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Dana White: BJ Penn And Tito Ortiz Will Join UFC Hall Of Fame

2K views 35 replies 16 participants last post by  Kreed 
#1 · (Edited)
Source: MMAFighting

UFC president Dana White revealed this week to MMAFighting that UFC mainstays Tito Ortiz and B.J. Penn will eventually join the likes of Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes, Dan Severn, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Mark Coleman (as well as TapouT co-founder Charles "Mask Lewis) in the UFC Hall of Fame.
Though White has a contentious history with Ortiz, the promotion's longest running light heavyweight champ, he said that The Huntington Beach Bad Boy's contributions to the sport and promotion are undeniable.

"Despite my personal problems with Tito, he belongs in," said White. "He was the champion when we first bought this thing. The fact that Tito is still here, Tito and I have had our moments, but it doesn't change what he did for the company.

"The beef between me and Tito, Chuck and Tito, the fact is, that played a huge role in helping making this thing as big as it is."

Ortiz is facing Forrest Griffin in a rubber match this July at UFC 148 in what is expected to be his retirement match.

B.J. Penn is another fighter that White has been at odds with more than once, but whom he believes is absolutely deserving of a spot in the Hall of Fame.

"The thing about B.J. Penn is that what he brought to the lightweight division, there was a point in time when we first bought this company when people thought guys in the lighter weight divisions could't be stars and couldn't see pay-per-views and couldn't cross over. B.J. Penn was definitely that first crossover guy for us," he said.

Though the 33-year-old Penn actually announced his retirement this past October, White doesn't see the fiery Hawaiian staying on the sidelines for long.

"He'll be back," White predicted. "It's tough, when there are 16,000 people in the arena chanting your name, it's tough to walk away from that. B.J. Penn is a fighter. You hear some of these guys, and Tito was one of these guys, he said he wanted to be famous. B.J. Penn is a fighter."

http://www.fightline.com/fl/news/2012/0426/548323/bj-penn/

I dont think many of you would disagree with this, but it got me thinking. With AS and GSP aside, which active fighters if they retred today would be inducted into the UFC HOF?

Hendo, Franklin, Edgar, Bones Jones, Aldo, Sylvia?

Dare I say Lesnar?

Also, are there any retired fighters who were once in the UFC and should be in the HOF? (Frank Shamrock)
 
#4 · (Edited)
Hendo in UFC hall of fame? Eh, maybe an MMA hall of fame, but he wouldnt be ready for a UFC HoF, at 41 I'm not sure if he'd ever be inducted, not too sure how many fights he's got left in him.

GSP, Anderson, Tito, and Penn are all locks.

I could maybe see the likes of Forrest, Rashad, Koscheck, Rich Franklin, Mir, etc inducted in the years to come.
 
#5 ·
Hendo in UFC hall of fame? Eh, maybe an MMA hall of fame, but he wouldnt be ready for a UFC HoF, at 41 I'm not sure if he'd ever be inducted.

GSP, Anderson, Tito, and Penn are all locks.

I could maybe see the likes of Forrest, Rashad, Koscheck, Rich Franklin, Mir, etc inducted in the years to come.
Cant say I agree with that. He has a great record but it is padded. His best wins are over Diego Sanchez and Rumble Johnson and that Sanchez win should not even count since that fight sucked so bad. Im not even going to count that fight against Matt Hughes.
 
#8 ·
On Pride

- The UFC bought it, they air their specials every week and the guys that came it came in as PPV draws. As far as I'm concerned they should just do what the MLB did with the ***** leagues and induct a giant class of them. Nog, CC, Hendo, Wanderlei, and Sakuraba put them all in at the same time.

On Tito

- I understand Tito as a draw but man, he's arguably not even one of the ten best 205ers of all time and he's going in the Hall of Fame.

On Koscheck

- I think he's a better Welterweight than Tito was a Light Heavyweight and you know they are going to have to start inducting WW's at some point.

On who if they retired today should be in the Hall

HW - Mir, Nog, likely Lesnar
LHW - Griffin, Henderson, Jackson, Evans, Shogun, Jones, maybe Bonnar
MW - Silva, Franklin, Bisping, Sonnnen, Belfort, Wandy
WW - GSP, Diaz, Koscheck, Sanchez, Fitch
LW - Edgar, Florian, Sherk, Gomi
FW - Aldo
BW - Cruz, Faber, Torres

Retired Guys that should/could be in the Hall in descending order from most likely should be in it to less likely but could be inducted.

1. Frank Shamrock
2. Don Frye
3. Rich Franklin
4. Bas Rutten
5. Pat Miletich
6. Evan Tanner
7. Chris Lytle
8. Kazushi Sakuraba
9. Igor Vovchanchyn (as a Pride guy)
10. Matt Serra
 
#12 ·
Man these must be low standards. Not everyone with an awesome record is going to go to the HOF. Koscheck? He has done nothing spectacular. Rashad? Amazing fighter. Former champ. But what has he done any different from every other fighter with a great record?

