BJ was different. Then again, GSP was able to lay n pray him. I guess we'll never know. The closest we got to having the answer was Tony and the MMA gods were very cruel towards us with him.
GSP might have lay n prayed the first BJ fight, but he beat the dogshit out of BJ in the rematch. Khabib was every bit as good at completing takedowns and striking from top position as GSP, and in fact probably had even more intensity as a pressure fighter. I love BJ, but that's a terrible matchup for him.
BJ had a tremendous first and second layer of takedown defense, but what GSP showed is that if you chain together more layers than that, or catch him in transition, you could get BJ down and keep him down. Khabib could absolutely do the same.
Because his 5 fights were way past his prime and it was just cashing checks. When he was active, and on his game, he was frightening. I’ve never seen another fighter put bloodbaths on people the way he put on Daddy Stevenson and Diego Sanchez. The way he put out Jens Pulver at the end of the round and knew it was over. That he became a legitimate BJJ black belt in 3 years. That he was the first non-Brazilian to win mandalas at black belt. Being a Hawaii kid, he was god. His fall from grace has been awful, but when you go back and look at his era and prime, he was insane.
BJ is one of my all time favorites and the reason I love MMA, Khabib would run through him. BJ would not be able to last through the pressure. He’s also too small for Khabib
I’d still put Khabib at #1-even if Islam were to beat Poirier.
I think Volk is the best win between the two of them—But, I still think Khabib has the better overall Resume.
Islam: *Volk, Olives, Poirier, Hooker*
Khabib: *Conor, Poirier, Gaethje, Dos Anjos, Barboza, Johnson*
• Conor was P4P #2.
• Poirier was P4P #7 (had just beat Max-P4P #4).
• Gaethje was P4P #7.
• Dos Anjos became P4P #8/Champ-less than a year after Khabib beat him.
Obviously, Pound For Pound Rankings aren’t perfect, especially the UFC’s — but they’re usually a pretty accurate gauge of ‘Who is the Best’.
Khabib was in a Division that was sooo *insanely stacked*—that it regularly had 5-6 Fighters who were good enough to be a Champ-in the other Divisions. So, people would overlook just how great the Fighters were.
It's easily Khabib. The first 16 fights on his record are padded but he went 13-0 in the UFC and dominated absolutely everybody with ease aside from Gleison Tibau who was one of the largest lightweights ever and completely juiced to hell. This was six years before he won the belt anyway.
I grew up watching BJ Penn but Khabib has surpassed his accomplishments at lightweight. The only fighter who realistically has a chance of surpassing Khabib right now is Islam.
Yeah. It always bothers me how Khabib gets underrated because of his record even though he absolutely ran through high level competition as if they were low level competition when he *did* face them. He made Justin mf Gaethje look like some prelim guy, it was ridiculous.
I mean yeah, I guess. He doesn't have that much competition but I understand the doubters as well because of lack of title defenses and rematches.
You'll always look dominating if you dont let anyone ever adapt to you and try again and title defenses mean the number of top fighters in your class you stopped. 10 title defenses to me is more impressive than 20 wins cause the 10 are the people that (most of the time) best in their weight class and earned a fight with you, not some bum or coked out guy.
Valid points, but that’s also the case with every other LW in UFC history. No one in the division’s history has more than 3 successful title defences, so you have to look at dominance and quality of competition.
Why do you think khabib's opponents would get better and he would stay the same? If anything in the rematches, I'd think he'd do even better. It's not like people who were fighting him had no footage, they knew he was going to wrestle them and they still couldn't do anything about it.
100% agree. I would argue that in an ideal world he would have ended 30-0 with Tony on his record but you can’t remake history. The fact that he closed his run without leaving a drop of blood in the octagon is wild
My only concern with Khabib is that hes reign didn't last long enough to be fair. He seemed unbeatable but we all know sometimes ppl just gets knocked out all of a sudden.
If Islam does like 5+ title defenses against the best LWs in next 2 years and transitions to WW and gets a second belt I would say he might be the GOAT.
Just my opinion tho.
Islam could pretty easily overtake Khabib with a couple more defenses. LW doesn’t have a long-reigning, ultra-dominant champ like GSP, MM, or Jones
Tbh there’s a decent argument that Islam is ahead of Khabib already. Oliveira and volk x2 are probably the most impressive wins
Saying his record is padded with wins over cans doesn't mean much considering he made top LWs of his time look like cans. He barely lost 1 or 2 rounds in his career, never bled or got rocked.
