In terms of raw natty talent I agree. The only time Penn took his career seriously at all was when he briefly hooked up with that football S&C trainer Marinovich or whatever his name was. He looked unbeatable then.
Must be nice to keep amassing losses and live off of a nice little run. Penn is insanely overrated. No chance he's better than Jones.
"The brief moment he was really good was when he took it seriously". Excuses. You gotta have some longevity. I understand Jones is PED cheat but it's hard to even know who's cheating and who isn't for sure. Penn lost too much.
It was more than a nice little run, it was a great run, and done without constantly failing drug tests for performance enhancing drugs.
No doubt. He looked very good. But he lost too many times. You can't just sweep that aside. It should affect his overall ranking. Frankly, Jones looked just as good if not better in many of his performances. As far as steroids. It's mostly who got caught and who didn't. Unfortunately, it's so rampant that it's hard to believe any of these top athletes aren't using. Too much on the line.
Prime Penn was the best LW in the world for almost a decade. He also went up in weight to beat great fighter in Hughes to win another title, not mention giving GSP a hell of a fight the first time around.
Nah. That's not how fighters are ranked, they're ranked for how good they were in their primes, not for the skids they may have had afterwards.
This is the problem with newer fans who never saw Penn in prime and just see lowlights of an old washed up fighter with a career .500 record. Nobody is going to argue that Penn amassed a greater career record or was the more consistent operator when compared to Jones. However, when it comes to natural raw talent Penn didn’t have an equal. They called him The Prodigy for a reason. He earned a black belt in BJJ in less than 3 years of training and then as an American went to Brazil and won gold at the Mundials which is unheard of. Picked up boxing causally and in short order became the best boxer in mma. Jones is talented but his skill set hasn’t really ever improved that much nor has he displayed a large diversity of skills that Penn had. Let’s face it much of that talent came out of a bottle. Whenever he was under the microscope after a positive test he’d look like complete **** in his next fight. I also would disagree that Jones’ drug use can be simply written off as being a product of his era. As the face of the UFC brand he had the financial access and protection to use peds with far more impunity than any of his competitors. He has the worst record of ped violations of ANY champion in UFC history BY FAR. The guy is a sociopath who is perfectly fine with throwing side oblique kicks to opponents knees and eye pokes which could easily end a career. An individual with zero moral/ethical compunction and unbridled access is going to be the worst cheater in history. I’m not even going to get into the lengths he would go to to avoid mandatory testing. It got so bad that USADA had to invent a lie about “pulsing” when Jones kept on popping positive after his 2nd suspension. A lifetime ban for Jones would’ve been too much of a black eye for the sport.
There's been too many failed drug tests in the UFC so I don't hold Jones cheating against him, like Nate Diaz said, everyone is on steroids. You're telling me Amanda Nunes isn't the Women's GOAT despite her HGH jaw because she hasn't been caught yet? You can make a case for him being the GOAT, he's definitely top 3 along with GSP and Silva. I personally think GSP solidified his GOAT status when he came back after all those years and beat Bisping for the MW title, although he definitely lost to Hendricks which was probably the biggest robbery in UFC history. Jones lost to Reyes as well, but he has a chance to topple GSP if he can win a belt at HW without getting popped.
In terms of the sheer time period he dominated for combined with the quality of opposition, he may well be. Its just that hes an unlikeable ***** marred by controversy compared to the other 3 Mt Rushmore guys.
most have cheated at some stage especially in the early years, Fedor would've been jacked in Pride along with most his opponents.......
Just once, I want to see a thread announcing that a fighter is the GOAT, and I open it to find the thread-starter arguing that the fighter is literally a goat.