Khabib Nurmagomedov is 29-0. BJ Penn is 16-14.
But, it’s NOT the undefeated fighter from Dagestan who is the greatest MMA fighter to ever step in a cage, according to 38-year-old former UFC champ Benson Henderson , who tells TMZ Sports Penn is the G.O.A.T.!
“That’s easy, hands down BJ. Not even close. You don’t even gotta say his full name, just one word. BJ, and you know who it is. The greatest lightweight all-time, without a doubt, hands down BJ Penn.”
Of course, BJ and Khabib – both now retired – had very different careers.
Penn started his pro career at the highest level … in the UFC. He fought everyone from Matt Serra (win, 2002), Matt Hughes (win, 2004), Renzo Gracie (win, 2004), Georges St. Pierre (loss, 2006), Diego Sanchez (win, 2009) and Nick Diaz (loss, 2011). BJ had a rough end to his career … losing his last 7 fights.
As for Nurmagomedov … he never lost a single fight. But, Khabib didn’t come to the UFC until 2012. However, when he got there … he literally and figurately kicked everyone’s ass.
The Eagle’s last 6 fights, all dubs, came against Michael Johnson (2016), Edson Barboza (2017), Al Iaquinta (2018), Conor McGregor (2018), Dustin Poirier (2019) and Justin Gaethje (2020). After the scrap with Justin, Nurmagomdeov walked away from the sport.
We said … a lot of people believe the Eagle is the GOAT.
Benson’s response?
“Out of those 29 and 0 Khabib fought, go look up the records of the 29 people he beat and then go look at the records of guys BJ beat. Go look at the records the guys BJ lost to. Go look at where they fought.”
No hesitation there … for his money, Penn is the best.
And, speaking of money … we also asked Benson – a Bellator free agent – about his future career plans. Does he plan to retire? Fight for another organization like Khabib’s Eagle FC?
Check out the clip … Benson ain’t going anywhere just yet – not without another championship belt around his waist.
Kabob shud not even be in the goat discussion with his opponents and his walking away early to avoid stiff competition and protecting his record. Weak af.
Baby Jay still scrappin in the streets of Kona
BJ is the LW GOAT
BJ had a pretty brief period where he was great.
The rest of the time he was not.
Its fucking retarded to call him the goat lw when he barely defended and got beat by oh, 10 people who should not have beat him.
Rose colored glasses looking at the past.
I mean hes tied for most title defenses and has the most finishes in LW title fight history. Just because he stood around too long means nothing. If you take the BJ who beat Diego or Florian, that guy is unbeatable at 155.
BJ doesn’t crack the top 10 when it comes to goats at lightweight.
His best win is Florian (lol)
Ok give me your top 10 at lightweight
I don’t know who the LW GOAT is but I know who it’s not! It’s damn sure not Khabib! That’s laughable!
Though I agree with your first line, his best win was Sean Sherk. But in hindsight, Diego and Florian… Lol
He’s correct, and no, it isn’t close
This. Benson telling the truth here and is gonna shit on by new age fans and casuals.
BJ Penn has fought all of the best guys from multiple weight classes. He beat a lot of them.
Khabib fought a few of the best guys and the rest were unremarkable.
Benson vs BJ in their primes would be a great matchup.
Bendo is correct.
One thing I can confidently say is that BJ has the biggest Cohones out of all the LWs in MMA History and took on the greatest challenges by far.
- While he was the LW Champ he challenged the WW Champ.
- He fought, won, and defended the LW Title multiple times,
- He went up through WW and won the WW Title
- He went up through MW
- And he even fought a HW version of Machida giving up over 30 lbs.
No one takes those risks anymore and everything is about protecting One’s “Brand” nowadays.
I can’t say who is the LW GOAT here though I know who it was between but I can confidently say BJ took the most risks out of any of them and even though his decline was probably the worst out of all of the Greats, for the guts he showed alone he deserves the praise.
He beat Gomi and GSP.
Would Khabib go undefeated against everyone BJ beat in title fights? More than likely.
Would BJ go undefeated against everyone Khabib beat in title fights? Almost certainly not.
If you want to witness Khabib’s greatness, you can pluck damn near any fight he had especially in his last 3-4 years and you’ll see an absolute monster. He crushed people, literally. He physically crushed them and glued them to the mat and bashed their fucking brains in. The guy was a nightmare to deal with. Relentless. The only one who made him look human was Tibau.
If you want to witness BJ’s greatness, you have to veeeeery selectively cherry pick a handful of fights from different points of his career, ignore a ton of awful lazy performances, forget that the last 10 years of his career ever happened, ignore him going 0-1-1 in title fights at 155 and LITERALLY destroyed the division. The 155 division existed, and then DID NOT EXIST FOR YEARS because the UFC wanted him to win the belt and he failed to do it.
And then you gotta hear dumbasses go “Dude, he beat Joe Stevenson and Diego Sanchez, he’s the GOAT!!!”
Is Joe Stevenson even in the top 50 lightweights of all time? Is Diego? Honest question. Start thinking of the most impressive lightweights and rattle them off. Guarantee Diego’s name doesn’t even enter the discussion until about 30-ish, and even then you’ll remember 6 or 7 names that bump him down.
BJ was great for his time. All time? It’s a real argument if he even cracks top 10.
point system, no bias
Rank | Fighter | Record | All-Time Points |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
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29-0-0 | 11653 |
2 |
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16-14-2 | 8366 |
3 |
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30-8-0 | 7794 |