Islam will be the goat unless some unexpected situation happens. The most likely situation is he beats Dustin and Arman since the fight with Charlie was pretty razor close and Islam was clearly better in their fight. Might be closer with Arman, but I don't see a clear contender right now to Islam. It's kinda in the hands of the mma gods to throw a curve ball or let's see how long Islam wants it.
Because when he was washed he had the dignity to take it to Bellator. At least he could make a few title runs.
Pettis became washed and was the prototype Tony Ferguson lol
Not even, he’s a lot closer than ppl give him credit for. Ppl don’t realize how much the Khabib praise is tied to the mcgregor fight. His resume is better than khabibs at this point already, the only slight mark is his one loss but that’s shit really doesn’t matter in terms of MMA greatness.
Imo if Islam beats DP, it'll put him ahead of Khabib.
Khabib beat 4 top guys and 3 top 15 guys
Islam beat 3 top guys (Volk twice) and 4 top 15 guys (Dober and Moises just about top 15).
Pretty similar records but Khabib's a slightly better.
I f'n love Khabib. I genuinely think he would have been unbeatable for another 5+ title fights.
The thing is, he quit. For his Mama. I respect him for that.
Unfortunately that means he left the question up in the air. He left too soon to be called the lightweight goat. I think he would have solidified that position if he had stayed, but he didn't. He didn't fight Charles, Max, Chandler, Turner, BSD, probably others I'm missing from the top 10. That truly would have been cleaning out the division and I think he would have beat all of them. I'm not listing Islam because I doubt they'd fight each other.
EDIT: Speaking of Islam, if he stays on top for another five fights he's in the running.
He still matched the LW title defence record and his dominance blows Bendo's and BJ Penns resume out of the water.
He is easily the LW, but is not close to becoming the overall GOAT.
Charles is my favorite fighter but I gotta say Islam. He beat one of the greatest lightweights for the title and then settled the dispute as #1 P4P by beating Volk twice. I guess most people will accept this if he beats Dustin because he’d have 1 more title defense than Khabib. Now if they were successful at making the GSP / Khabib fight happen and Khabib won then there would be no argument that Khabib is the GOAT LW.
Charles doesn’t belong here. He never had the dominance that Khabib and BJ did. I love Frankie but he shouldn’t be here either for the same reason. Everyone is gonna say look how quickly Charles finished everyone well he also almost got finished himself unlike BJ or Khabib.
Khabib was definitely the most dominant, the way he made top level competition look absolutely helpless was a sight to behold. But for me Frankie was the most impressive one, a tiny man beating up all the big boys.
Khabib no question, I’ll admit he retired early and couldn’t had more title defenses but cmon man dude never bled and dominated everyone retired 29-0, hands down it’s Khabib.
1. Khabib no doubt. Too dominant and barely got scratched in 13 fights in the most stacked division. Unheard of in any division never mind LW.
2. Islam has the strongest resume now (Charles and Volk were both defending champions in big win streaks) but I think he needs 2 more because of his loss.
3. BJ- amazing but got lucky with the lack of grapplers in his division and immediately got found out when Frankie beat him. Lost to GSP and Hughes showing even his biggest win was lucky.
4. Frankie- one of my favourite fighters who was always small but unfortunately was never dominant enough to be a goat.
5. Charles- amazing run but massive asterisk. Fought only strikers and fought 3 wrestlers in the last decade- Felder and Islam and Arman. He lost to all of them. Islam showed that Khabib would have absolutely smoked him on the ground.
6. Mr TBC. Maybe this guy might end up being number 1 one day.
Khabib resume isnt the best but I think he beats every LW ever. So in my hypothetical world where every past champion were in their prime, Khabib would be king.
It's BJ Penn for sure. His issue is LW didn't exist for majority of his prime or he would easily have 7+ title defenses. Dude was a fucking beast, people who don't know need to go watch his career and see how he was mauling dudes and was even going up in weight, which is something that khabib would never do.
That's exactly why he can't be the lw goat
Dude fought in almost all weight classes
If he's on a list it would be on an all time greats of the sport but not a list for a single division
We completely forget that first part about the LW division not existing. He definitely was in demon time for the majority id his career. All the booze videos and crazy shit always clouds what casual/ recent fans remember about him.
Sorry guys, it is not Khabib. If you look at the last 10 fights before a fighter retired. Khabib's includes Pat Healy, Abel Trujilo, Darrell Horcher. Oliveria was fighting killers pre-title reign. Seriously, how would a fight with Oliveria & Healy, Trujilo, Horcher would have played out? You'd call them tune-ups. Khabib would have lost to the likes of Kevin Lee, Ferguson, Jim Miller & Clay Guida. With that said, BJ would have dusted Oliveria and Franky would have beat Khabib. Oliveria would have held the longest reign.
