Joe Rogan claims BJ Penn is lightweight GOAT, breaks down dream fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov

If you ask long-time UFC commentator Joe Rogan, the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in the lightweight division is BJ Penn, not Khabib Nurmagomedov.

In 2025, most long-time MMA fans agree that Penn is one of the greatest lightweights ever. However, the immense success that Nurmagomedov had in the Octagon after Penn retired created space for plenty of healthy debate.

Rogan, who is an established Nurmagomedov fan, still believes Penn is No. 1 in the history of the lightweight division.

“When BJ Penn was in his prime, he was training with Marv Marinovich,” the UFC commentator said on his popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast (via MMA Fighting). “Marv Marinovich had very unorthodox training methods where it was all plyometrics, explosive drills, sprints, box jumps, all this crazy stuff, and he believed. I hope I’m not quoting him incorrectly, but he believed fight training was of secondary importance when you’re in camp and really what was important is to just have a f***ing insane gas tank. BJ Penn knows how to fight. He’s a world champion. He’s not going to forget how to fight. But you could get him training this way where you have this gas tank that’s just insane and when BJ Penn was training with him, he was unstoppable.

“I always say this. People talk about Khabib being the greatest lightweight of all time and maybe he is, it’s very possible he is, but I would put the BJ Penn that fought Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson, the BJ Penn that fought Sean Sherk, the BJ Penn that was in that peak when he was training [with Marinovich], I would put him against anybody. When he fought Diego Sanchez, he couldn’t be stopped. If you got him to the ground, his f***ing submission game was insane. BJ was insane off of his back. He would take your back, you were dead. He would knock you out standing up. His kickboxing was elite.”

Joe Rogan breaks down BJ Penn vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov dream fight

The only way we could ever settle this debate would be to have Penn and Nurmagomedov meet in their primes. That, of course, is impossible without a time machine.

Nonetheless, Rogan was happy to give his best guess as to how Nurmagomedov would attempt to deal with Penn’s legendary skill.

“Take him down, for sure,” Rogan said. “He’d probably fight him the same way Georges St-Pierre did. But the difference in size between BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre is pretty significant. BJ Penn is really a 155-pound guy, who actually later in his career fought 145. Later, when he was kind of at the end of his career. But Georges is way bigger. Georges was a big 170, big muscular 170 with great wrestling, nasty ground-and-pound, and a black belt in jiu-jitsu himself, and also a really good striker. There was also accusations of greasing because Georges was very slippery in that fight. If you were a grappler and the other person can’t get a hold of him, especially if you’re a guy like BJ who fights so well off of his back.

“BJ’s legs were like arms where he could be sitting there without using his hands and he could put his feet in the lotus position, so completely crossed and lock his legs in the lotus position without using his hands at all. Crazy flexibility and dexterity. So if you were trapped in his guard, you were f*cked.”

What do you think of this breakdown from Joe Rogan?