BJ Penn resume is the most comparable to Poatan among the legends in a GOAT list

[DanDragon Machi]

Both are two divisions champion and both has three belt defenses

BJ is often placed in every Top 10 GOAT list which means that even if Alex retires in two years without winning any more fights he will be placed in the top 10 by similar criteria

I think there are arguments to place Alex above BJ if you put a good weight on popularity, impact and memoriables fights, but arguably BJ's resume has a greater variety of good fighters. Alex's aura is stronger too

I think both are in the same level competition. While BJ is way more well-rounded Alex is way more lethal

 

[CasualBot]

Honestly, who cares.

You talkin' aura.

 

[Shaolin Alan]

 

[Brokenpromise]

Uhh... nope.
BJ Penn was tapping 205pd Prime Gracies and fighting Lyoto Machida weighing 160.
Alex just turned the 205 division into a kickboxing division
Might wanna pump the brakes a bit.

 

[AmericanMMA]

Motivated BJ Penn did ok in ufc

 

[TadDunbar]

BJ doesn't belong on any top 10 GOAT list

 

[mkt]

Poatan went up a weight class and fought the best grapplers of his era....twice each?

 

[Brokenpromise]

BJ doesn't belong on any top 10 GOAT list

Oh the lightweight division he does. He got bored of lack of fights so he said in Japan he would fight any division
In his prime era he was the lightweight boogeyman.

 

[DanDragon Machi]

Oh the lightweight division he does. He got bored of lack of fights so he said in Japan he would fight any division
In his prime era he was the lightweight boogeyman.

p4p too

 

[Blanqa Blanqua]

BJ doesn't belong on any top 10 GOAT list

Actually he was at the top of Anderson Silva’s GOAT list

 

[_manhattan]

He lost to lil Frankie Edgar 3x.
Twice in his prime he got UD'd.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

Aura?? Garbage thread. Neither is near the top 10 IMHO. BJ had all of the talent in the world but was wildly inconsistent and rarely put it all together. You don't get ranked top 10 based on potential (Same goes for Khabib).

Alex deserved a lot of credit for being active and I'm glad he's getting paid but he is WAY too one dimensional to be anywhere near the top 10. He has also been highly protected in terms of match-making not to mention he's competing in a paper thin era so no... I like the guy but he's not in the discussion

 

[Egészségére!]

BJ by RNC

 

[Brokenpromise]

Aura?? Garbage thread. Neither is near the top 10 IMHO. BJ had all of the talent in the world but was wildly inconsistent and rarely put it all together. You don't get ranked top 10 based on potential (Same goes for Khabib).

Alex deserved a lot of credit for being active and I'm glad he's getting paid but he is WAY too one dimensional to be anywhere near the top 10. He has also been highly protected in terms of match-making not to mention he's competing in a paper thin era so no... I like the guy but he's not in the

Aura?? Garbage thread. Neither is near the top 10 IMHO. BJ had all of the talent in the world but was wildly inconsistent and rarely put it all together. You don't get ranked top 10 based on potential (Same goes for Khabib).

Alex deserved a lot of credit for being active and I'm glad he's getting paid but he is WAY too one dimensional to be anywhere near the top 10. He has also been highly protected in terms of match-making not to mention he's competing in a paper thin era so no... I like the guy but he's not in the discussion

Inconsistent? In my honest opinion he was top 3 p4p in 2000 decade. Sherdog.com had BJ Penn as #1 lightweight and #2 only being bested by Fedor. He constantly challenged himself by taking on opportunities in higher weight divisions and constantly took the fights many others refused. He beat Prime Gomi when they couldnt find Gomi a fight. He was the first American to win the BJJ FED black belt category. He tapped prime Matt Hughes. Was considered a top 5 fighter of the 2000 decade. He holds the record still in UFC for most LW defenses. Yeah he lost. But he sure as hell wasn't inconsistent and you don't see fighters like him now.

 

[Goutfather]

no. bj got big opportunities and whiffed on most of them.

poatan succeeded.

 

[Dr Fong]

no. bj got big opportunities and whiffed on most of them.

poatan succeeded.

You can do better

 

[ledonk]

cant wait to see poatan laid out by a fat bouncer.

 

[treelo]

Penn had a few good fights, his resume is absolutely junk

he had 11 fights and then absolutely BOMBED, just because he fought up at weight, he still got his ass kicked most of the time

i think the only thing you can give him credit for is that he fought some decent fighters in those first fights, after that he became a punching bag

 

[Shoguns Prodigy**]

Only few fighter can compare to BJ Penn, idc how many times he lost, he didn’t back away from a fight, he tried to fight prime axe murderer, if any other lower weight class fighter said that, we would all say he is bsing, but with bj you believed him.

 

[ledonk]

I seriously doubt BJ Penn would hide from ankalaev.