Was BJ Penn in his prime in GSP x BJ II?

DanDragon Machi

DanDragon Machi

Green Belt
@Green
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
973
Reaction score
693
I've watched BJ x Hughes rand BJ x GSP II in a row recently and the difference in BJ's speed, explosion and athleticism compared to his rematch with GSP was very large. In my opinio the BJ who was defeated by GSP and Hughes II was still a great fighter but was not more in his physicall prime. In your opinion, what was the key fight that ended his prime? He looked pretty good agains Sanchez but I think he had better days
 
Yes he was. He was nearing the end of it by the end of 2010.
 
Penn was at his peak when he trained with the Marinovich brothers; his back-to-back lightweight title bouts against Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. This was motivated, in shape, peak, Penn.

Penn then leaves Marinovich midway through training camp for Penn's first fight with Frankie Edgar. His decline started at this point and concluded with one of the worst finishes of any career in the UFC.
 
Can’t Handle My Riddum said:
The fight that ended his prime was the fight against discipline. I've always felt that he could have had the world at his feet had he been a more disciplined fighter.
Click to expand...
It certainly wasn’t a good sign seeing Penn blow off TC on the newly invented for that fight, UFC Primetime tv show.

All the talent in the world. I don’t want to say it was wasted. Because he was a 2 division champion. But if he had the work ethic of GSP, he’d be much higher in GOAT discussions. And could have had a big run at LW. 8+ defences, etc.

2 guys wired differently from eachother. And the results pretty much show that. They both accomplished great things. But one accomplished more, and lost MUCH less.
 
DOMMA said:
Penn was at his peak when he trained with the Marinovich brothers; his back-to-back lightweight title bouts against Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. This was motivated, in shape, peak, Penn.

Penn then leaves Marinovich midway through training camp for Penn's first fight with Frankie Edgar. His decline started at this point and concluded with one of the worst finishes of any career in the UFC.
Click to expand...
Maybe he had two peaks? He was cleary slower in his second lost by St.Pierre if compared with his previous fights. But I think the BJ who crusehd Hughes in first round was better who BJ who destroyed Sanchez
 
Will never forget the Stevenson match, BJ brutalized that poor guy. I def think he was out of his prime by GSP 2, but a lot of that was also his own fault.
 
Clark Rogers said:
Will never forget the Stevenson match, BJ brutalized that poor guy. I def think he was out of his prime by GSP 2, but a lot of that was also his own fault.
Click to expand...
He was undisciplined, it was his biggest hindrance.

He beat the dog shit out of Joe and outclassed him in every category across the board.
 
Can’t Handle My Riddum said:
The fight that ended his prime was the fight against discipline. I've always felt that he could have had the world at his feet had he been a more disciplined fighter.
Click to expand...
Well said, he had so many flashes of greatness. He could have been one of the undeniable greatest fighters of any class, but I feel like time will not be good for his legacy and the entirety of his career will be overlooked for how it ended, which is a shame because he was one of the originals who got me into MMA.
 
DanDragon Machi said:
Maybe he had two peaks? He was cleary slower in his second lost by St.Pierre if compared with his previous fights. But I think the BJ who crusehd Hughes in first round was better who BJ who destroyed Sanchez
Click to expand...
I would say with BJ you saw a significant shift in his tactics after the loses to GSP and Hughes in 06. Prior to that BJ tended to be a very aggressive fighter who would go after someone were ever the fight went but afterwards I think he became much more focused on avoiding being on his back. He shifted to more of a counter fighter with strong takedown defence.

I think you could argue that worked pretty well for awhile, guys like Sherk and Deigo for example I think might have faired better against the early BJ were some top control might have been easier to get and they could test his cardio but long term I think it started to make him more predictable and GSP the 2nd time really exploited that followed by Frankie.

In terms of physical peak yeah I'd guess that was probably in the early 00's..
 
TIxJ93dO0HZj3rRaNfQaWvFSbTbcueLqYMARC5oqr5hZt89KU3IgDVeI1mFUTn3BaqKB2CVQEI7v5S-ENPUG-BFdHDN38sG2ARCSu_OLb_ok4WxmHmYmp77cDiRrn2vftHNePI0
 
BearVictim said:
He was undisciplined, it was his biggest hindrance.

He beat the dog shit out of Joe and outclassed him in every category across the board.
Click to expand...
That's kinda the scariest thing about BJ to me. Up until the end there, he was pretty successful and wasn't near as disciplined with training as other champs. Imagine if he had been.
 
Can’t Handle My Riddum said:
The fight that ended his prime was the fight against discipline. I've always felt that he could have had the world at his feet had he been a more disciplined fighter.
Click to expand...
hes disciplined
its just his fans tryna say hes not lmfao

kinda like an excuse
pretty sure bj is doing all the best he can to win
 
DOMMA said:
Penn was at his peak when he trained with the Marinovich brothers; his back-to-back lightweight title bouts against Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian. This was motivated, in shape, peak, Penn.

Penn then leaves Marinovich midway through training camp for Penn's first fight with Frankie Edgar. His decline started at this point and concluded with one of the worst finishes of any career in the UFC.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. He was actually training hard and consistently to be in shape. And he had no business even fighting at 170, the fact that he became champ and tied Fitch is impressive as heck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,254,635
Messages
56,661,124
Members
175,336
Latest member
Swamps

Share this page

Back
Top