HOF is special and should be for the very few who to above and beyond. People who helped shape the sport. Not every champion or fighters with good records. It would be overrun with names.
 
#13 ·
Well we have different opinions but I think that the Hall of Fame has it's standards (Coleman, Shamrock, Severn) and fighters that are better than those in the Hall deserve tobe inducted. One of the reasons the baseball hall of fame is such a joke is the desire to only induct the "very special" which leads to if you have a reason not to induct you don't. I'd hate to see the UFC become that.
 
#18 ·
How many of those wins are against top ten opponants? And notice BJ Penn is not on that list. Fighters records are not simply black or white, its mostly about who you fight the circumstances surrounding it.
At the time or were once there?

Menne - UFC champion
Hughes - UFC champion
Trigg - 1# contender
Sanchez - Top 5
Johnson - Top 10
Lytle - Top 10
Daley - Top 10

With Hendrick's that's going to be 8, I think his last dubious opponent was Yoshida in 2008 so it's not as if he's been crushing cans. You look at some of the names Tito and Anderson beat over the years and they aren't exactly all time greats.

Also this notion that wins don't mean much how many guys in UFC history with 12 wins are automatically not Hall of Famers?

And BJ would be on that list he has 12 wins, I pretty much just stopped at 12 because I didn't want a list of 30 guys.
 
#19 ·
At the time or were once there?

Menne - UFC champion
Hughes - UFC champion
Trigg - 1# contender
Sanchez - Top 5
Johnson - Top 10
Lytle - Top 10
Daley - Top 10

With Hendrick's that's going to be 8, I think his last dubious opponent was Yoshida in 2008 so it's not as if he's been crushing cans. You look at some of the names Tito and Anderson beat over the years and they aren't exactly all time greats.

Also this notion that wins don't mean much how many guys in UFC history with 12 wins are automatically not Hall of Famers?

And BJ would be on that list he has 12 wins, I pretty much just stopped at 12 because I didn't want a list of 30 guys.
No No No. It does not matter if they once were. I dont remember Rumble and Lytle ever being ranked top 10 and I surely do not remember Sanchez being in the top five.
 
#17 ·
Pretty sure no one said Koscheck was going to be in the HOF so what are you guys talking about? They've only let people in who have changed the sport in a significant way so far and Koscheck is definitely not going to be on that list.

Everyone they have on it so far is pretty deserving of being there except Charles Lewis. No idea why the hell they put him on there. He might have helped the sport grow but he's not a fighter.
 
#24 ·
I'm happy to see Penn being inducted but as much as I love Hendo I don't think in the UFC he deserves a spot in the HOF.

He had two failed attempts at the belt and will most likely have a third failed attempt against Jones even though I'll be rooting for him like crazy. His UFC accomplishments are winning the UFC 17 middleweight tournament before Dana got involved. Getting wins over Palhares, Bisping, Rich Franklin, and Maurício Rua is impressive since they're all great top notch competitors, but even with those wins, I couldn't justify putting Dan in the UFC hall of fame. Now if there was an MMA hall of fame, I would pick him in a heart beat. ---> Feels good not being biased towards one of my top three favorite fighters of all time lol

Also, it's nice to see Tito get some time in the sun, but if he wasn't inducted, I wouldn't be bothered in the slightest. At the same time, he did defend his belt a crap load of times in the past, so I can also agree with someone who says he should be in it. Bottom line with tito, i'm indifferent.
 
#33 ·
Hendo should be nowhere near the UFC HoF... MMA HoF for sure, not UFC HoF though...

Some of the current fighters that would end up in there if they were to retire right now are:
- Franklin
- Forrest
- Bonnar
- Rashad
- GSP
- Anderson

There are probably a few more - But I'm all for keeping it as a very exclusive privilige.

I agree with the people above me - Either multiple belts or an evolutionary or historicaly important role in the company's history should be required
 
#36 ·
hes been around forever, won titles and has been apart of some monster fights, so yeah.The fact that hes become such a zuffa azz licker now will definately help speed things up.

Hendo should be nowhere near the UFC HoF... MMA HoF for sure, not UFC HoF though...

Some of the current fighters that would end up in there if they were to retire right now are:
- Franklin (this is just sentimental bliss, he faltered when
real competition arrived.And only beat a washed up wandi)

- Forrest (another sentimental choice but I get it)

- Bonnar (sentimental bs, forrest is enough)

- Rashad (Biggest TUF success story, stellar record, made the company a lot of money so I dont see why not)
- GSP
- Anderson
Anderson goes without saying
 
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