UFC analyst shares his pick for the greatest lightweight of all time and it's not Khabib Nurmagomedov: "To me, it's not even close"

A UFC analyst recently shared his pick for the greatest lightweight of all time and it wasn't Khabib Nurmagomedov. He noted that the debate can't be settled with recency bias and that the past eras needs to be respected and taken into account.

The ongoing debate for the greatest lightweight of all time appears to be split between Nurmagomedov and his longtime friend and teammate Islam Makhachev. The reigning lightweight champion has set a new consecutive UFC lightweight title defense record, however, analyst Din Thomas believes the debate is still very easy to answer.

During his latest appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, the UFC analyst named B.J. Penn as the greatest lightweight of all time and strongly believes there was nobody who could remove him from that spot when he was at his peak. Thomas mentioned that Penn went through a gauntlet of legends and defeated them with ease, and won't be swayed by differing opinions due to recency bias:

"Everybody's like, 'Who's the best lightweight of all time?' I'm like, B.J. [Penn]...To men, it's not even close...People don't know about the game back then, so it's recency bias, but B.J. in his prime, during that window, was unbeatable...He was busting those guys up, leaving them all mercilessly in a pool of their own blood. It's not even close to me, him not being the best lightweight of all time."

Check out Din Thomas' comments regarding B.J. Penn being the lightweight GOAT instead of Khabib Nurmagomedov below:

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Ariel Helwani backs Din Thomas' pick for greatest lightweight of all time not being Khabib Nurmagomedov

In addition to Din Thomas sharing his pick for greatest lightweight of all time, Ariel Helwani chimed in and backed the UFC analyst for his selection not being Khabib Nurmagomedov.

During the aforementioned clip, Helwani mentioned that even though modern era lightweights like Islam Makhachev have been impressive, B.J. Penn's dominance during his peak was unmatched:

"B.J. [Penn] in his prime, there was nothing like him...I thought his high point was UFC 107 against Kenny Florian...That night, I said, 'That's the best fighter in the world'. And that was prime Fedor [Emelianenko], Anderson [Silva] was doing his thing, 'GSP'. When [Penn] came back to lightweight and it was Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson, Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, he was unstoppable."

Check out the full episode featuring the discussion on why Khabib Nurmagomedov isn't the lightweight GOAT below: