Who had a better career in MMA?.. Matt Hughes or BJ Penn?

Matt Hughes but BJ had a more interesting career.
Edgar bless
 
Hughes he was more dominant for a longer period of time. had Bj not embraced his Bushido spirit and stayed at lw in his later years he would have dominated until he got to Edgar and even then he may have had a better chance. But its hard to hold back a person like BJ who had god given skills on the highest level and believed in his abilities beyond what they became. weight classes are there for a reason, he found out the hard way. Amazing chin, amazing heart and amazing desire to be great, but he was just out of his league against 170lb men in his later years.
 
It's close, but I'll go with Penn.

- 2-weight champ is a greater single achievement than anything Matt managed

- Penn got the better of their trilogy

- In my own opinion, Penn was simply a better, more skilled fighter at his lightweight best than Hughes was in his welterweight prime

Just my opinion. Can see the counter though, for sure, Hughes is a top 10 ATG all day.
 
Hughes had a more dominant streak, but Penn's was more interesting. Both are Legends and great fighters.
 
It is actually hard to compare their careers.

Pound for Pound means that "Given that all fighters are the same weight, who is the best?" And we often speculate on that, but it ends there at speculation. But what BJ did was unlike most fighters, he went out of his way to find out. He fought at FW, LW, WW, MW, LHW. Nearly everyone agrees that BJ Penn is a natural LW. So if you look at his LW career he is 11 - 3 - 1. And unquestionably he was one of the greatest if not the greatest LW fighter in UFC ever.

Then if you look at his career outside of his weight class he is 5 - 7 - 1. So did he do great outside his weight class, no, but he still did a respectable job and while we can all speculate and assume which fighters would be great P4P, at least with BJ Penn we actually know where he stood. And one thing is for sure, when BJ stepped up to WW he went 2 - 1 against Matt Hughes.

Matt Hughes on the other hand fought a respectable career almost entirely at WW. And he did fantastic. Other than GSP, he has been the most dominant WW of all time.

So for me, their careers can't be compared, but if you make me compare them, I think BJ Penn did more to prove himself than Matt Hughes.
 
Penn.

Also he deserves an asterix for bringing drug testing to MMA. Hughes on the other hand was a TRT user.
 
karatekick1 said:
Penn.

Also he deserves an asterix for bringing drug testing to MMA. Hughes on the other hand was a TRT user.
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Wtf?? Prove it. IMO you should get dubbs for that comment. I've gotten dubbs and there's more evidence for others than for Hughes.

It's tough to say. They had very different careers. Penn was a better fighter. Hughes accomplished more.
 
EgonSpengler said:
Wtf?? Prove it. IMO you should get dubbs for that comment. I've gotten dubbs and there's more evidence for others than for Hughes.

It's tough to say. They had very different careers. Penn was a better fighter. Hughes accomplished more.
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The wrestling observer reported Matt Hughes used TRT for his bout with Ricardo Almeida when IT was legal.

How is that fighter bashing? That's like saying you should get dubs for saying Jon Jones cut weight against Chael Sonnen.
 
doesn't anyone remember when rashad evans was featured before the rampage fight and he was eating bagfuls of pills?

everyone takes something (be it creatine or trt). it just becomes a problem when commission decides that it is suddenly banned.
 
jx820 said:
Hughes looks better on paper with 7 overall title defenses (non-consecutive). BJ's career was far more interesting and noteworthy.

2 div champ (only 2 in UFC history).
3 division fighter.
Only LW champ to fight at HW.
Dropped the belt voluntarily to chase the best competition
Fought only true UFC champ vs UFC champ superfight in UFC history.

He just had this crazy unique career.
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4 division fighter, technically 5 if you count his 145 performance. He fought at 180lbs when he fought Rodorigo Gracie who was 182lbs
 
If you look at their matches they've fought each other, GSP, Serra and Sherk. They both beat Serra by decision, while BJ finished Sherk and Hughes "only" got a UD. BJ had a close loss and a dominant loss against GSP, while Hughes tapped GSP once and got finished twice. BJ stopped Hughes twice, while Hughes stopped him once. I think Hughes edges this due to the GSP win, but I rate GSP very highly. Beyond this, both fighters had a handful of good wins but Hughes was far more consistent in his career, racking up almost three times as many wins as BJ as well as seven title defences to BJ's three.
 
Mamou said:
4 division fighter, technically 5 if you count his 145 performance. He fought at 180lbs when he fought Rodorigo Gracie who was 182lbs
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Brian Ebersole also fought in five divisions, does that make him an all time great?
 
Going with the 45-9 guy over the 16-10-2 guy.
 
I'm the biggest BJ nuthugger ever, and even I have to admit that Hughes had a better career. He defended his belt multiple times and was considered an unbeatable champion at one point. And was doing it in a super tough WW division.

BJ took more risks and was just plane more exciting to watch, but Hughes had a more solid career.
 
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