Next up for BJ Penn?

by FW on Sep 4, 2010 10:27 PM EDT

BJ Penn made his return to lightweight at the Ultimate Finale 5 beating Jens Pulver by rear naked choke. An impressive win and one that avenged his Lightweight Champion belt loss to Pulver at UFC 35. Except for the rematch loss to George St-Pierre (GSP) at UFC 94, which was contested at Welterweight, BJ had been unstoppable at lightweight. He dominated and beat Joe Stevenson via rear naked choke at UFC 80, dominated and TKO’d Sean Sherk at UFC 84, dominated and beat Kenny Florian by rear naked choke at UFC 101 and absolutely demolished Diego Sanchez, busting him up badly over 5 rounds before the bout stopped due to the huge gash BJ opened up across Sanchez’s forehead.

His next bout at lightweight was for the Lightweight Championship title against the # 1 contender Frankie Edgar at UFC 112. This fight was won by Edgar via a unanimous decision. A fight BJ felt he won. By round three of this fight Penn looked frustrated and distracted. Regardless, BJ insisted he was robbed and this was a fluke win. Edgar was in fact the underdog in both fights and some experts were suggesting the rematch was going to be similar to the GSP/ Matt Serra II bout that saw GSP dominate Serra and regain his title.

The Edgar/Penn rematch saw the champion beating BJ Penn in every round and in every facet of the game. Penn looked out of it walking to the ring while being announced and just before the bell rung to start the fight. Throughout the fight he again looked frustrated and even listless at times. The last time we saw Penn acting in a similar fashion was the second GSP fight.

While Penn/St-Pierre II was at Welterweight, it did provide some foreshadowing to his performances in his two bouts with Frankie Edgar. It appears when...Read more here:
http://www.fightswewant.com/blog.cfm?feature=1491310&postid=429742

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why would you risk giving BJ 3 losses in a row? Next match should be a rebound match for sure. Plus, if Penn happens to beat Aldo, it’s going to be even harder to market the WEC to a larger audience by both diminishing the star power of Aldo while at the same time sending a false implication to the public that UFC stars are better than WEC stars

by TyTy on Sep 4, 2010 10:44 PM EDT reply actions

Interesting points?

Assuming this is how the powers that be would think…who do you like in that rebound match?

by FW on Sep 4, 2010 10:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Clay Guida

by TyTy on Sep 5, 2010 12:26 AM EDT reply actions

Guida lost a split D to both Florian and Sanchez and I think BJ wins. At 32, Penn needs to start keeping an eye on his mileage. You asked, why give BJ 3 losses in a row? That is the point, to put himself in a do or die situation. Chuck Liddell lost two in a row, getting KO’s by Quinton Jackson and then a split D to Keith Jardine. His next fight was a rebound match as a result of losing his last two but not with a middle of the pack fighter but with Wanderlie Silva and it was great fight and chuck won. Wanderlie was coming off 2 losses as well coming into that fight and Chuck made it 3 in a row. He came back in his next fight and KO’s Jardine. The suggestion was that BJ Penn, if he wants to, needs to shake things up. Aldo is a name some fans have have asked for. ChiCub23 suggested Gomi which I think is another interesting bout that might be a good next fight.

I also don’t think it would diminish Aldo’s start power or that the UFC has better stars than the WEC. Who knows if Aldo would be as fast an explosive with the extra weight (assuming he moved up). This is also not a UFC vs. WEC or any other league for that matter. We are just talking about the bout as it relates to the fighters themselves. I am also not saying one couldn’t have the debate as to what league has the better fighters. You can and people do all the time. It’s just not the intent of the original post.

by FW on Sep 5, 2010 7:37 AM EDT up reply actions

Gomi. Makes sense for both of them. There really aren’t that many options for Penn. There are a ton of guys that he simply destroys, then Edgar and Maynard are fighting for the title.

While on the subject, what do you guys think of Maynard’s chances against Penn, if they were to fight? Edgar took him down easily and quickly into the fight, so its not like stamina had an effect. Maynard has even better takedowns and smothering ability.

Hard core MMA fan since UFC 99

by ChiCubs23 on Sep 5, 2010 1:50 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Maynard is exactly what Penn has feasted on

throughout his career..let’s make it abundantly clear, Frankie Edgar won that fight by being much faster than BJ and having studied BJs standup to have some sort of footwork advantage on the feet, not by using his wrestling well. I think that Maynard will (would?) get tooled by BJ, I’ve said it before, the Sean Sherk that BJ beat is probaby far superior to the Gray Maynard of today,

Jonathan Snowden: The Glenn Beck of MMA reporting.

by Kidroll on Sep 5, 2010 3:55 AM EDT up reply actions

Penn/Gomi 2 in Hawaii

That would be so bad ass. Aldo…No thanks… If Penn couldn’t handle Frankie’s speed, I’d hate to see what Aldo does to him

by X5-452 on Sep 5, 2010 3:54 AM EDT reply actions

i love penn vs gomi! that would be awesome...

by #1 piggy on Sep 6, 2010 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions

penn/guida

that would fun bloody fight that bj takes any way he wants

by SHOWMAN 56 on Sep 5, 2010 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

Another Penn/Gomi bout would be seem appropriate

by capital L on Sep 5, 2010 2:36 PM EDT reply actions

Gomi’s a solid choice

Maybe wait for the results of Dunham/Sherk, and if either look really impressive give them the shot. If Sherk’s knees aren’t all the way gone and he feels like wrestling we could see a much different fight then their first. Dunham’s on his way up so if he has a good showing why not let him challenge penn.

And Grispi over at the WEC has been talking about eventually moving up to lightweight, why not push Penn to learn to deal with faster fighters.

I feel like on one hand the UFC probably wants to give Penn a fight to get back on track, but if they give him to light an opposition he’ll just get by on his boxing and ground d and not really improve at all.

by Balrog on Sep 5, 2010 4:42 PM EDT reply actions