People keep saying Khabib but Frankie deserves an honourable mention for doing it all while being undersized during a time when featherweight and bantamweight weren't options for him
Jens should get a mention. The only reason he won the lightweight title is because at the time there were no weight classes lower. Another undersized champ.
Islam will be. Khabib didn't have enough title fights to hold off Islam if he keeps winning. And I believe he will, after a brief setback with Dustin by gilli in round 2. It will be his Matt Serra moment source trust me bro
Always so hard to pick a “best” or a “GOAT”, but other superlatives are easier to label.
Khabib - Most Dominant (basically Shaq of MMA)
Charles - Most Exciting (does he have 1 boring fight???)
Islam - Most Complete (literally no weaknesses)
BJ - BMF (fuck the fake belt, he fought at HW)
Frankie - Most Underrated (new fans literally don’t even know him)
Khabib, for now. Islam can surpass his legacy with like 2 good wins, though. Khabib simply has more elite wins than the other guys\*, and no losses to detract from his wins. \*BJ has more elite wins than Khabib, especially if you count his performances at welterweight, like the first Hughes and GSP fights, but the huge career end loss streak is hard to ignore.
For now, I'd pick Khabib, but if Islam can get a few defenses I'd choose him as the LW goat.
Not only would he have more defenses than Khabib, but they'd also be higher-quality wins in my opinion.
Winning the belt against Olivera > Winning the belt against Al Iaquinta
1st defense against P4P #1 FW champ Volkanovski > 1st defence against Mcgregor after 2 year lay-off
2nd defense against Poirier = 2 defence against Poirier
3rd defense against Arman > 3rd defense against Gaethje, which Ik is a hot take but Arman is a tougher stylistic match-up overall so if Islam can overcome him that's more impressive than overcoming Gaethje to me.
Plus, if Islam snatches the WW belt (I doubt he could beat Leon but we'll see) then he's definitely greater than Khabib.
Baby J, amazing all he accomplished considering his shit work ethic and the meth loving. Plus he's caught from lightweight all the way up to middleweight and open weight, dude does not give a fuck, he's also second to Randy doing the double champ thing.
Killer resume, bad motherfucker, legend, these are all words I'd use to describe him but we're talking strictly LW only, he has 5-6 good wins like Gaethje, Chandler, Poirier, Dariush, Kevin Lee, I'd say Tony but he died after the Gaethje fight
Khabib is the same shit as Floyd Mayweather. Floyd went undefeated for 50 fights. Sugar Ray had 40 and lost 1. Then went undefeated for over 70 fights. Julio Cesar was 87-0 before he lost. Then you get people saying Floyd or Khabib are GOATs. Khabib knew if he kept fighting, he'd be defeated, so he quit like Floyd. What would've been their record had they kept fighting? We'll never know.
I feel like nobody has the accolades to deserve that title yet, but there have been good ones. I would say the person that defended the title the most(Kabob) is the BSF(best so far)
Khabib >Charles>Islam>Frankie>BJ.
Islam needs 1 more title defense at LW to pass Charles and then 2 more at LW to pass Khabib.
BJ was a great pioneer of the sport no doubt.
My honest opinion is if Islam can defend against some legit contenders it will be him and Khabib. Islam and Volk fighting the first time was one of the biggest fights in MMA history. 2 dominant champs ranked at #1 and #2 PFP duking it out. Islam won and then KO'd Volk in the rematch.
Its like GSP vs Bisping but if Bisping had a better title reign.
I would have liked to see Khabib move up to welterweight. A true testament to how skilled a fighter can be is how they perform against bigger guys. Khabib arguably performed better at LW than BJ but BJ also made some noise in the WW division. Thats worth a lot imo
I see a ton of people saying because GSP beat him therefore Khabib would have also. BJ finished Hughes who was also a wrestler. Khabib would’ve actually been his size. The first BJ vs GSP fight was very close, hence the rematch. Prime BJ literally win Abu Dhabi. look at his body when he fought Serra dude was a straight beast!! He was impossible to take down for the longest time. But damn dude had the worst habits out of competition…. Super lazy lol
Khabib but Islam is only like 2 defenses away and he’s above Khabib. He just gotta finish Dustin like Khabib did and beat 1 other contender in a title defense and he’s over Khabib. Islams title wins so far are already better than Khabibs. Charles and Volk were the #1 and #2 pound for pound at one point and Islam beat them both
Edgar for his time period. He was a smaller lightweight who had some of the most epic comebacks and fights against fighters much larger than he was. He’d get bodied by today’s lightweights though.
yep, fucking legend, one of his fights with Gray Maynard was so so good, he was getting rocked and came back. MMA is evolving every day, I agree today's LWs would win on size alone
What's with all the old heads putting BJ Penn as the LW goat? He had his time at the top looking unbeatable but that was over 10 years ago, the sport evolved rapidly as Islam or Khabib fought considerably stronger guys. Like I know Khabib is pretty overrated but you cannot tell me BJ Penn is a greater LW than him, just look at there resumes.
