but GSP is 2-0 against him…

BJ fighting as a LHW and Heavyweight isn’t that impressive to me…he didn’t win those fights.

While I don’t agree with the post, I don’t think the reverse is true either. GSP is not more impressive than BJ Penn. I don’t think theworldoldestsport is positing that BJ is better than GSP because he clearly has never beat the WW champion.

• Penn successfully defeated Matt Hughes when he was in his peak and before it became fashionable to defeat Hughes. So there’s his successful foray into a higher weight limit.
• Understandably many fans, including the WW champ himself, were a little bit dissapointed with his recently victory and basically the end result of his title defenses against Hardy, Alves, Fitch, and Penn. People have been trying to revoke GSP’s “greatness” card which I think is insane. Where as in BJ Penn’s case, “I finish fights” like Kenny Florian loves to say.

In the end I guess the argument is a matter of your personal aesthetics. What do you prefer?

1. GSP dominated Fitch, Alves and Penn with striking and his patented ground game. He didn’t stop Penn, he made him quit . . . which is kind of dope. No mas! No mas! Yeah, he pretty much outgrappled Dan Hardy and made his arms more flexible.
2. Penn on another hand, impressed many boxing, included the popular Freddie Roach, while schooling the short-arm Sean Sherk . . . turned Stevenson into a bloody highlight reel, stopped Kenny Florian who tried stall and win on points, and nullified the fury and intensity of Diego Sanchez . . . send the YESSSS! man back to the division he truly belongs in.

I say all that to say, while I think GSP is incredibly athletic and amazed how dominates totally different fighters . . . I pretty much know what he’s going to do in his next fight and how he’s going to win. I’m not mad at him, I just hope his competitors > I’m looking at Fitch, Koscheck, Daley(?), Alves, etc. will step up to bat. But at this point, we all know how the fight will go.

BJ Penn . . . anything can still happen. There’s still some drama involved. I can watch replays of Penn vs Sherk, Stevenson, Florian-(3rd & 4th Round only), Sanchez and still get excited. They were all different fights with some drama in the air.

I should state that I can re-watch GSP vs. Fitch but not the Alves, Penn, or Hardy fights. They were kind of anti-climatic. GSP vs. Hughes, Serra, Penn 1, were all cool fights.

what i was trying to articulate was that much like Fedor….BJ finishes. Bj’s lost to who? GSP barely the first time (go back and watch the fight, the first round was BJ by battering, the 2nd round was close, and the 3rd rd was all GSP. the 2nd fight, GSp stomped him.

i’m defining greatness as a fighter willing to go up in weight, and TAKE chances. The outcome to me, esp. when willing to move up in weight is less important.

Rewind to pre-Hardy fight. NO one talked about Hardy surviving on the ground. No one. GSP had him on the mat 4 out of almost every 5 minutes for 25 minutes. Hardly barely looked like he’d been in a fight. Call it what you will. GSP other than a few sub attempts did little more than win by position.

When was the last time you saw Fedor win by positional dominance? BJ?

Fedor smashed Nog within his guard. Battered him throughout. Took him down at will when Nog was easily 2nd best HW in the world. Same when Fedor fought CroCop.

It’s that quality, the willingness to look to finish against good, bad, tomato can, or truly dangerous opponents that I think separates BJ from GSP.