Filed under: UFC
From pithy observations to useless trivia to possibly unanswerable questions, there are any number of angles one can observe UFC 127 from. Here are eleven of them.
I. There’s more at stake for B.J. Penn than the No. 1 contender spot. For the sake of argument, let’s say Penn loses on Saturday, as most experts expect him to. What then? At 32 years old, he’s a former champion who got more or less bounced out of his natural weight class by consecutive losses to the same opponent, and if he can’t beat Fitch, it probably signals that he has no bright future at welterweight either. He has a loyal enough fan base that he could hang around and fight hand-picked opponents for a little while, but it’s been hard enough at times for Penn to get motivated for the big fights. He needs a win if he’s to stay relevant in the UFC, and he has to know that. If he gets in the cage mumbling to himself like a madman again, look out. If he shows up looking soft and disinterested, look away.