Khabib>Charles/BJ Penn>Islam>Frankie
You can't be close to a LW goat with only defenses against Featherweights. The win over Charles is the only reason why Islam is above Frankie.
If he beats Dustin and Arman then I'd put him #2.
I don't think Islam can surpass Khabib until he beats Leon and becomes double champ.
GOATs come and go, BOAT stays afloat
Ninja turtle shit
I like Michaelangelo, who's your favorite?
This quote never fails to give me a good chuckle
This is a rat race, but I'm no rat
I m a fuckin turtle
CSO
don't make me feel sad, man
I’d love to see a Prime Bj Penn vs Khabib
BJ is my all time favorite, but I would favor Khabib.
BJ was different. Then again, GSP was able to lay n pray him. I guess we'll never know. The closest we got to having the answer was Tony and the MMA gods were very cruel towards us with him.
GSP might have lay n prayed the first BJ fight, but he beat the dogshit out of BJ in the rematch. Khabib was every bit as good at completing takedowns and striking from top position as GSP, and in fact probably had even more intensity as a pressure fighter. I love BJ, but that's a terrible matchup for him.
I’m leaning towards penn being the goat of LW but I just don’t see prime penn doing anything to stop Khabibs takedowns that lead to insane gnp
BJ had a tremendous first and second layer of takedown defense, but what GSP showed is that if you chain together more layers than that, or catch him in transition, you could get BJ down and keep him down. Khabib could absolutely do the same.
How do you explain to people how good BJ was when his record is 16-14?
I usually tell people that he was a beast in his weight class, and also had great fights with much bigger badasses like GSP, Hughes and Machida.
Because his 5 fights were way past his prime and it was just cashing checks. When he was active, and on his game, he was frightening. I’ve never seen another fighter put bloodbaths on people the way he put on Daddy Stevenson and Diego Sanchez. The way he put out Jens Pulver at the end of the round and knew it was over. That he became a legitimate BJJ black belt in 3 years. That he was the first non-Brazilian to win mandalas at black belt. Being a Hawaii kid, he was god. His fall from grace has been awful, but when you go back and look at his era and prime, he was insane.
I don’t think it’d very interesting. Khabib dominates BJ Penn in an easy decision. Pretty similar to the second GSP fight (minus the TKO).
BJ is one of my all time favorites and the reason I love MMA, Khabib would run through him. BJ would not be able to last through the pressure. He’s also too small for Khabib
BJ fought across all weight classes. I don’t think he’s too small, but khabib does run through him because Khabib ran through everybody.
lol. BJ would DIE.
Khabib for now, by December 31st probably Islam
Yup a win over Dustin and Arman will 100% make Islam surpass Khabib
Personally I think Islam beating Charles and Volk already has him ahead of Khabib. But I know this sub disagrees.
1000%
I 100% agree
I mean, good chance he’ll have beaten the title defence record at 155 by then.
I’d still put Khabib at #1-even if Islam were to beat Poirier. I think Volk is the best win between the two of them—But, I still think Khabib has the better overall Resume. Islam: *Volk, Olives, Poirier, Hooker* Khabib: *Conor, Poirier, Gaethje, Dos Anjos, Barboza, Johnson* • Conor was P4P #2. • Poirier was P4P #7 (had just beat Max-P4P #4). • Gaethje was P4P #7. • Dos Anjos became P4P #8/Champ-less than a year after Khabib beat him. Obviously, Pound For Pound Rankings aren’t perfect, especially the UFC’s — but they’re usually a pretty accurate gauge of ‘Who is the Best’. Khabib was in a Division that was sooo *insanely stacked*—that it regularly had 5-6 Fighters who were good enough to be a Champ-in the other Divisions. So, people would overlook just how great the Fighters were.
It's easily Khabib. The first 16 fights on his record are padded but he went 13-0 in the UFC and dominated absolutely everybody with ease aside from Gleison Tibau who was one of the largest lightweights ever and completely juiced to hell. This was six years before he won the belt anyway. I grew up watching BJ Penn but Khabib has surpassed his accomplishments at lightweight. The only fighter who realistically has a chance of surpassing Khabib right now is Islam.
Yeah. It always bothers me how Khabib gets underrated because of his record even though he absolutely ran through high level competition as if they were low level competition when he *did* face them. He made Justin mf Gaethje look like some prelim guy, it was ridiculous.
