How Close is Frankie Edgar to Exceeding BJ Penn at 155lbs?

A worthy successor, but he's not close at all yet.

 

There may well be no lightweight division if it wasn't for Penn's stardom. And Edgar's style means he doesn't dominate opponents in the way Penn was doing during his title reign. Its going to be tough to overtake him in the greatness stakes any time soon.

 

I think Edgar has already done enough to be considered a top 3, all time, lightweight; but I think he has more work to do if he wants to get the #1 spot.

I thought Penn won the first fight, but I give Edgar the edge head to head because he won the 2nd fight considerably better than I thought Penn won the first.

I still give Penn a slight edge in overall resume, but the big difference comes in how they performed against their opposition. As a winner, Penn has finished his opponent on 13 out of 16 occasions. 8 of Edgar's 13 wins are by decision. I think finishing opponents inside the distance carries more weight than just getting the W.

 

A decent ways to catch him in terms of all time resume; BJ was the best LW in the world for a huge amount of time, even when he wasn't champ because he was outside of the UFC and when the UFC had no LW division.

 

You guys are insane for insinuating Frankie is somewhere close. I love Edgar (he has the heart of a champ) but he loses 2 in a row and youd all be looking back at this thread. He does have a potential but I dont know if he has enough time. BJ has been kicking ass though the dark ages of the UFC, went into the wilderness and back.

Its going to take a long long time. He is the Matt Hughes of the LW division and until GSP came theres no one there. Theres no GSP type in the lightweight division now as exciting and competitive the div is.

 

No where near bj status.

 

Somewhat close but still far off. Frankie has beat the guy twice to pretend he isnt at all close is pretty damn dumb.

 

:roll:

Trolling...

Lynchburg

 

I don't see this as close at all. How is a guy with a win he didn't deserve (Penn 1), one good win (Penn II) and one draw (Maynard II) as his entire world title career going to be close to a guy who was the undisputed best lightweight in the world for a long, long time?

Silly thread. It's kind of like saying Fabricio Werdum is a greater heavyweight than Fedor just because he holds a W over him, despite Fedor's far greater career and longevity.

 

A very good point. MMA isn't about point-scoring, it's about having the skills to execute opponents. This is one of the key reasons why I don't see GSP as a credible threat to Fedor as the GOAT.

 

Obviously youve taken a lot of time to compare opponents on this thread , but what the paper says about these two and the reality are two completley different things all together !!!!!

Edgar has 2 big wins on his record and they are both Penn

Penn , demolished , Stevenson , Sherk , Florian and Sanchez in succession @55 , Edgar's style means he'll never eclipse BJ in some people's eyes because he doesnt dominate and finish opponents the way BJ does , yes he's technically very sound in every aspect of the sport and a worthy worthy champion but the way he fights its gonna take him i would say 6 straight title defences before he gets the recognition of BJ Penn at LW :deal

You see the thing is about someone like Edgar who is very well rounded , with a solid wrestling base and BJ Penn , is that Penn is special , Penn does things he's not supposed to do , Edgar is a dedicated manufactured mixed martial artist who underlines the term well rounded , its gonna take a long time in the fans eyes before these 2 are mentioned in the same breath , but i suppose its inevitable that Frankie Edgar in years to come will be remembered as the #1 LW ...........

 

Sean Sherk was like 37 when he beat him
he beat Bj Penn twice i will give him that.
But technically he lost his last fight...

not close at all.

 

Some more work to do - he has to beat Maynard convincingly and like someone already said Penn dominated guys, Edgar will have to improve his subs and power so he can start impressing and giving that aura of invincibility. As it is, he has been the underdog in his past 3 fights! I'm sure he would have been the underdog vs Griffin and maybe Sherk. He's been the underdog for most of his career.

 

Not THAT far off but then again BJ has never really achieved as much as his hype promised at LW.

That last fight does I'd say really expose Penn's boxing as not being nearly as good as its often been hyped as being, if a wrestler who's rarely hurt opponants standing before can put Frankie on ***** street why couldnt BJ in 50 mins fighting?