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During an appearance on the Weighing In podcast, BJ Penn suggested that Khabib Nurmagomedov sometimes "gets tired" during his wrestling sequences.
do wonder – ‘cause I watch him, and I watch him, and it looks like sometimes he gets tired or he’s just kind of holding the guy against the fence. I don’t know. I’m not as great of a wrestler, so I don’t wanna say anything bad. But it doesn’t look like he’s as smooth as like a Daniel Cormier when he’s on there, as far as getting the takedown as quick."
Penn conceded that Khabib's relentless pressure does allow him to get takedowns.
"But he stays on there and eventually he does get the takedown. I see him get things, you know. But it looks like he gets tired in holding the guy on the fence and going for the takedowns. But I could be wrong. I don’t know. You could say, ‘Hey, it does feel like Daniel Cormier up there or whatever, you know what I mean?’ So, I don’t know.”
Furthermore, the podcast guests also concurred that a fight between BJ Penn and Khabib Nurmagomedov in their respective primes would’ve been interesting. They agreed that Penn had KO power, BJJ skills and a great chin during his heyday; whereas Nurmagomedov has unparalleled wrestling skills, decent striking, and an iron chin.
BJ Penn and Khabib Nurmagomedov aren’t active UFC fighters anymore
BJ Penn’s most recent MMA fight was a unanimous decision loss against Clay Guida at UFC 237 in May 2019. The UFC Hall of Famer was expected to face Nik Lentz later that year. The fight didn’t come to fruition, however, as Penn was released from the UFC that September, supposedly due to his involvement in a street fight.
Meanwhile, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s most recent MMA fight was a second-round submission win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October 2020. Nurmagomedov retired after this fight and has consistently maintained that he will not return to professional MMA competition.