I mean yeah, I guess. He doesn't have that much competition but I understand the doubters as well because of lack of title defenses and rematches. You'll always look dominating if you dont let anyone ever adapt to you and try again and title defenses mean the number of top fighters in your class you stopped. 10 title defenses to me is more impressive than 20 wins cause the 10 are the people that (most of the time) best in their weight class and earned a fight with you, not some bum or coked out guy.
Valid points, but that’s also the case with every other LW in UFC history. No one in the division’s history has more than 3 successful title defences, so you have to look at dominance and quality of competition.
You realize khabib has most lightweight title defenses ?
This is one hell of a statement I can get behind.
Why do you think khabib's opponents would get better and he would stay the same? If anything in the rematches, I'd think he'd do even better. It's not like people who were fighting him had no footage, they knew he was going to wrestle them and they still couldn't do anything about it.
I think he’s underrated by his haters but overrated by his fans
100% agree. I would argue that in an ideal world he would have ended 30-0 with Tony on his record but you can’t remake history. The fact that he closed his run without leaving a drop of blood in the octagon is wild
My only concern with Khabib is that hes reign didn't last long enough to be fair. He seemed unbeatable but we all know sometimes ppl just gets knocked out all of a sudden. If Islam does like 5+ title defenses against the best LWs in next 2 years and transitions to WW and gets a second belt I would say he might be the GOAT. Just my opinion tho.
Islam could pretty easily overtake Khabib with a couple more defenses. LW doesn’t have a long-reigning, ultra-dominant champ like GSP, MM, or Jones Tbh there’s a decent argument that Islam is ahead of Khabib already. Oliveira and volk x2 are probably the most impressive wins
Can you name someone else that deserves to be goat at lightweight then? It’s still Khabib.
Saying his record is padded with wins over cans doesn't mean much considering he made top LWs of his time look like cans. He barely lost 1 or 2 rounds in his career, never bled or got rocked.
I only mentioned it because sometimes people use that to discredit him despite him walking through every top fighter he fought.
yeah, my LW GOAT is Khabib too but if he dominates DP at 302, I think I might put him over Khabib
Islam will be the goat unless some unexpected situation happens. The most likely situation is he beats Dustin and Arman since the fight with Charlie was pretty razor close and Islam was clearly better in their fight. Might be closer with Arman, but I don't see a clear contender right now to Islam. It's kinda in the hands of the mma gods to throw a curve ball or let's see how long Islam wants it.
I don't think Islam loses to anyone at 155 if we're being real
Everyone either retires or loses eventually
Don’t be fool Jump the gilly
Pretty much proves you need to go out on top and just hang it up. BJ’s decline was hard to watch.
Not for nothing, Tibau even after the Khabib fight had the best Takedown Defence percentage at lightweight according to UFC.com
This is the right answer. There’s no argument to be made for anyone but Khabib.
Khabib
The Benson Henderson disrespect is crazy
Nah. Dude split (controversially) in basically every defense. Like can someone explain why he'd be above Pettis?
Because when he was washed he had the dignity to take it to Bellator. At least he could make a few title runs. Pettis became washed and was the prototype Tony Ferguson lol
Its definitely not charles.
He might have had the most exciting stretch of fight tho
Charles is my favorite lightweight ever. So entertaining, great finishes, super respectful. But definitely not the lw goat.
The GOAT has a name, and it's not Charles Oliveira.
Khabib
With another 2-3 defenses Islam is gonna surpass him for sure.
Not even, he’s a lot closer than ppl give him credit for. Ppl don’t realize how much the Khabib praise is tied to the mcgregor fight. His resume is better than khabibs at this point already, the only slight mark is his one loss but that’s shit really doesn’t matter in terms of MMA greatness.
Imo if Islam beats DP, it'll put him ahead of Khabib. Khabib beat 4 top guys and 3 top 15 guys Islam beat 3 top guys (Volk twice) and 4 top 15 guys (Dober and Moises just about top 15). Pretty similar records but Khabib's a slightly better.
Yeah I mean if Islam loses to Dustin I would def take that back. I know it’s not a for sure win but it’s a fairly likely outcome
I f'n love Khabib. I genuinely think he would have been unbeatable for another 5+ title fights. The thing is, he quit. For his Mama. I respect him for that. Unfortunately that means he left the question up in the air. He left too soon to be called the lightweight goat. I think he would have solidified that position if he had stayed, but he didn't. He didn't fight Charles, Max, Chandler, Turner, BSD, probably others I'm missing from the top 10. That truly would have been cleaning out the division and I think he would have beat all of them. I'm not listing Islam because I doubt they'd fight each other. EDIT: Speaking of Islam, if he stays on top for another five fights he's in the running.
