Prime BJ Penn fought killers and moved up, while Islam is fighting guys on days notice & from division below.

[Thepaintbucket]

I can see a valid argument for BJ Penn being more accomplished overall. He has a lot of great wins to his name and Penn is criminally underated these days. But as defending champion at LW? I just don't see it. Charles and Volk were great, great champions in their own right.

 

[pinero]

Ohhh , his great accomplish is that he fought bigger guys!!!!! Let's going to forget that Frankie Edgar existed

 

[jsbx45]

I went for BJ in the poll, but I reckon Makachev would murder him Prime for Prime. Fighting all these FW's not entirely up to Makachev either, but not helping in comparisons like this thread.

 

[Streeter]

Mak is better fighter but his resume isn't greatest but that's not all his fault.

 

[richardjohnson]

I went for BJ in the poll, but I reckon Makachev would murder him Prime for Prime. Fighting all these FW's not entirely up to Makachev either, but not helping in comparisons like this thread.

Who are all these featherweights he’s fighting? He’s had two fights against the same FW. Calling Charles, Dustin and Moicano featherweights at this point in their careers is just stupid. Moicano hasn’t made 145 in nearly six years and it’s been even longer for both Charles and Dustin.

 

[Cooliox]

BJ won the first 3 rounds against Frankie in their first fight. But that's when he started sliding a bit, he'd just left the marinovich's a few months before that fight.

BJ was the better fighter in terms of skill, but his dedication to the sport, training and cardio started wavering.

He's not someone who can just go back to doing things how he's done them before, training himself and sparring with the local Hawaiians.

No disrespect to Edgar, but I think BJ defeated himself more than anything, especially during that first and second fight.

Which is ultimately the story of his career. He's one of the best to ever do it when he showed up, mentally ready and performed. It was always a question of which version would show up though.

For as talented as he was, the what if potential of how good he could've been is the craziest part of his career.

Can't disagree with that

Prime BJ Penn/Motivated BJ Penn was a force of nature. There's a reason Sherbros favors him at #1P4P in his prime.

Not to mention getting hiss BJJ black belt in just 4 years, and being the first non-Brazilian to win World championship in BJJ.

Prime BJ Penn was a monster. Him licking blood off his gloves will stick with me forever.
That, and the crazy jump out of a pool clip

 

[STAY GOLD]

Respectfully, I don’t really buy that argument. I think 2 things are true: Islam can only fight whomever is in front of him, and we can only judge his resume by the names that are on it.

It’s like how Khabib. vs Tony fell through so many times that Khabib has names like Darrel Horcher and Iaquinta on his resume instead. It may not be his fault, but from now until the end of time when we compare LW resumes to Khabib’s, we have to weigh his resume with Horcher and Iaquinta on it and not Tony. What else can we do? Islam has 4 defenses: 2 are against a FW and one of those was on short notice for the challenger, Poirier which is solid, and then Moicano who is a LW opponent but only ranked like #10 and took the fight on very short notice. That’s what we’ve got to work with when we’re evaluating.

Folks talk about Fedor’s best wins when discussing him and ignore him beating guys like Yuji Nagata. If Islam stays around long enough and continues beating the names in front of him, folks will mostly focus on the bigger wins.

 

[BFoe]

Folks talk about Fedor’s best wins when discussing him and ignore him beating guys like Yuji Nagata. If Islam stays around long enough and continues beating the names in front of him, folks will mostly focus on the bigger wins.

Well in Islam’s case, these are his best wins that we’re talking about. These are his title defenses that are being criticized. I do agree that if he sticks around and keeps winning, eventually there will be more and better wins to focus on. In Fedor’s case, Nagata wasn’t a title defense, and Fedor has like 12 ranked wins that we can talk about. Not so with Islam.

 

[Laheys'Liquorland]

Ah yes the 1st BJ Penn subtle GOAT thread for 2025. Came sooner than expected nonetheless hespect BJ.

