Do you care that BJ (almost) only loses to the bigger man?

[BigMuffler]

Almost every BJ loss during his "bad" run (besides the Edgar ones) was arguably against an opponent with a significant height and/or weight advantage on him.

BJ is about 5'8 and couldn't even make 170 looking soft, in shape he is closer to 160 and (I assume) lighter at FW

GSP is 5'10-5'11, 185+ lbs
Rory is 6', 200-ish lbs
Nick is 6'1, 190+ lbs
Yair is 5'11, not sure about weight but looks huge for FW
even Siver who is shorter is rumored to have been almost 20 lbs heavier than FW BJ in cage!

BJ can ALWAYS use the "bigger man" excuse (except against Frankie). He is the modern day David... except he loses to his Goliaths. Do you care about/take solace in this, or is his losing streak so brutal that not even this excuse can brighten his outlook?

 

[Arm Barbarian]

haha Siver is practically a DWARF.

Love BJ, but this ain't a SIZE issue, it's a WAY past their PRIME issue.

 

[JayPettryMMA]

 

[hot carl]

haha Siver is practically a DWARF.

Love BJ, but this ain't a SIZE issue, it's a WAY past their PRIME issue.

as well as a "nowhere near as good as frankie edgar" issue.

 

[les elroy]

zero fucks given

 

[TrevorLahey]

I haven't given even the slightest fuck about Penn since Nick Diaz beat his face in, the man should of retired then. I hate it when they milk the big name fighters for their popularity when their skills and athletic ability no longer exist. It reminds me of when I use to watch pro wrestling and ric flair and hulk hogan are still wrestling in their 50s and up, it's just so stupid.

 

[BBMN]

I do because it's idiocy.

I'd rather him fight guys his size and have a competitive fight.

AT this rate I expect him to call out Overeem. And Lesnar. At once.

"ANYONE! ANYWHERE! I'LL EVEN FIGHT TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS AT THE SAME TIME! I'M FUCKING DUMB!"

 

[Rittsy]

So, what weightless should he fight at? He lost his last two at Featherweight.

 

[Hardkore]

Almost every BJ loss during his "bad" run (besides the Edgar ones) was arguably against an opponent with a significant height and/or weight advantage on him.

BJ is about 5'8 and couldn't even make 170 looking soft, in shape he is closer to 160 and (I assume) lighter at FW

GSP is 5'10-5'11, 185+ lbs
Rory is 6', 200-ish lbs
Nick is 6'1, 190+ lbs
Yair is 5'11, not sure about weight but looks huge for FW
even Siver who is shorter is rumored to have been almost 20 lbs heavier than FW BJ in cage!

BJ can ALWAYS use the "bigger man" excuse (except against Frankie). He is the modern day David... except he loses to his Goliaths. Do you care about/take solace in this, or is his losing streak so brutal that not even this excuse can brighten his outlook?

You going to make me change my mind about you Big Muffler?

 

[El General]

Its a past his prime/inconsistent diet and training over time problem. So talented though and one of the greats but i feel he had potential to be much greater.

 

[Hardkore]

as well as a "nowhere near as good as frankie edgar" issue.

Frankie has won more, but he won't ever beat Aldo and most likely Max.

 

[BBMN]

So, what weightless should he fight at? He lost his last two at Featherweight.

1 - He shouldn't be fighting. He should've retired 5 years ago.
2 - If he is fighting, he should either be fighting at 155 and getting into the cage at 165-70, or fighting at 145 and getting into the cage at 155-160.

He refuses to grasp weight classes, and even if he is fighting at the right class (not 170), it still doesn't matter, if he is out sized because he won't cut. Perfect example is the Yair fight. Same class, but Yair is taller, longer, heavier, stronger.... because BJ basically was fighting at his weigh-in weight. He was basically an average sized 145er going against a good sized 155er... that's in his physical prime.

So yea, he's setting himself up to lose with his delusional "anyone anywhere" nonsense. He's fighting father time, and the weight cutting of modern MMA. And this last fight, his opponent was up there in years too, but actually cuts weight.

 

[phys_therapy]

I think, as far as Siver/Penn goes, that Siver actually took physical training seriously, and his greater focus on S&C instead of skill/technique was apparent in his fight against BJ. Penn didn't take S&C seriously until he was passing his physical prime, which is not enough to have known what he could have accomplished would he had taken S&C as seriously as he did technique much earlier in his career.

Siver had more physical reserve once he started his physical decline, and Penn didn't start his decline with much.

