{"id":6316,"date":"2025-08-01T01:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T00:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=6316"},"modified":"2025-08-01T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T12:06:43","slug":"who-is-the-lightweight-goat-joe-rogan-puts-bj-penn-ahead-of-khabib-nurmagomedov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/who-is-the-lightweight-goat-joe-rogan-puts-bj-penn-ahead-of-khabib-nurmagomedov\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the Lightweight GOAT? Joe Rogan puts BJ Penn ahead of Khabib Nurmagomedov!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2336\" data-end=\"2606\">The debate over the UFC lightweight \u201cGreatest of All Time\u201d (GOAT) is as heated as ever. While <strong data-start=\"2430\" data-end=\"2453\">Khabib Nurmagomedov<\/strong> is the unanimous choice for many, UFC commentator <strong data-start=\"2504\" data-end=\"2517\">Joe Rogan<\/strong> shocked fans by naming Hawaiian legend <strong data-start=\"2557\" data-end=\"2568\">BJ Penn<\/strong> as his top lightweight of all time.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2608\" data-end=\"2643\">Khabib\u2026 the perfect record<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2644\" data-end=\"2956\">With an undefeated resume (29-0) and three title defenses against top names \u2013 <strong data-start=\"2722\" data-end=\"2772\">Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje<\/strong> \u2013 Khabib dominated with relentless wrestling and an iron mindset. For most, those numbers cement his legacy as the GOAT. But Rogan argues that statistics don\u2019t tell the whole story.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2958\" data-end=\"3002\">Joe Rogan: \u201cBJ Penn was unbeatable\u201d<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3003\" data-end=\"3058\">On his podcast, Rogan recalled BJ Penn\u2019s prime years:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"3059\" data-end=\"3320\">\n<p data-start=\"3061\" data-end=\"3320\">\u201cThey always say Khabib is the greatest lightweight of all time\u2026 and maybe he is. But the BJ Penn who fought Joe Stevenson, Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez\u2014that version of BJ was unbeatable. His submissions were insane, his striking could knock you out standing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3322\" data-end=\"3466\">For Rogan, the \u201cprime BJ Penn,\u201d especially during his training with Marv Marinovich, was capable of challenging anyone in lightweight history.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_70599\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YZ1WqHy4E5k?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3468\" data-end=\"3513\">Khabib\u2019s legacy vs. BJ Penn\u2019s legacy<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3514\" data-end=\"3836\">Khabib\u2019s legacy is often debated because of his early retirement and the relatively short list of elite opponents at his peak. BJ Penn, on the other hand, represented a golden era of lightweight MMA, combining technique, creativity, and warrior spirit. The comparison goes beyond records\u2014it\u2019s about influence and impact.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3838\" data-end=\"3871\">The new generation rises<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3872\" data-end=\"4068\">With new stars like <strong data-start=\"3892\" data-end=\"3908\">Ilia Topuria<\/strong> aiming to carve their own path and break records, the GOAT debate in the lightweight division is far from over. The story continues with the next generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The debate over the UFC lightweight \u201cGreatest of All Time\u201d (GOAT) is as heated as ever. While Khabib Nurmagomedov is the unanimous choice for many, UFC commentator Joe Rogan shocked fans by naming Hawaiian legend BJ Penn as his top lightweight of all time. Khabib\u2026 the perfect record With an undefeated resume (29-0) and three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86,21,91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-mma-video","9":"category-ufc-news","10":"category-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6318,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions\/6318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}