 

[nostradumbass]

Oh yeah, winning a vacant title against Joe Stevenson, then defending against 35 year old Sherk, Florian and Diego Sanchez, with a failed attempt at the WW belt in the middle, is much better than taking the title from the #3 p4p, then beating the #1 p4p twice in a row, then Poirier.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I didn't like that he broke the record against not even a short notice but a last second opponent switch up.

I didn't understand why Dariush didn't get the fight. Better resume. More accomplished on the ground. Was more likely to force a more competitive fight.

 

[IloveTHIS]

dude let it go.

BJs record is like 19-17 and most of those losses were him getting the ever loving dogshit beat out of him. Islam would molest BJ prime for prime. Islam is already cemented as an ATG and hes only 33. BJs legacy is like 4 good wins, 3 "almost champ, nice try tho" draws/decision losses, and double digit losses. many of those being some of the worst, most humiliating beatdowns/performances in mma history.

let. it. go.

 

[Cooliox]

I can see a valid argument for BJ Penn being more accomplished overall. He has a lot of great wins to his name and Penn is criminally underated these days. But as defending champion at LW? I just don't see it. Charles and Volk were great, great champions in their own right.

Volk is great. No one can deny that.

There's a reason Volk was still #1P4P after fighting Islam,
It's because most people had Volk winning that fight, including Dana White.

The rematch was short notice. It's not fair for Volk at all.
It's not Islam's fault either. But we all saw what happened when Islam fought full camp Volkanovski.

That too, Islam is the bigger champ. He's expected to win... Like when GSP bet BJ Penn... or Jan beat Izzy.

Weightclasses exist for a reason.

 

[BowserJr]

BJ Penn beat a bunch of top LW then moved to WW and beat the #2 WW GoAT (#1 at the time). He was also a small LW. Basically a FW who had major wins at LW and WW plus a bunch of wins/good performances from MW - HW.

That's far more impressive than beating 2 or 3 good LW and a bunch of mediocre ones

 

[orca]

Yes its true, after Hughes he didnt really win those fights at a higher weight class. Contextually, how he did was impressive at least early on in those fights. It's why he IS held in high regard, but what he did at LW, was OK. Sherk was obviously a great name but those other defenses? Meh.

SKILL wise, at his best, at LW he is a tough fight for anyone. But I would say Islam and Khabib's reigns were def more impressive to me.

It's ok if you LIKE BJ Penn more, but thats all it is.

What we need is prime Beej vs prime Khabib + Islam

I dont know why the fuck UFC doesnt book that, they are so stoopid!

im just askin about his record
and your telling someone stupid for asking
pretty sure if u gave islam a chance he could do better than bj



ffs dude you think k1 hughes can beat islam?
theres a reason bj lost like 50 percent of the time
any fighter can be brave and fight at a higher weight class
even robert whitaker has better wins than bj in a higher weightclass
dude is a ww

 

[pinero]

Ohhh , his great accomplish is that he fought bigger guys!!!!! Let's going to forget that Frankie Edgar existed

 

[Doctor Grudge]

BJ Penn's best stuff came before his LW title reign.

 

[jsbx45]

Who are all these featherweights he’s fighting? He’s had two fights against the same FW. Calling Charles, Dustin and Moicano featherweights at this point in their careers is just stupid. Moicano hasn’t made 145 in nearly six years and it’s been even longer for both Charles and Dustin.

We're making comparisons here dude, weighing all facts and opinions. I'm hardly the first one to come up with this notion and Moicano fought for a long time at featherweight. Don't be such an insulting cunt.

 

[BEATDOWNS]

Sean Sherk alone has a better resume than all of Islam’s opponents combined.

Just a lot of recency bias around here.

That, and most of the old school fans who were around to see BJ is his prime, just aren’t around here anymore.

I bet some of the posters here weren’t even born yet when BJ was champ

Get back to us when Islam quits on the stool in the fourth round then we can have a discussion.

 

[kingmob6]

Bj is a bum like op