what was the extent of BJ Penn's awesomeness?

No doubt he went out on a bad streak, but prime BJ was awesome. He was exciting to watch and very popular too. Yeah GSP made him quit in the rematch, but BJ gave pre-Serra GSP his toughest fight in their first meeting. It's a shame there are newbs that only think of him by his last few fights and YouTube drunk fighting videos outside of a bar. If you saw BJ finish Caol Uno live it was unbelievable. There's so many sick fights he was in. Then he goes up to 170 and freakin wins. He goes back to 170 later and beats a deteriorating Hughes then fights Fitch to a draw.
 
Mal Intentions said:
for example, when he did more than hold his own against Lyoto Machida... he literally did way better against machida than rich franklin did, could bj have possibly went up and taken the MW belt from Rich?
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There's no timeline in which BJ ever beats Rich. But fans who weren't around often don't realize how significant his win over (domination of) Matt Hughes was. Hard to believe it was almost 20 years ago.

chinarice said:
But I am a GSP fan and think BJ was awesome...
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Substance Abuse said:
And that's rare. You love to see it though.
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I'm a fan of both, too.
 
BJ'S awesomeness can simply not be measured. there is no scale big enough to grasp it.
 
He was very overrated given he was considered P4P number 1 into the 2010s by more people than who'd like to admit it. Given that he fought in the beginning of the division era LW/WW was at it's weakest as most professional fighters were previously fighting open weight and opted to go there instead of LW/HW(MW wasn't really a thing yet).

Almost beating GSP is a great feat but that was early on and Matt Serra also beat GSP. While GSP was a prodigy in that he was successful in his early 20's he wasn't the Jones sort where he was making the world his bitch quite yet he didn't clearly surpass your Hughes and Penn's until a little later.
 
He's similar to Rousey in that he was so far ahead that many of his best fights were actually easy. When they got hard,he struggled to find it in him to match that intensity,and would let it slip away.
 
All of his good will went out the door when he pulled this shit:
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Megatronlee said:
Yeah....bj was able to create an atmosphere where machida had to respect him. That’s how it goes
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Sure but it was based on flawed game plan.

Penn had great BJJ but it was nothing like Maia or Werdum's BJJ where you did not want them to lay hands on you to take you down and submit you. Penn used his BJJ to keep the fight standing and get back up i taken down and only really went for submissions if he out boxed you, stunned you and could then grab a RNC.

So Machida giving BJ a point striking match was playing right into BJ's strength and where BJ wanted the fight to take place.
 
BJ to me was a pretty awesome fighter because he seemed like a very small fighter who went up against almost anyone and competed against some top fighters. At his best, he was masterful and exciting. He went into so many fights that he lost and everyone felt like he had a good shot to win, until it became evident that his skills and training weren't keeping up with the rest of MMA.
 
Exceptionally gifted reflexes and balance.

Was incredibly dangerous on the ground -- while possessing fast, accurate and semi-powerful hands.

A real pain in the ass.

If only it was motivated BJ Penn someone ran into at the airport.

(I did meet Lyoto Machida in the LA airport once hah)
 
XNYHCX said:
Yeah. And Penn didn't sit before the fifth. He stood there grinning and nodding at sanchez, wating for the round to start.
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Ya i think that was the last fight where Penn had his old grappling cardio thanks to Marinovich.

Bj's biggest career mistake was not gutting it out and sticking with Marinovich. HIs cardio fell off a cliff after that similar to how when Hendo lost his grappling cardio and went from Decision Dan, a guy who grind out anyone for very controversial decision wins, to HBomb Dan who had no choice but to focus on striking (like BJ) because he no longer had grappling cardio.
 
Milgrim said:
There's no timeline in which BJ ever beats Rich. But fans who weren't around often don't realize how significant his win over (domination of) Matt Hughes was. Hard to believe it was almost 20 years ago.



I'm a fan of both, too.
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It was huge. Not onlt was hughes a bigger guy,but he was a dominant champion who thought it insulting that a guy who didnt win the LW belt would dare challenge him
 
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