Tweet
Originally posted by Move BRICKS
View Post
Then in his 3rd fight he faced Uno in what was to be a title eliminator. BJ was the heavy underdog and BJ was expected to be good for a round but succumb to Uno's prowess considering that at the time he was #2 LW and was one of only 3 guys to beat Sato. Penn finishes him in 11 seconds which at the time was a huge upset. It then set up Penn's first fight with Pulver in which he went 5 hard rounds and wound up dropping a close majority decision.
After this the UFC would set up the LW tourney in order to determine a new LW champ the winner of which would've more than likely face Gomi in their first defense, who at the time had climbed up the ranks to establish himself as a top 3 LW with wins over Sato, Brennan & Mishima. Penn would beat Matt Serra before facing Uno in a rematch for the title which ended in a draw leaving the belt vacant. Frustrated by this because like many others Penn thought he won the fight, he setup a fight between him and Gomi in Hawaii which Penn won solidifying his position as the world's best LW.
Now it is after this that his P4P status comes into play.
Done with the LW and looking for a challenge, Penn moves up to WW to challenge Matt Hughes. Now you may not like Matt Hughes for whatever reason, but at the time he was the most dominant WW in the world, had faced the best of the WW at the time and was believed to be P4P the best fighter in the world by MMA fans. Penn comes in the heavy underdog and everyone and their mother believed that the stronger, bigger and more explosive Hughes would make easy work of Penn. Instead Penn decided to spoil the party and tapped Hughes in the first round leaving no doubt in anyones mind that he was a P4P top 5 fighter if not number 1. He then stopped Duane Ludwig who was a rising star coming off of wins over Jens Pulver and Genki Sudo in the first round before moving up in weight again.
This time he fought Rodrigo Gracie, undefeated at the time and puported to be the new Rickson. Penn dominated him over 3 rounds taking a clear cut decision. Again Penn is not satisfied so he moves up again this time fighting Lyoto Machida. Penn weighed around 190 on the night whereas Machida was coming in at around 220 on the night. Now Machida was coming ito the fight already holding stoppage wins over Stephan Bonnar and Rich Franklin. Penn dropped a 3 round decision all the while never looking out of place and giving Machida some shaky moments. After this Penn drops down to MW again to rekindle his feud with the Gracies by dominating Renzo Gracie over 3 rounds.
Then his return to the UFC. He drops a very close split decision to GSP of which many thought he had won. And if you look at both of them after the fight, GSP looked like the loser. Before dropping a fight to Hughes in the rematch. Since then he has returned to LW and has stopped all 3 of his opponents capturing the LW belt in the process against top 10 LW Joe Stevenson and then beating the last guy to hold the title in Sean Sherk which basically annexed the belt as well as keeping the credibility of the title in tact. Now he looks move back up in weight to regain the WW belt.
In all honesty BJ's P4P ranking is completely justified. He's a 2 weight world champion. Since the very beginning of his career he has always faced top competition whether it be current or former champions, or ranked opposition. Also he has travelled up the weight classes to take on fighters despite the fact that he is undersized from the WW division upwards and in each fight he has never looked out of place. Reason for this is that his skills as a fighter are that good that he can pretty much go into most weight classes and still be effective. That alone proves to me at least that Penn is worthy of being labelled one of P4P best fighters in the world.
Comment