He was a f**king phenom

Joe Rogan recently claimed that prime B.J. Penn would be “a nightmare” matchup for UFC lightweight legends like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.

Penn is widely considered one of the greatest UFC lightweight fighters of all time and is the second fighter in promotional history to win titles in two different weight classes. Apart from his legacy as an MMA fighter, Penn has also garnered attention in recent years for his legal troubles, mental health struggles, and family issues.

In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the UFC commentator lauded Penn as a special lightweight contender in his prime and claimed that the Hawaii native would push fighters like Nurmagomedov and Makhachev to their limits in the cage. He said:

“B.J. Penn in his prime was f**king insane. I would put prime B.J. Penn at 155 pounds against anybody, ever. Anybody at 155 [pounds] ever. I don’t know if he’d have beaten Khabib; he’s the all-time great. I don’t know if he would have beaten Islam, but I know he would’ve been a nightmare… He was a f**king phenom… He was just a monster. Just an insane genius fighter.”

When B.J. Penn told Joe Rogan about post-retirement challenges

In April 2022, B.J. Penn sat down for an extended conversation with Joe Rogan on his famous podcast and opened up about the challenges he faced as a retired MMA fighter.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Penn claimed that shedding his reputation as the “baddest man on the planet” was tough for him and said:

“I was just retired so I wasn’t trying to keep my everything perfect in public. I was just running around, I was just a guy trying to come off of a twenty-year journey of being the baddest man on the planet. So it was tough, it was really tough to get over that identity. As time went on I was living my life, some more ups and downs and like I say, sometimes I was judged fairly, other times I wasn’t.”