BJ Penn on Khabib: ‘he did not fight bigger opponents in higher weight classes’

BJ Penn has had a storied career, motivated BJ Penn still comes up in the lightweight GOAT discussion. Khabib Nurmagomedov has also entered the discussion as he has now retired undefeated following his submission victory over Justin Gaethje last year.

Penn started his professional MMA career in the UFC and had tilts with legends such as Jens Pulver, Din Thomas, Caol Uno, Matt Sera, and Matt Hughes to name a few. Penn always had that “he just looks big, I’ll show him” mentality and captured UFC gold in the Lightweight division and the Welterweight division. He even fought the GOAT himself, GSP, twice at Welterweight.

He left the organization for K1, fighting at Welterweight, Middleweight, and even had a Light Heavyweight showdown with Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida and Renzo Gracie. The newer fans only recognize BJ Penn on the tail end of his career and not the absolute madman he was in his prime.

Of course with the attitude of eating all the cheese burgers and taking all the knocks, you’ll lose one every once and a while. There’s very few fighters that keep their 0 in Mixed Martial Arts, there are just too many ways to lose. Early BJ Penn would adjust, maybe drop a weight class, and murk opponents in stunning fashion.

Time catches up with us all, as the great Muhammad Ali once said “you have to get use to riding on airplanes when you can’t fly concord no more.” Penn dropped two in a row to Frankie Edgar (the first decision still contested to this day), came back and starched Matt Hughes and drew with John Fitch.

Then comes the chapter that everyone is sadly too familiar with, Penn has fought seven times since 2011 and has lost them all. He even made an attempt to cut down to featherweight to attempt a career resurrengen, BJ has gone anywhere that is possible.

He recently took to his Instagram to stake his claim for the Lightweight GOAT title:

“Since Khabib has been saying he is the greatest lightweight of all time and I am number 2 best lightweight many people have been asking me why didn’t Khabib fight Usman for the 170 pound belt or compete for 170 belt like I did many times… in my humble opinion it is because he is not proficient and confident in jiujitsu

I believe the reason behind Khabib not fighting Usman is because he does not know jiujitsu like I did and he is not comfortable fighting off his back against someone who is bigger and stronger than him like I did many many times in my career. I fought at 170 185 and heavyweight and every fight I had to fight from my back and survive and come back and fight harder if I was to get a victory.

It’s because of my jiujitsu black belt experience and fighting in my weight and absolute division for years that always prepared me for this…Gracie jiujitsu and Brazilian jiu-jitsu alone is not enough to be UFC champion but to choose one system BJJ is still the greatest self defense system in the world especially for the little man to fight the big man.

It was just part of the game…Khabib says jiujitsu is easy and he is the best grappler ever but he did not fight bigger opponents in higher weight classes because his style is not prepared for this …and that’s what jiujitsu was created for.. for the little man to defend himself from the big man! That is martial arts, that is self defense”

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