No because he repeatedly beat him to the punch throughout the first round.
GSP came up with a whole game plan for the rematch to neutralise Penns handspeed because he had thirty seconds of success predicated on one eye poke?
Again, he was knocked out by Serra at the time. It happened. Might not have played out like that 10/10 it it were Groundhog Day. Nevertheless it happened. Penn was clearly a superior striker to Serra at that time.
Penn had extremely fast hands, especially in the first round, and I've said for a very long time he had some of the most effective boxing at lightweight. Poke or punch, he landed that strike because he was faster than GSP, and GSP hadn't developed his jab yet. I do think barring that single strike the stand-up was pretty even in that round, but while GSP's vision was compromised, BJ damaged GSP's nose.
GSP neutralized BJ in the first round of the rematch because he has a genius fight IQ and knew BJ was only going to be a risk, even if a small one, in the first round. GSP went for single legs but didn't complete them, preferring to keep BJ hopping on one foot, running out of gas. In the second round, knowing the work had been done, he turned into the single legs and completed them.
I've always felt BJ was far more talented than GSP, but GSP was too disciplined, intelligent and skilled for BJ to beat, ever. BJ is a much better striker than Serra but Serra swings for the fences and hits like a mule. I suppose if GSP had fought BJ as recklessly as he fought Serra BJ could have beaten him, but that wasn't ever going to happen, and even if he did, that outcome would still have been very unlikely, despite the fact BJ is much better than Serra.
Prime BJ had the biggest balls in the UFC
