Joe Lauzon Thinks BJ Penn is the Greatest Fighter of All Time

Joe Lauzon spoke with MMAjunkie for a new interview ahead of his fight with Stevie Ray at UFC Fight Night 108. Some highlights are below:

On Penn being the greatest of all time: “He’s had a lot of fights where he didn’t come out looking so great, but he’s also one of the only guys that would go and jump up one, two or three weight classes and bounce all around and do all kinds of stuff,” Lauzon said. “I think that is super impressive. I think it’s B.J. There are some other guys who have been really dominant in their weight class, but they don’t really leave their weight class. I think ‘GSP’ was awesome. I think (UFC flyweight champ) Demetrious Johnson is great – he just seems unstoppable. But I don’t know – I guess, (if) Demetrious Johnson was bouncing around like B.J. was, I don’t think he would do as well. If he tried to jump up two or three weight classes, I don’t think he’d do as well. You’re going to lose fights here and there. But there are so many great fighters you can say are the ‘G.O.A.T.’ and they’d all be credible answers.”

On possibly doing commentary for the UFC: “It’s something I would definitely like doing, and I think I would do a pretty good job at it. But all those guys are out in California, they’re all in L.A. and that kind of stuff, so that would be kind of a deal breaker for me a little bit. I’m pretty rooted down here. I’m not moving anywhere else. The hospital for Joey is here, and all of his doctors. I’m not moving anywhere. I know that would kind of put a kibosh on it and kind of kill the options, but it’s definitely something that I’d like to do. I think I’m pretty good at it. I think I’m pretty good at breaking down film. I’ve seen a lot of footage, I’ve been in all situations, I think I notice smaller things that might not seem that important to someone who hasn’t been there as much. I think stuff really sticks out for me.”

On Ray: “Stevie Ray’s had, I think, five or six fights in the UFC. So I’ll probably watch those fights a couple of times each. I’ll probably spend five or six hours just kind of looking at stuff and picking it apart. Looking right off the bat, he’s more of a counter-puncher, he stands back a little bit, kicks a lot more. Watching the Ross Pearson fight already, it just seems like not a lot happened. It just seemed like not a lot happened, there wasn’t a lot of action. So it will be a little monotonous watching this kind of footage. But that’s what we’ll do.”