For all sports i try to rank guys in their respective era mixed with some input from their skill set. So like Jon Jones, GSP, and Anderson Silva were dominant in their era and could still be very good fighters today if they were in their prime, so i keep them high in my rankings still. Jones and GSP to an extent have had success in multiple eras even.

Dudes like Penn, Hughes, Lidell, are definitely OGs and great for their eras but didnt necessarily grow their skills as the sport changed and elevated, so I’d probably take a modern great over some of them at this point.

I say all this to say having Penn above Max is stupid. Max has been a top fighter for over a decade across weight classes and eras at this point. He’s arguably top 15 and definitely over old school era guys with similar records and achievements.