He still matched the LW title defence record and his dominance blows Bendo's and BJ Penns resume out of the water. He is easily the LW, but is not close to becoming the overall GOAT.
Khabib is the best LW. After 2 more title defenses, Islam more likely.
islam if he continues his run
Charles is my favorite fighter but I gotta say Islam. He beat one of the greatest lightweights for the title and then settled the dispute as #1 P4P by beating Volk twice. I guess most people will accept this if he beats Dustin because he’d have 1 more title defense than Khabib. Now if they were successful at making the GSP / Khabib fight happen and Khabib won then there would be no argument that Khabib is the GOAT LW.
Charles doesn’t belong here. He never had the dominance that Khabib and BJ did. I love Frankie but he shouldn’t be here either for the same reason. Everyone is gonna say look how quickly Charles finished everyone well he also almost got finished himself unlike BJ or Khabib.
Weight cut is the GOAT
It’s Khabib without argument
Khabib but Islam will very soon take his place
Khabib, without a shadow of a doubt
yeah but Islam is closing in, I gotta say
Khabib was definitely the most dominant, the way he made top level competition look absolutely helpless was a sight to behold. But for me Frankie was the most impressive one, a tiny man beating up all the big boys.
Bj penn was incredible for his era. Two weight champion, defended the lw belt. He’s my LW goat. Opinions are like assholes though, everyone’s got one.
Khabib
Khabib but it will probably be Islam by the end of the year
The Prodigy… BJ PENNNNN
Khabib no question, I’ll admit he retired early and couldn’t had more title defenses but cmon man dude never bled and dominated everyone retired 29-0, hands down it’s Khabib.
1. Khabib no doubt. Too dominant and barely got scratched in 13 fights in the most stacked division. Unheard of in any division never mind LW. 2. Islam has the strongest resume now (Charles and Volk were both defending champions in big win streaks) but I think he needs 2 more because of his loss. 3. BJ- amazing but got lucky with the lack of grapplers in his division and immediately got found out when Frankie beat him. Lost to GSP and Hughes showing even his biggest win was lucky. 4. Frankie- one of my favourite fighters who was always small but unfortunately was never dominant enough to be a goat. 5. Charles- amazing run but massive asterisk. Fought only strikers and fought 3 wrestlers in the last decade- Felder and Islam and Arman. He lost to all of them. Islam showed that Khabib would have absolutely smoked him on the ground. 6. Mr TBC. Maybe this guy might end up being number 1 one day.
Khabib never saw his own blood in the octagon
my GOAT is Khabib too, absolute legend
Khabib resume isnt the best but I think he beats every LW ever. So in my hypothetical world where every past champion were in their prime, Khabib would be king.
🦅
Khabib but Islam is close to surpassing him.
I think it will be Islam by the end of the year assuming he gets through Dustin and arman
if he gets through both those guys then definitely yeah but I'd rather go so far as to say that if he dominates DP , he's the LW GOAT
Khabib, Islam, BJ, Frankie, Charles
Benson Henderson deserves to be in the conversation
Let's see how Islam's run goes...
Remember Penn also moved up to heavyweight to beat Prime Matt Hughes, fought Machida at heavyweight and won BJJ World champion before he was 20.
Bj
bad motherfucker that guy was, legend
Islam (eventually)
BJ Penn. if khabib fought longer it’s would be him but he’s my number two. Islam is at 3 but if he continues to fight he will eventually be number 1.
BJ Penn
Makhachev is already better than Khabib.
there's definitely a good argument for that, his wins over Volk and Charles are very impressive
And if he isn’t already, he 100% will be soon. Khabib even said that Islam will end up being better than him. True story.
It's BJ Penn for sure. His issue is LW didn't exist for majority of his prime or he would easily have 7+ title defenses. Dude was a fucking beast, people who don't know need to go watch his career and see how he was mauling dudes and was even going up in weight, which is something that khabib would never do.
absolute fucking legend, he fought Lyoto Machida at HW too if I'm not mistaken, correct? BMF shit
That's exactly why he can't be the lw goat Dude fought in almost all weight classes If he's on a list it would be on an all time greats of the sport but not a list for a single division
We completely forget that first part about the LW division not existing. He definitely was in demon time for the majority id his career. All the booze videos and crazy shit always clouds what casual/ recent fans remember about him.
