How is he unaccomplished when he’s tied for the most title defences in the divisions history?
Because many other fighters have defended their title more times in regards to the being the GOAT. I don’t think Khabib should be in the conversation.
There’s a reason why 3 title defences is the most in LW history. It’s the most talent stacked division ever.
And yet the guy he tied with isn’t very good.
BJ and Frankie?
All the comments suggest BJ wasn’t good, so that’s who I’m referring to.
Of course he’s good… just not compared to Khabib.
I’m not saying he’s better, but the greats were about seeing how far their abilities could take them. From what I heard Khabib was Welterweight size. I never saw him fight anyone bigger than himself. BJ could make 145. He won a welter weight title. He also fought a light heavy weight champ to a decision. Khabib never even tried against bigger fighters, and he never tested himself against ground specialist. He doesn’t belong in the same conversation as those people.
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I remember that interview
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That’s not it there was a different one
I was looking for it. I couldn’t find it.
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Hopefully you are not talking about Khabib here? Because that never happened. At all.
Khabib did go to his gym but to let his guys train. John has never seen Khabib train. Ever. John has never questioned his ground game. Ever. Only criticism he has is his stand up.
Pretty much everything you said was a fabrication. If you are indeed talking about Khabib.
Are you?
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Penn also fought for many many years past the age of 32 unlike Khabib. In addition to that he jumped right into the UFC to start his career while Khabib was built up slowly as was more common in his era. Penn also went up and competed at WW, MW, LHW and OW. At OW alone he fought 225 lb Machida and took him the distance and almost won after Machida had just destroyed HW kickboxers Sam Greco, Michael McDonald and Rich Franklind and Stephan Bonnar prior to fighting Penn.
Penn fought a higher level of comp than Khabib, was never built up slowly and fought way longer. Very different careers.
Same with Charles…thrown to the wolves much earlier in his career than Khabib. Cut too much weight but was the #6 FW ranked fightmatrix FW at one time before later becoming the #1 LW.
All three men had very different careers that are not equal. Records don’t mean everything.
In ranking the GOATS for #1 to #10,000, a guy like 32-15 Dan Henderson is ranked way higher than most fighters with pretty records based on the strengths of his wins and the performances in his losses.
That being said I consider Khabib, Penn and Oliveira as the top 3 LW GOATS but don’t want to try to rank them.
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haha pwned
BJ Penn has the shittest losing streak in ufc history…
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He might be the wankest lw champ of all time.
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This is what you don’t get. If a Penn/Anderson/Hendo/Cain etc… sticks around too long it does not erase what they achieved in their prime. Not everyone retires at 32 like GSP and Khabib.
Penn was the #1 LW in the world for nine straight years. He was also one of the best LW’s for 11 years and one of the best WW’s for seven years.
Calling Penn the wankest lw champ just says you have no clue about the sport.
This is oversimplification modern fans tend to make… they just look at records and ignore the facts and differences in careers.
Cole Konrad retired an undefeated MMA champ, 9-0. His two year career is nothing compared to 40-6 Fedor who has competed for 22 years.
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There are several major differences. BJ fought guys, in their prime, who were highly skilled at all aspects of the game. He fought strikers, he fought wrestlers, he fought BJJers. Khabib really only fought strikers. There’s a glaring hole in his resume as far as wrestlers and BJJers go. Neither Conor, Dustin, or Justin have a ground game whatsoever.
Khabib doesn’t have half the accomplishments BJ has. Did Khabib move up in weight and finish the #2 ranked WW of all-time? Did he test himself at HW? I’ve said it before–BJ’s loss at HW, his willingness to test himself, counts for a lot more than most wins at LW. And his first fight against Hughes is the stuff of legend.
And not a ground game to be found among any of them.
Khabib? Hardly. Let’s see him against Sherk, Florian, Stevenson, Karo, prime Diego, Nick, Frankie, Hall, Guida, prime Gomi. Then lets see him move up and fight guys like GSP, Hughes, Fitch, and Rory.
Both of these guys have better ground games than anyone Khabib faced.
To exceed BJ’s accomplishments–and they all count as LW accomplishments because regardless of the division in which he fought, BJ was a natural 155lber, if not smaller–Khabib would have to move up and finish–not just beat–Usman, who is currently the best WW fighting today (and he’s still not ranked higher all-time than Hughes), take a massively dominant WW fighter like Colby (who would be Fitch’s counterpart in this instance) to a draw, then move up and fight someone like Ciryl Gane without being finished himself. He’d also need to finish a massively successful LW fighter on a 14 fight win streak (Gomi). And we haven’t even talked about BJ’s fights against the #1 WW of all-time and #2 overall all-time fighter GSP. A loss to someone of GSP’s caliber counts for far more than a win against almost all other opponents, just like playing against and losing to Jordan’s Bulls in their prime counts for far more than winning against the Bulls today.
People forget what BJ did and against whom he did it. Looking at the paper record, it’s easy to do. But there’s far more to it than that.
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Great post.
Plus when BJ fought there was an excitement that never existed when Khabib fought. The Conor fights were the best thing for Khabib’s career; if not for them, he would have went out like Cejudo.
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Who gives a shit about fightmatrix, it has no nuance aside from win/loss and Swiss points. Can’t distinguish between a close fight, an ass beating, and a robbery. Also greatly over credits wins outside the UFC for their castoffs.
If you don’t agree, please explain Linton Vassel being the #11 heavyweight. How about Yoel being a top 10 at 205 despite being 1-1 there and 2-5 since 2017?