BJ Penn has had a long and successful career in MMA. Penn was also the first American to win Gold at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
During his long MMA career he’s competed in Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, and Heavyweight divisions and managed to win title at Lightweight and at Welterweight.
He was considered one of the top pound-for-pound mixed martial artists in the world at his peak.
Penn recently penned a social media post decrying his belief as to why Khabib Nurmagomedov never tried to compete outside the 155lbs division.
BJ Penn uses his leg dexterity to get back to guard pic.twitter.com/fKLwyF4jpL
— Miguel Class (@MigClass) September 2, 2022
“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 jiu jitsu
I believe the reason behind Khabib not fighting Usman is because he does not know jiu jitsu 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.”
Nurmagomedov didn’t harbor any ill will about the comments. He was quoted listing BJ Penn among of the best:
“I think the impersonation of the lightweight division was BJ Penn for a long time,” Khabib said.
“I can explain. Despite of many defeats, he won the lightweight title, defended it and move up to the welterweights, and won the belt there. Then he had lost to one of the best fighters ever, Georges St-Pierre. B.J. Penn, I think we can put him out there.“
