5 UFC fighters who moved up in weight and found success

#4 BJ Penn

BJ Penn moved across many weight classes - but won UFC gold as a Welterweight

One of the original weight class surfers, Hawaiian legend BJ Penn first burst onto the UFC scene at Lightweight way back in 2001, beginning his MMA career with quite a bang. He defeated Joey Gilbert, Din Thomas and Caol Uno to claim a title shot at 155lbs, but came up short against then-champion Jens Pulver.

Two more wins gave Penn another crack at UFC gold, but this time he went to a split draw in a five-round rematch with Uno, leaving him beltless again.

Penn would get another title shot in his next UFC fight though, and surprisingly, it came at Welterweight as he faced dominant champion Matt Hughes, who had run through a list of top contenders and was looking for his sixth successful title defence.

And despite clearly giving up size having moved up by 15lbs, ‘The Prodigy’ shocked the world by choking Hughes out to claim the gold.

Following the fight, a contract dispute sent Penn out of the UFC – meaning he would never defend his title – and the Hawaiian went on a fascinating path, moving across weight classes again and even fighting once at 205lbs. A return to the UFC came in 2006, but this time Penn failed in an attempt to reclaim gold at 170lbs, losing to Hughes in a rematch.

Later, ‘The Prodigy’ went onto finally claim the UFC Lightweight title – this time beating Joe Stevenson for the vacant title before making three successful title defences – but staying in a single weight class was never for Penn.

Another move to 170lbs saw mixed results while a move down to 145lbs – albeit in the twilight of his career – was disastrous. However you feel about Penn’s jumping around weight classes, though, it’s hard not to call his first move to 170lbs a success.