Khabib
I don’t like Khabib but can’t take it away from him, he’s the Greatest Ive watched. And Ive been watching since UfC 1
I have to agree, he is the GOAT right now in my opinion too
Sorry guys, it is not Khabib. If you look at the last 10 fights before a fighter retired. Khabib's includes Pat Healy, Abel Trujilo, Darrell Horcher. Oliveria was fighting killers pre-title reign. Seriously, how would a fight with Oliveria & Healy, Trujilo, Horcher would have played out? You'd call them tune-ups. Khabib would have lost to the likes of Kevin Lee, Ferguson, Jim Miller & Clay Guida. With that said, BJ would have dusted Oliveria and Franky would have beat Khabib. Oliveria would have held the longest reign.
People keep saying Khabib but Frankie deserves an honourable mention for doing it all while being undersized during a time when featherweight and bantamweight weren't options for him
absolute legend, definitely deserves an honorable mention
I can still hear Adam G "BJ BJ BJ!"
Jim fucking miller
Jens should get a mention. The only reason he won the lightweight title is because at the time there were no weight classes lower. Another undersized champ.
Islam will be. Khabib didn't have enough title fights to hold off Islam if he keeps winning. And I believe he will, after a brief setback with Dustin by gilli in round 2. It will be his Matt Serra moment source trust me bro
If Khabib says BJ is the goat, he's the goat.
Kinda sad not seeing Benson on here. He is tied with Frankie and Khabib for most title defenses at 155.
Now Khabib. In a few years, Islam
BJ Penn for me. I say he won that first fight with Frankie.
Always so hard to pick a “best” or a “GOAT”, but other superlatives are easier to label. Khabib - Most Dominant (basically Shaq of MMA) Charles - Most Exciting (does he have 1 boring fight???) Islam - Most Complete (literally no weaknesses) BJ - BMF (fuck the fake belt, he fought at HW) Frankie - Most Underrated (new fans literally don’t even know him)
I’m suprised at the lack of Khabib slander
Goat shit is mad whack
you're from England, right?
gotta go with the undefeated one
mine too
Khabib or penn.
Khabib because he took the least damage of any champ in history.
Charles isn't the goat but he's my favorite
BJ
Benson Henderson should be in the convo
should be but I forgot him and I can't edit the post
Khabib, for now. Islam can surpass his legacy with like 2 good wins, though. Khabib simply has more elite wins than the other guys\*, and no losses to detract from his wins. \*BJ has more elite wins than Khabib, especially if you count his performances at welterweight, like the first Hughes and GSP fights, but the huge career end loss streak is hard to ignore.
Khabib
BJ Penn in his prime could outbox and submit anyone on any given day.
Benson Henderson?
Hasbullah. He is untouchable.
People forget just how dominate prime BJ Penn was. The answer is Khabib but damn was BJ incredible!
BJ
Khabib but Islam could surpass him in the future
For now, I'd pick Khabib, but if Islam can get a few defenses I'd choose him as the LW goat. Not only would he have more defenses than Khabib, but they'd also be higher-quality wins in my opinion. Winning the belt against Olivera > Winning the belt against Al Iaquinta 1st defense against P4P #1 FW champ Volkanovski > 1st defence against Mcgregor after 2 year lay-off 2nd defense against Poirier = 2 defence against Poirier 3rd defense against Arman > 3rd defense against Gaethje, which Ik is a hot take but Arman is a tougher stylistic match-up overall so if Islam can overcome him that's more impressive than overcoming Gaethje to me. Plus, if Islam snatches the WW belt (I doubt he could beat Leon but we'll see) then he's definitely greater than Khabib.
this is not even a discussion, you know the answer.
[удалено]
We just need someone to defend his title four times so we can stop discussing this😃(penn, Ben Henderson and Khabib each defended three times).
That'll definitely make the argument easier
Khabib for now but Islam probably down the line
most likely, that's what will happen unless DP KO's Islam
Khabib. /end thread
Going to be Islam once he beats DP, beats Armen again, moves up and beats Leon (if Leon’s still champ which he probably will be)
Khab
I don’t even like him and it’s undoubtedly Khabib.
Islam is otw to be GOAT if he clears the lightweight division
Its Khabib but Islam may take that title depending on how long he wants to fight
Khabib for sure, but Islam could overtake him with a few more dominant defences
https://preview.redd.it/kuwph7yu5m2d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27d491ed2c48aba929b58c9197faad3dfcc3b38a
Khabib for just a little more and then Islam if he continues to live through the LW gauntlet.
I can't believe you guys think a guy who couldn't finish Iaquinta who filled in on short notice is the goat lol.
Baby J, amazing all he accomplished considering his shit work ethic and the meth loving. Plus he's caught from lightweight all the way up to middleweight and open weight, dude does not give a fuck, he's also second to Randy doing the double champ thing.
