Did Florian and Sherk Mix Up Their Game Plans for BJ Penn?

Kenny pretty much did the same thing as GSP except failed utterly.

It’s true that Sherk could have implemented a much better plan based on the blueprint laid out by GSP, but firstly, Sherk is neither the same caliber of wrestler that GSP is, nor is he much bigger either. Secondly, just because Sherk could have used a better strategy doesn’t mean Kenny’s strategy was wrong. I felt that Kenny could hardly have done better. Penn demonstrated that he was better in every area the fight took place, having the better of the fight in the stand up, in the clinch, in wrestling, and obviously on the ground. Despite that, Florian stayed in the fight up to the fourth round and was able to make the rounds close despite being apparently weaker in all areas.

It was his game plan that kept him in the fight as long as he lasted.

Kenny had trouble sitting down on any punches because you have to hit BJ very hard to stun him or even put him off balance. As his chin is so strong and his hands so heavy, he can win nearly every exchange. This made Kenny’s kicking game one-dimensional. Perhaps some stance changes, or teeps could have helped Kenny out… But a Penn that resembles anything close to the old BJ is an animal at 155.

At least there are some physically stronger 155ers (Maynard and Sanchez) coming down the pipe. Frankie Edgar may also have a decent shot even though he doesn’t have particularly powerful punches.

I know I’m playing Monday morning quaterback here and there’s no way I could do anywhere close to better myself, but Kenny royally messed up in his fight with BJ.

First, he didn’t set ANYTHING up. From my memory of the fight, he threw little in the way of combos. He would throw an overhand, a superman punch, a head kick, etc but never tried to really feint or disguise his strikes. One of the things said by GSP after he demolished BJ was that BJ had really fast reflexes, but a longer reset time. GSP mixed things up, feinted and overall kept BJ guessing and not trade punch for punch like Kenny did. He lost just about every exchange because of that. Plus, Kenny knew before the fight that BJ hit harder than him, so why would he try to just trade power shots. I understand that his southpaw stance may have affected what he threw, but doing what he did just seemed silly.

Second, did he really think he could outwrestle BJ? If he had started the fight clinching up in order to wear BJ out to make the striking easier, I could understand that. But it looked to me like he was thinking he could do what no one but GSP has been able to do and that’s take down and control BJ on the ground.

Third, he didn’t try to keep the pace really high in order to gas BJ out. Bj may not have gassed regardless(I wasn’t exactly watching him train day in and out) but historically this would seem like a sensible idea. Kenny would throw something then try to get out of the way before BJ clocked him again. The clinching only seemed to happen after Kenny realised standing with BJ wasn’t working.

It looked to me like Kenny either forgot his gameplan, his gameplan was for BJ to do something stupid, or he got scared. Either way what he did not only didn’t work, but it failed miserably.

I’m a fan of KenFlo and I can’t wait to watch him bounce back and redeem himself after this, but hopefully next time he’ll have a better plan to defeat his opponent.