Penn and Mir are two of the most frustrating fighters I can think of. "Are they going to show up in shape this time?" Well, now they're old as far as athletes go, so it doesn't matter anymore.

 

[AC1D1K]

Fighting in above weight classes is dangerous, more so at the heavier weights. BJ / GSP 2 and Ninja/Sergei.... terrible damage

 

[Drake]

Don't think it makes a difference.

 

[WhiteBeltForLife]

Well, BJ is on record as saying that beating the bigger man is basically the point to martial arts and that was his main motivation for pretty much his entire career, so I don't think "excuse" is the correct way to look at it.

Something you need to remember: the UFC cancelled the entire lightweight division while BJ was in his prime. He fought at UFC 41 for the vacant title but the fight went to a draw, which apparently was enough of a disaster for them to up and eliminate the entire division.

So BJ went and fought in other orgs for a bit before the UFC came calling with an offer. Matt Hughes was without an interesting opponent for UFC 46 so they offered BJ that title fight at welterweight which was at the time the lightest weight division they had. And he won! First round submission!

As awesome as that was, I think it forever ruined BJ's perspective. Which is understandable: Hughes was perhaps that best fighter the UFC had ever had up to that point and BJ choked him out in four minutes. Can't blame him for thinking he could hang in that division. But in retrospect he caught lightning in a bottle that night and could never really repeat it.

So do I care? Meh. Those were different times. Nowadays the UFC is triple digits deep in fighters at 155, 145, and 135 too I think. That simply wasn't the case back then. For BJ to fight at his proper size for most of his career he would have had to switch to Shooto, Pride, etc. permanenty. He didn't want to for whatever reason and that's that.

On that note, I think his overall fame was helped by sticking to the UFC and the US in general, but for hardcore fans he could have been even more of a legend if he permanently switched to Asian MMA orgs from the beginning of his career up until when Pride folded. If he had done that, we still would have gotten a couple Pulver match ups, but also could have had multiple fights, maybe even trilogies, with these guys when all of them were in their prime:

• Gomi
• Kid Yamamoto
• Kawajiri
• Genki Sudo
• Aoki

That would have been AMAZING! Granted, he fought a trilogy with Hughes and Frankie, and twice with GSP. That is as good or better than my fantasy lineup. But other than Frankie (and Pulver) all those HoF fights were out of his natural weight class. He could have had 12+ HoF fights within his natural weight had he gone my fantasy route. Oh well.

I guess my point is Frankie has BJ's number and I miss Genki Sudo. ^_^

 

[tasticles]

I do because it's idiocy.

I'd rather him fight guys his size and have a competitive fight.

AT this rate I expect him to call out Overeem. And Lesnar. At once.

"ANYONE! ANYWHERE! I'LL EVEN FIGHT TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS AT THE SAME TIME! I'M FUCKING DUMB!"

No this fucker is way past done. Siver is way past his prime as well. That was more than fair. He is beyond washed up. It was a good run like 10 years ago.

 

[sb413197]

In his prime (actually BEFORE his prime) he was able to hang with Machida at heavyweight.

We all love BJ. But he's just old. He needs to run his training center, teach Jiu Jitsu to the next generation, and live in wealth and splendor. This isn't healthy.

 

[BennyOcean]

Why is he still fighting? I thought he retired a long time ago. Then he (stupidly) un-retired. Dude has nothing to prove and all he's doing is running his legacy into the ground. Dude is crazy rich, even without fighting, his family is loaded. He doesn't need to be doing this. Dumb.

 

[Rittsy]

1 - He shouldn't be fighting. He should've retired 5 years ago.
2 - If he is fighting, he should either be fighting at 155 and getting into the cage at 165-70, or fighting at 145 and getting into the cage at 155-160.

He refuses to grasp weight classes, and even if he is fighting at the right class (not 170), it still doesn't matter, if he is out sized because he won't cut. Perfect example is the Yair fight. Same class, but Yair is taller, longer, heavier, stronger.... because BJ basically was fighting at his weigh-in weight. He was basically an average sized 145er going against a good sized 155er... that's in his physical prime.

So yea, he's setting himself up to lose with his delusional "anyone anywhere" nonsense. He's fighting father time, and the weight cutting of modern MMA. And this last fight, his opponent was up there in years too, but actually cuts weight.

Yeah I never thought he should have made his first comeback.

The anytime anywhere thing was fine when he was in his prime, fighting Machida at Open Weight is pretty badass. But if old Penn must fight he should choose his opponent...the problem was Siver was supposed to be an ideal opponent; older guy, outside top 10, journeyman, stocky not rangey...

Penn definitely cuts weight for Featherweight.