Remember that time the UFC set BJ up with a lightweight title fight against a guy he beat in 11 seconds? How they were desperate to make him into a big star champion, so they gave him what they thought was going to be the easiest path possible to a title, but then BJ happened. And the lazy fat bitchboy showed up, and couldn’t get the job done, and the fight went to a draw, and they literally GOT RID OF THE ENTIRE DIVISION BECAUSE HE’S SUCH A DOUCHEBAG LOSER THAT HE COULDN’T WIN THE FIGHT THAT WAS SET UP SPECIFICALLY TO MAKE HIM A STAR?
So Dennis Hallman, with two first round submissions over matt Hughes, is a better fighter than Hughes? You rank Hallman higher than Hughes on your list of all-time
greats?
I’m playing devils advocate a bit. I realize it’s damn near impossible to justify thinking bj is better than Edgar.
I just think the best version of penn, which unfortunately we rarely got to see (and he’s responsible for that) beats the best version of Edgar and nearly every other lw fighter.
And I obviously don’t put the Edgar fights as bj at his best. Being in his prime is different to me than being at his best. He wasted many of his prime years.
Lots of trolling in this thread. You can tell who are the real fans with knowledge and who aren’t.
BJ is a forever top 10 LW, at least until someone else moves up to WW, beats (and finishes) an all-time top five guy, then moves up and fights a contender at HW.
Gomi is also a top 10 LW. People forget how big his fight with Kawajiri was at the time. It was Fedor/Mino, Fedor/Crocop, Randy/Tito/Chuck levels of excitement and hype. And no mention of Sakurai or Hellboy in the rankings?
Respectfully, I disagree. I think it’s u reasonable to compare fighters from different eras like this. A prime vs. prime is really more reasonable. For example, a prime Frankie fought an over the hill BJ. Not saying outcome would have been different, but it would have been a more reasonable way to compare fighters.
Sean Sherk had only 4 career losses – 2 by decision (Edgar and Hughes) and 2 by tko (gsp and penn).
Granted its been a long time since I’ve seen those fights but I figure that was probably bj at his lw best. I’ll take that night’s performance and match him up with anyone all time other than maybe Khabib.
Head to head results aren’t always relevant in all-time rankings. I cited Hallman’s 2-0 record vs Hughes. I don’t think anyone thinks Hallman is a better fighter than Hughes, just a bad match up for Hughes.
Look at some of clay Guida’s wins…same story. I think Edgar was a bad match up for penn.
I don’t think there is anything “funny” about bj giving us so few performances where he was at his best during his prime athletic years. He had arguably more potential than anyone ever to step into the octagon and he was too lazy, too unmotivated, too wealthy, etc. to realize that potential.
Bro, it’s not fair for you to argue what actually happened every time they fought.
What you have to do is think about a hypothetical pretend fight where BJ outfights Frankie, and then say “This might have been something that could have happened at some point”, and declare that BJ was actually the better fighter based on that.
Pettis went 6-6 at LW in the UFC at that time. Lost to four LWs Khabib beat.
Alvarez was only in the UFC half the time Khabib was. He went 4-3 in that time and lost two LWs Khabib beat. You saw Eddie get destroyed by Conor. How did Conor do vs Khabib? Would have been 3x Eddie lost to people Khabib beat but there was that NC. Then he went to ONE for easier comp and more money. Continued to get TKOed there too.
Benson was 6-3 in the UFC at LW while Khabib was there. Three of those wins were split decisions. Lost to RDA who Khabib beat and went up to WW after losing to Cowboy.
Melendez was 1-6 while Khabib was there and then he retired.
How is it Khabib’s fault those guys could not keep winning like him so they had to change weight classes, leave the promotion or retire?
Yeah Khabib is not #1 because he did not fight 1-6 past his prime Gilbert Melendez, give me a fucking break.
That’s actually a really good resume, much better than I remembered. If he beats Conor again and then wins the title he shoots up the all time 155 list IMO
What’s really funny is that the guys of yesteryear actually match up better with Khabib than almost all of today’s fighters. Sherk, prime BJ, Frankie, Guida, Joe Stevenson. Even Ken-Flo was a smart enough fighter to have mixed it up well against Khabib.
In my opinion there really is no “all time” argument for me. If I were pressed to create rankings of the best fighters, I would separate them by era. It’s not only difficult to combine them but illogical in multiple ways. People are just so obsessed with having an all time GOAT that they don’t let go of it.