BJ Penn is taking on Yair Rodriguez this weekend at UFC Fight Night 103 from the aptly named Talking Stick Arena in Phoenix. At the time of writing this article he is a +335 underdog to a prospect many people including the author don’t think all that highly of.
That’s right BJ Penn is headlining a show in the year 2017 on Fox Sports 1 with a lead in from playoff football. Don’t worry, you didn’t slip, hit your head and miss the news that BJ Penn left the UFC for Bellator; this is happening in the new WME-IMG owned UFC.
For the record, that’s 6 years after he retired the first time following a harrowing beating from Nick Diaz that left Penn’s face bloodied and bruised. BJ said he didn’t want his daughter to have to see him like this ever again, we didn’t want to see him look like that ever again either if we’re keeping it 100…
But an athlete’s worst enemy is time and our memories of the way they used to be. William Goldman in the book “Wait til next year” writes:
“ The greatest struggle an athlete undergoes is the battle for our memories. It begins before you’re aware that it’s begun and it ends with a terrible fall from grace.”
BJ Penn has been falling from grace for 6 years. And our memories of him might not be able to survive this weekend. Which leads me to ask the Bomani Jones inspired question:
“What’s Up With Your Mans?”
It would have been nice if after BJ knocked out Matt Hughes in 21 seconds back in 2010, he walked away into the sunset. That could have been his Jordan moment, walking away not when the fight game told him he had to but as a conquering hero who still had something left in the tank.
The fight game is rarely so kind to old legends though.
He could have walked away after his fight with Jon Fitch in which he was lucky to escape with a draw when everyone with any sense scored that fight 29-27 Fitch.
But we knew a competitor like BJ Penn wasn’t going to walk away on a draw.
He tried to walk away after the Nick Diaz fight but the “old” BJ, a mythical creature we’ve been looking for, for just slightly less time than we looked for the “motivated” BJ Penn. The “old” BJ Penn called out Rory Macdonald, then regarded as a future champion and didn’t look like his “old” self as much as he just looked old.
Rory didn’t just beat Penn down, he styled on him, breaking out his version of the “Ali” shuffle. Or as close to an “Ali” shuffle as a dorky white dude from Canada can do. Now we told ourselves it was over, THAT should have been enough we told ourselves.
We were wrong.
BJ somehow talked Dana White into giving him and Frankie Edgar a season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and another shot at his old nemesis at the end. Despite the fact that Frankie had beaten BJ twice already in increasingly emphatic fashion (yes he won the first fight too, you guys just don’t like him) and Frankie being on a tear, they did it again brother.
The result was the rare Frankie Edgar TKO victory. Just think about that for a second, Frankie Edgar TKO’d BJ Penn.
The BJ Penn who went 3 rounds with Lyoto Machida at 190 lbs. The BJ Penn who survived 3 rounds with GSP the first time and had to be saved by his corner the 2nd time because he was so damn tough, was actually finished by a 145lb fighter with 6 TKO wins in 27 fights…
It wasn’t like Conor Mcgregor or another heavy-handed hitter caught him either. Frankie just beat the hell out of him for 3 rounds until it was mercifully stopped. And that’s just the in the cage stuff.
When Penn first asked for another fight after the 3rd Edgar loss, he was selling us on the idea that he had moved to Albuquerque to train under Greg Jackson full time.
He still looked like BJ Penn, so with visions of Andrei Arlovski’s career resurgence dancing in our eyes, hardcore MMA fans and the MMA media sold ourselves on BJ finally doing it right this time.
He was also matched up with Denis Siver, which looked like a fight tailor made to get BJ a win. But in typical BJ Penn fashion he ended up bouncing around from gym to gym training at The MMA Lab and in Hawaii.
He also seem to have more than 1 head coach in his corner this weekend and let’s be honest if you have 2 head coaches, you really don’t have a head coach at all. There was also that whole incident where he was accused of sexual assault even though to be clear, the charges were later dropped.
To top that off, his brother got arrested on a plane this week…
And his totally tone deaf comments on fighter pay, which are especially absurd when you remember that he comes from money and as someone on twitter (Sorry I forgot who) pointed out, his family probably spent more money on Jiu-jitsu lessons than some fighters have earned in their careers.
And lastly his stated goal of capturing a 3rd UFC title, the absurdity of which concept doesn’t even require a follow up argument.
However, all of which leads me to ask one simple but extremely relevant question:
What’s Up With Your Mans, BJ?
