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

[Legendary]

BJ fought in an objectively weaker era. Diego, Sherk, and Florian are tiers below anyone Islam has fought for the most part.

Its not Islams fault that his opponent pulled out and you can't blame him for that.

 

[TheMaster]

Yeah its way betta to lose than to win

actually, the point is to win

I guess for some with your mindset, they would rather be a big fish in a small pond.
Some dont. Thats the difference.

 

[Cooliox]

Ppl always slobbing on Penns knob but fail to add that he got beat x2 in his prime, against Frankie Edgar who should have been fighting at 135lbs.

The first Frankie fight was controversial, but even then - Frankie Edgar is P4P the best fighter in UFC history. Dude won a UFC champion at his walkwround weight, weighing in in jeans.

For context - Sean Sherk lost to only 4 people in his hall of fame career of 41 fights: GSP, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn… and Frankie Edgar.

155 was the smallest weight class in the UFC.
Frankie not only got a job being undersized, he won the championship by ending Prime BJ Penn’s era… then defended it against an undefeated Gray Maynard who was an NCAA div 1 All-American wrestler.

Should have won against Bendo too. Straight robbery.

Put more respect into Frankie Edgar’s name.

 

[SuperAlly]

BJ Penn is a legend.

Makhachev is a spoon-fed, cheating homunculus.

BJ would get embarrassingly dominated by Islam or Khabib. Embarrassingly. Any version of twinkle toes.

 

[Young Calf Kick]

Just stop.

 

[fedorthegoat777]

The first Frankie fight was controversial, but even then - Frankie Edgar is P4P the best fighter in UFC history. Dude won a UFC champion at his walkwround weight, weighing in in jeans.

For context - Sean Sherk lost to only 4 people in his hall of fame career of 41 fights: GSP, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn… and Frankie Edgar.

155 was the smallest weight class in the UFC.
Frankie not only got a job being undersized, he won the championship by ending Prime BJ Penn’s era… then defended it against an undefeated Gray Maynard who was an NCAA div 1 All-American wrestler.

Should have won against Bendo too. Straight robbery.

Put more respect into Frankie Edgar’s name.

Damn right.
Someone has to straighten these new fans out.

 

[HHJ]

I guess for some with your mindset, they would rather be a big fish in a small pond.
Some dont. Thats the difference.

Big fish big pond my dude. Focus!

 

[AstralPanda]

Islam has the better resume at 155.

But BJ was an anomaly. A lot of his most prominent fights took place above 155.

If he'd actually fought at his natural weight class(arguably 145), his career would've been amongst most dominant we seen at the time.

Even out of his peak, he was up 2 rounds to 0 against a 190 pound prime Jon fitch before gassing.

Skill for skill, during his peak flexibility days, he was a problem for almost anyone.

And even that was only a fraction of what he could've been.

His resume is a little tarnished when comparing him to other all time greats just because he took a lot of fights be shouldn't have taken in retrospect.

But he will always be one of the most talented fighters ever and worth mentioning amongst the greats.

 

[HHJ]

Islam has the better resume at 155.

But BJ was an anomaly. A lot of his most prominent fights took place above 155.

If he'd actually fought at his natural weight class(arguably 145), his career would've been amongst most dominant we seen at the time.

Even out of his peak, he was up 2 rounds to 0 against a 190 pound prime Jon fitch before gassing.

Skill for skill, during his peak flexibility days, he was a problem for almost anyone.

And even that was only a fraction of what he could've been.

His resume is a little tarnished when comparing him to other all time greats just because he took a lot of fights be shouldn't have taken in retrospect.

But he will always be one of the most talented fighters ever and worth mentioning amongst the greats.

That's ALL TRUE.


But no reason for petty ass threads like this hahaha

 

[AstralPanda]

The first Frankie fight was controversial, but even then - Frankie Edgar is P4P the best fighter in UFC history. Dude won a UFC champion at his walkwround weight, weighing in in jeans.

For context - Sean Sherk lost to only 4 people in his hall of fame career of 41 fights: GSP, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn… and Frankie Edgar.

155 was the smallest weight class in the UFC.
Frankie not only got a job being undersized, he won the championship by ending Prime BJ Penn’s era… then defended it against an undefeated Gray Maynard who was an NCAA div 1 All-American wrestler.

Should have won against Bendo too. Straight robbery.

Put more respect into Frankie Edgar’s name.

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.

 

[fica]

i was waiting for this type of treads . on days notice no training camps and so on excuse

 

[TerrorTimmy]

How the fuck are you going to blame Islam for Arman getting injured?



You haters are so fucking pathetic

 

[Morning Star]

The only thing BJ has over Islam is he was more naturally gifted, and that can only take you so far. If BJ was a grinder probably could have been the GOAT but he wasn't so he had a mixed career. The obvious outcome is Islam would outwork him and beat him.

 

[HHJ]

Was a big fan of BJ Penn, however BJ was a bit delucional thinking to win against GSP, kind of ruined his career.

No it def was not delusional.

The first fight was competitive enough that a second fight was mandatory

 

[HHJ]

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.

So then when an opponent falls though we rush to the forum to post about how a guy from 15 yrs ago is better than this guy whose career is still ongoing? cos BJ has less LW title defenses against less heralded opposition is way better than Islam??

I mean the guy is basically trying to say BJ is a better LW champ because of stuff he did outside of LW lol

 

[BFoe]

So then when an opponent falls though we rush to the forum to post about how a guy from 15 yrs ago is better than this guy whose career is still ongoing? cos BJ has less LW title defenses against less heralded opposition is way better than Islam??

I mean the guy is basically trying to say BJ is a better LW champ because of stuff he did outside of LW lol

Oh I agree with the last part—what BJ did outside of 155 isn’t relevant to the discussion.
And come on, you know the drill—we must always rush to the forum after each PPV to anoint new GOATs or issue proclamations of “Never Any Good.” It’s the Sherdoggian Way.

 

[LoveMyMMA]

BJ Penn LW GOAT talks in 2025 LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[nonoob]

Volk is better than anyone BJ Penn defended his belt against.

​

 

[Pious Augustus]

Facts. Late notice x2 and FW x2 and one was a late notice FW LOL


.BJ was all full camp lightweights.

Are you trying to argue that Joe Stevenson, Sherk, Diego, Flo, are better than Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier, Alexander Volkanovski x2?

 

[evergreenrider]

BJ was great in his day. But I doubt if you drop him in his prime in today's LW division he cracks the top 5. Let alone beat Islam. And big LOL about BJ moving up to challenge himself. Are we forgetting how fucking lazy he was? I'd lean more towards not wanting to cut weight and maximize monetary earnings.