW title shots.

Young Diego was a great fighter. He had excellent grappling, was a state champion wrestler, and he was knocking people out with his hands, kicks and knees. He also had as much heart as anybody in the sport. He was not an easy guy to finish. He took an unreal amount of damage from BJ for like 20+ minutes and refused to quit.

We are not talking about the older and past prime version of Diego you have seen the last several years. We are talking about a young, prime, explosive Diego.

It shits me how short the memory is of MMA fans. Prime BJ and prime Diego were something special.

 

[SuperAlly]

BJ was way more willing to take risks than Khabib. Khabib could never make 145. BJ was the smaller guy in almost every fight.

Khabib was the bigger guy in every single fight.

These are just facts

Khabib is a far superior fighter.

This is just a fact.

 

[SteelEz]

BJ was way more willing to take risks than Khabib. Khabib could never make 145. BJ was the smaller guy in almost every fight.

Khabib was the bigger guy in every single fight.

These are just facts

Lol no they're not.

 

[Bork Neslar]

1. Paddy
2. BJ

Khabib is right

 

[Topher]

That Diego had a record of 21-2 at the time. His only two losses before BJ were Fitch and Koscheck, two guys who would be ranked high at Welterweight for years and would also earn WW title shots.

Young Diego was a great fighter. He had excellent grappling, was a state champion wrestler, and he was knocking people out with his hands, kicks and knees. He also had as much heart as anybody in the sport. He was not an easy guy to finish. He took an unreal amount of damage from BJ for like 20+ minutes and refused to quit.

We are not talking about the older and past prime version of Diego you have seen the last several years. We are talking about a young, prime, explosive Diego.

And he had that record in a higher weight class.

Diego was a better contender than Conor, Justin and LaQuinta in that time period and overall had less hiccups than Porier at that point.

Also Prime Penn at many points of Khabibs career would beat him. I think it would take the post Michel Johnson Khabib to beat the best version of Penn honestly. Khabib improved so much between that fight and now. The Khabib that tried to get single leg takedowns in open space and threw arm punches with his head on a swivel like he has cerebral palsy would fail to get takedowns and get lit up by Penn.

I’ll go with Khabib still but it’s not so black and white / simple.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Good points but you have to address your failures as well as your successes. Your lows matter just as much as your highs. Also what you did at 170 has nothing to do with you career at 155.

 

[krelianx]

Penn has wins over Uno, Hughes, Gomi, Stevenson, Florian, Sanchez, Sherk, Pulver, Renzo, Rodrigo, Serra, and Thomas.

Khabib has wins over Tibau, Conor, Al, Barboza, Gathje, Dustin, Johnson, RDA, Trujillo, and Tavares.

Obviously it is crazy to compare the quality of competition, since the former list belongs to an age where LWs were generally far smaller and more one dimensional than today. But they were every bit as reputable fighters as today. Sherk was an absolute animal.

Penn has the advantage of being a 2 weight champion, but that doesn't affect his standing as the greatest LW. Beating Conor who was the FW and LW champ does count for a lot, even if I think Conor was hugely overrated in skills. Both have the same number of title defenses. Khabib was undefeated, however.

It's not an easy one, but I think probably Khabib takes it in virtue of skill, undefeated status, and quality of competition.

 

[wbubbles]

Bj was lucky to fight in an underdeveloped mma age. His nediocre record shows that. Hes no where near the greatest anything.

 

[dr. john lee]

Its debatable as to the more dominant fighter (Penn circa '04, the one who sliced through both prime Gomi and Hughes like butter vs. Khabib circa 2014-2019 capping off with McGregor-Poirier-Gaethje).

I think the question of who is "greatest" is fairly clear cut. The (fantasy) question of who would've won? It is probably fair to say Khabib wins 3 out of 5.

 

[dr. john lee]

Bj is right. He is just a fighter, period. Weight classes werent in his mind as much as just fighting a person regarded as tough. He took huge challenges that in hindsight were dumb by a managers perspective. Khabib destroys any version of BJ but BJ was a dog when he was youngish and maybe could pull something off but id go under the 10% chance

Did you see him fight Matt Hughes 1? He just mowed through him like NOTHING. Did you watch GSP 1? YES, GSP won the fight. But for that first half of the fight, BJ seemed to be in control. Jon Fitch fight? (Yes, he eventually lost that too.)

Point being, "Khabib destroys any version of BJ" is silly.

 

[Lepo Lepo]

16-14-2 and he most definitely lost that Fitch fight.
If you think BJ is the goat, you are most likely an individual with special needs.
It’s like saying Borao or Migues Torres are the goats. Even those divisions were more established than the lightweight division BJ fought in.
Overrated, cuckhold, mentally retarded hack.

 

[chardog]

BJ will be remembered far longer than khabib

 

[SouthSide971]

Two priveleged kids who had it easy growing up training martial arts

 

[Topher]

Did you see him fight Matt Hughes 1? He just mowed through him like NOTHING. Did you watch GSP 1? YES, GSP won the fight. But for that first half of the fight, BJ seemed to be in control. Jon Fitch fight? (Yes, he eventually lost that too.)

Point being, "Khabib destroys any version of BJ" is silly.

Fitch was a draw my dude.

He won the first two rounds on all cards it was the two 10-8’s in the 3rd that got the draw for Fitch, size ended up mattering late.

 

[TheWalrusNo9]

BJ, Gomi & Khabib are the LW goats. I don’t feel like anyone can get too butthurt about any order they are ranked in.

 

[Topher]

BJ, Gomi & Khabib are the LW goats. I don’t feel like anyone can get too butthurt about any order they are ranked in.

Gomi is not a LW GOAT. Arguably every org had many fighters that would beat him at the time (even in Japan). Very overrated and he did terrible outside of the bubble PRIDE built for him.

He wouldn’t even have made it out the 155lb season of TUF. WeC, SF, UFC, DREAM etc all had better fighters / champs. He was fun and exciting but he was protected and gifted some iffy homer decisions (Aurelio should have 2 wins over him). He couldn’t hold the SHOOTO belt, Hansen would have beat him in PRIDE or DREAM etc and Aoki submits him anywhere.

 

[LostMyBlackBelt]

Beating Joe daddy for the title... the good ole days

 

[TheWalrusNo9]

Gomi is not a LW GOAT. Arguably every org had many fighters that would beat him at the time (even in Japan). Very overrated and he did terrible outside of the bubble PRIDE built for him.

He wouldn’t even have made it out the 155lb season of TUF. WeC, SF, UFC, DREAM etc all had better fighters / champs. He was fun and exciting but he was protected and gifted some iffy homer decisions (Aurelio should have 2 wins over him).

He is def top 3 LW all time.

 

[GSP_37]

Motivated non-jet lag Shinya Aoki would have kicked a ton of LW ass. Too bad we couldn't see Aoki vs Gomi.

 

[Topher]

He is def top 3 LW all time.

Aoki is the better LW out of Japan and actually competed successfully in that weight class not a special catch weight class in more orgs. PRIDE technically built the weight class to be 160lb because of Gomi’s pudgy ass. Look at his record fighting @155lb and not his personal weight class. Either way he wasn’t even the best in SHOOTO or PRIDE.