Why BJ Penn should not fight again
As a fan, BJ Penn is one of my favorite fighters of all-time. For my money, he's the most well-rounded MMA athlete in history.
He has peerless bravery and scary killer instinct, and his record of opponents may be the strongest schedule anyone in the sport has ever gone through. With all that said, I never want to see him fight again.
He will, though, as the UFC recently announced that the former welterweight and lightweight champion will fight in Los Angeles, at UFC 199 against Dennis Siver. That is a mistake.
It isn't that, age or skill-wise, Siver is some unfair matchup for Penn. This is about the most fair and sensible matchup the UFC could give Penn -- who is insisting on returning and has been training at Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn's Albuquerque gym.
The problem is with the 37-year-old deciding to fight on 15 years after he made his pro debut and several years after he first started doing nothing but losing and taking damage.
At his best, BJ Penn dominated fellow lighter-weight opponents and managed to compete with others at multiple weight classes, as high as heavyweight. For the past half-decade, however, he's been unable to win and has looked increasingly outmatched while taking hundreds of only slightly contested blows to the head.
The all-time great has won just once in his last seven fights, and only three times in his last 10, going back to 2009. All that is, of course, on top of years and years of earlier training and fights, during which he accumulated -- as all fighters do -- plenty of bodily damage.
Lighter weight fighters don't typically have the longevity of heavier guys. At heavier weights, power -- which is said to be the last thing to go in a fighter -- can mask aging for quite some time.
Lighter-weight fighters often are more reliant on something that fades first, with age -- speed. Penn's style, in particular, doesn't age well.
For all his quick bursts which have contributed to highlight-reel finishes, he is and always has been a flat-footed counter-striker who relied on superior reflexes and timing to out-class opponents.
The guy who hopscotch skipped over a front and rear kick in succession from Georges St-Pierre 10 years ago isn't the same guy who got bludgeoned by Nate Diaz, Rory MacDonald and Frankie Edgar in his most recent bouts.
Now, nearly two years later, he's not even going to be the fighter he was back then, when he tried to come back the first time in 2014. Against Edgar, Penn fought almost bizarrely ineffectively.
That bout against a man we'd all seen him fight twice before was a perfect way to measure just how delayed Penn's reflexes have become with age. When he first fought Edgar, he was edged out, in large part because Edgar was able to out-quick him, out-time him and land more shots than people usually did against BJ.
The second time out, it was still close, but Edgar widened his lead. In their third fight, it was as if Edgar was fighting an extremely game and durable amateur.
Here's something we all too often fail to recognize in prizefighting and are at risk of doing, once more with Penn: When a fighter who used to be dominant, as Penn was in his prime at lightweight, can't buy a win for years on end, he and we all need to take a hint.
Athletic commissions may want to do the same.
Time and punches take their toll on everyone, even the greatest of fighters. BJ Penn is no different.
Slowing reflexes and a big heart don't mix well. For years now, "The Prodigy" has been allowed to walk into the cage and take one-sided beatings for our entertainment, staying up seemingly only because of an iron will and hard head.
It is long past time for that head to stop taking lumps.
