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What's At Stake For BJ Penn At UFC 80

By Luke Thomas

In a word, everything:

Penn laughs, but there is a lot on the line in Newcastle. If he wins, he joins Randy Couture as the only two division champions in UFC history (Penn won the welterweight title from Hughes in 2004). He also begins to carve out his legacy not only as one of the most talented fighters to ever grace the Octagon, but one of the most accomplished. If he loses, it will be a case of unfulfilled promise. If you told this to Penn a few years back, he probably would have laughed it off, as he was just content with fighting and not what the history books said. Now, he takes legacy very seriously.

"You want to be categorized in a league of your own, like Randy (Couture) is," he said. "You don't want to be in the mix with everybody else. When they talk about you, you want them to say something special, like a Joe Frazier or (Muhammad) Ali, those kinds of people. You want to be extraordinary. You want to shoot for greatness and I think every fighter should."

While I'm usually wary of fighters who want to run before they walk, BJ's talent plus 2006 and 2007 setbacks seem to be the engine of his desire to achieve more. After coasting by for years at the top on talent alone, BJ developed very poor habits that wound up costing up, most notably in the loss to Georges St. Pierre.

For Penn to win next week would be the motivation he needs to keep going. Owning a title and having to defend that title would be what a competitor like Penn requires to stay sharp. Here's to that happening.

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