Penn leaves no doubt

August 10, 2009

Can we finally stop with the B.J. Penn cardio talk?

Even though UFC commentators Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan wouldn’t stop talking about it, questioning Penn’s conditioning throughout his submission victory over Kenny Florian last night, I hope we’ve finally put to rest the talk of his stamina. When he defends his title next, presumably against Diego Sanchez, I hope, even BEG, that the UFC decides not to base the entire pre-fight hype on Penn’s conditioning.

After 15 minutes of failed Kenny Florian takedowns, Penn had plenty in the gas tank to pick up the challenger, slam him to the mat and work him over before finishing off the fight with a rear-naked choke. Even though Rogan and Goldberg seemed to be committed to finding a point where Penn looked tired, even saying he was “breathing with his mouth open” in round 1 like he was about to pass out and die, the champion showed no problems going into the championship rounds and finishing a fight.

The difference in fighting at 155 and 170 pounds was clearly evident. Florian tried the same strategy as Georges St-Pierre, leaning on Penn against the cage trying to wear him out, but guess what, that strategy is pretty worthless when you’re not outweighing your opponent by 15-20 pounds.

And when does failing over and over at takedown attempts win you a round? This talk that Florian should have won the second round? If you’re trying to take a guy down and he repeatedly shrugs off every attempt you make, why should you get the round? As soon as Penn landed the two big upper cuts followed by a left hook, and then countered Florian’s superman punch with a left that moved him back, that was more than anything Florian did in that round to earn the 10 points.

At the end of the day, Penn retained his title with a statement-making victory that leaves NO DOUBT he is the top 155-pound fighter in the world. All it took was one takedown and Penn had a fellow black belt in jiu jitsu tapping out before the round ended. Florian didn’t hit Penn with anything standing, couldn’t take him down, and had no answer when he finally found himself on his back.

The biggest question for me was how Penn would bounce back from the beating he took against St-Pierre and he answered it resoundingly. He bounced back like a champion would.

Posted in Fights