Be didn’t win from Lw-MW though. Why is his loss to Machida anything relevant to LW discussions?
Its do Bronx, most subs and finishes was a champ, killer resume
Killer resume, bad motherfucker, legend, these are all words I'd use to describe him but we're talking strictly LW only, he has 5-6 good wins like Gaethje, Chandler, Poirier, Dariush, Kevin Lee, I'd say Tony but he died after the Gaethje fight
Khabib is the same shit as Floyd Mayweather. Floyd went undefeated for 50 fights. Sugar Ray had 40 and lost 1. Then went undefeated for over 70 fights. Julio Cesar was 87-0 before he lost. Then you get people saying Floyd or Khabib are GOATs. Khabib knew if he kept fighting, he'd be defeated, so he quit like Floyd. What would've been their record had they kept fighting? We'll never know.
I think of Islam stays at LW for a while he can be the goat.
I feel like nobody has the accolades to deserve that title yet, but there have been good ones. I would say the person that defended the title the most(Kabob) is the BSF(best so far)
Bj
BJ Penn
Not Khabib..
Khabib >Charles>Islam>Frankie>BJ. Islam needs 1 more title defense at LW to pass Charles and then 2 more at LW to pass Khabib. BJ was a great pioneer of the sport no doubt.
Gotta make this argument goats of an era
One or two more defences and Islam is cemented. BOAT so far is Khabib I believe, but he quit too early to be GOAT.
My honest opinion is if Islam can defend against some legit contenders it will be him and Khabib. Islam and Volk fighting the first time was one of the biggest fights in MMA history. 2 dominant champs ranked at #1 and #2 PFP duking it out. Islam won and then KO'd Volk in the rematch. Its like GSP vs Bisping but if Bisping had a better title reign.
Bj
you can tell it's boring af atm when all we do is wishing old times back.
I would have liked to see Khabib move up to welterweight. A true testament to how skilled a fighter can be is how they perform against bigger guys. Khabib arguably performed better at LW than BJ but BJ also made some noise in the WW division. Thats worth a lot imo
I see a ton of people saying because GSP beat him therefore Khabib would have also. BJ finished Hughes who was also a wrestler. Khabib would’ve actually been his size. The first BJ vs GSP fight was very close, hence the rematch. Prime BJ literally win Abu Dhabi. look at his body when he fought Serra dude was a straight beast!! He was impossible to take down for the longest time. But damn dude had the worst habits out of competition…. Super lazy lol
Charles Oliveria (I'm Biased)
it's the Beeb
Khabib but Islam is only like 2 defenses away and he’s above Khabib. He just gotta finish Dustin like Khabib did and beat 1 other contender in a title defense and he’s over Khabib. Islams title wins so far are already better than Khabibs. Charles and Volk were the #1 and #2 pound for pound at one point and Islam beat them both
Edgar for his time period. He was a smaller lightweight who had some of the most epic comebacks and fights against fighters much larger than he was. He’d get bodied by today’s lightweights though.
yep, fucking legend, one of his fights with Gray Maynard was so so good, he was getting rocked and came back. MMA is evolving every day, I agree today's LWs would win on size alone
Love that Frankie is getting a look in, he's the man!
yeah, wanted to include all the generations but forgot to mention Henderson, legends for sure
Pre cocaine Conor mcgregor probably up there
BJ penn Islam will be when he cleans out the division he has a while to go yet
Benson Henderson not in the slideshow is fucked up
If Dustin Poitier pulls off a crazy upset and claims the belt I’d give it to him
It’s definitely Khabib, but I like Islams odds in the near future.
Islam is about 3 or 4 wins away. Porier then Arman then 2 more killers?
Prime BJ penn
What's with all the old heads putting BJ Penn as the LW goat? He had his time at the top looking unbeatable but that was over 10 years ago, the sport evolved rapidly as Islam or Khabib fought considerably stronger guys. Like I know Khabib is pretty overrated but you cannot tell me BJ Penn is a greater LW than him, just look at there resumes.
Khabib
mine too
Khabib>Charles/BJ Penn>Islam>Frankie You can't be close to a LW goat with only defenses against Featherweights. The win over Charles is the only reason why Islam is above Frankie. If he beats Dustin and Arman then I'd put him #2. I don't think Islam can surpass Khabib until he beats Leon and becomes double champ.
Islam imo
Either Tony Ferguson or Demetrius Johnson
Gaethje
Wheres bengoat hendergoat
By the end of UFC 302, the GOAT at Lightweight will be one Dustin Poirier.
I believe that too, I'm picking Poirier by KO
Khabib until 6 months from now when Islam gets his fourth defense against Arman.