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Suddenly Soft-Spoken, BJ Penn Tries to Return Emphasis to Fighting Roots

Filed under: UFCBOSTON — At 31 years old, BJ Penn feels time slipping away. Almost a decade ago, he was a 22-year-old wunderkind who seemed like the one-man evolution of a nascent sport. Since then, at times, he was the guy who seemed to come up short…

Filed under: UFC

BOSTON — At 31 years old, BJ Penn feels time slipping away. Almost a decade ago, he was a 22-year-old wunderkind who seemed like the one-man evolution of a nascent sport. Since then, at times, he was the guy who seemed to come up short in the big fight. Later, he became a two-division champion. Now, he’s practically an elder statesman.

For all his prodigious talent, Penn has had the epic career to go with it, though this “epic” has as much to do with peaks and valleys of high drama as it does the casual “epic” currently tossed around by this generation to signify something amazing. Penn’s most recent setback came in April, when he was upset by massive underdog Frankie Edgar in Abu Dhabi.

Since then, Penn’s been preternaturally quiet. This is the guy who told Georges St. Pierre he was ready to fight “to the death,” told Sean Sherk he’d punish him for using steroids and once spent a whole season of “The Ultimate Fighter” antagonizing Jens Pulver. Yet, in the leadup to his rematch with Edgar, Penn’s had surprisingly little to say. And when he has spoken, he’s been alternately self-critical, self-aware and, at times, brutally blunt.

Quote of the Day: BJ Penn Calls James Toney ‘God’s Gift to MMA’

(Behold, James Toney’s new UFC 118 walkout shirt design)
Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani caught up with BJ Penn in Boston today ahead of his UFC 118 showdown with Frankie Edgar and he asked the former UFC lightweight champion if he thought James Toney…

(Behold, James Toney’s new UFC 118 walkout shirt design)

Fanhouse’s Ariel Helwani caught up with BJ Penn in Boston today ahead of his UFC 118 showdown with Frankie Edgar and he asked the former UFC lightweight champion if he thought James Toney beating Randy Couture would set the sport back.

In typical Penn fashion, "The Prodigy" had an interesting take on the situation.

"What’s worse than having the WWF champ [as] our heavyweight champ? That ain’t worse than having James Toney come out and win a fight. It’s great for the sport. James Toney is God’s gift to MMA right now," BJ asserted. "He’s promoting the sport; he’s telling everyone to go out and buy tickets, You can’t ask for a better guy than that. What James Toney is doing is putting more money in everybody’s pocket."

Penn also spoke about his rematch with Edgar Saturday night and his strained relationship with UFC president Dana White, which stem from some comments he made about his business dealings with Zuffa in his biography, "Why I fight."

Here’s the interview in its entirety:

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fanhouse)

Dana White: Kenny Florian-Gray Maynard Winner Guaranteed Title Shot

Filed under: UFC, NewsBOSTON — Fighting for the first time in his UFC career in his native state of Massachusetts, Kenny Florian already has plenty of incentive and motivation to beat Gray Maynard.

On Wednesday, he got one more reason.

UFC president…

Filed under: UFC, News

BOSTON — Fighting for the first time in his UFC career in his native state of Massachusetts, Kenny Florian already has plenty of incentive and motivation to beat Gray Maynard.

On Wednesday, he got one more reason.

UFC president Dana White confirmed that the winner of the Florian-Gray Maynard UFC 118 fight will indeed be guaranteed the next crack at the UFC lightweight championship.

UFC 118 Vlog: BJ Penn’s Not Here to Make Excuses, But His Coaches Will

(No word yet on whether Penn plans to file a formal complaint against the bacterium that screwed him out of the title at UFC 112. PicProps: ESPN)
After the jump you’ll find a slickly produced video blog from the folks at ShootMedia – which we&rsq…

(No word yet on whether Penn plans to file a formal complaint against the bacterium that screwed him out of the title at UFC 112. PicProps: ESPN)

After the jump you’ll find a slickly produced video blog from the folks at ShootMedia – which we’re led to believe is just part one of an on-going series — that chronicles BJ Penn taking his training camp for UFC 118 from his beloved Hilo, Hawaii to California, where he spent the final four weeks before his 155-pound title rematch with Frankie Edgar. “BJ’s a fighter and he always wants to be on top,” says Penn boxing coach Jason Parillo at the tail end of the vid. “When you take him off the peg of being on top, we get an animal.”

While for the most part, this piece comes off as a fairly standard training blog – BJ doesn’t do anything particularly animalistic, though there is one scene of him getting after it on the rowing machine – it’s clear that Penn’s training partners appear here for one reason and one reason only: So they can say all the stuff the former lightweight champ wants us to know, but doesn’t want to actually say himself. Case in point: Taking on the topic of the sinus infection said to hamper his performance at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi.

Wednesday Morning MMA Link Club

(Nick Thompson is stretchered to safety after getting smoked by Taisuke Okuno at Sengoku 14. Check out FIGHT! Magazine’s exclusive gallery of photos from the event right here.)
Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogos…

(Nick Thompson is stretchered to safety after getting smoked by Taisuke Okuno at Sengoku 14. Check out FIGHT! Magazine‘s exclusive gallery of photos from the event right here.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

– BJ Penn Hopes James Toney Does Well Against Randy Couture (MMA Convert)

– Facing your "Mirs": Where do Lashley and King Mo go from here? (Watch Kalib Run)

– 5 Things To Watch For At UFC 118 (Heavy.com/MMA)

– Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua’s Return Delayed Until Mid-2011 (Versus MMA Beat)

– Why Nick Diaz vs. ‘Mayhem’ Miller Is the Fight Strikeforce Needs Now (MMA Fighting)

– Exclusive Interview With Bellator Middleweight Tournament Winner Alexander "Storm" Shlemenko (LowKick)

– Outstanding Wrestlers and the Lessons Learned (Five Ounces of Pain)

– Kickboxing Legend Andy Hug, R.I.P. (MMA Scraps)

– This Rampage vs. Machida trailer will be the greatest thing you will see today, guaranteed (MiddleEasy)

Classic Fights: BJ Penn, The Early Days

Going into his UFC 118 title rematch against Frankie Edgar, BJ Penn is carrying a title that he hasn’t had since before UFC 80 — former champion. We’re willing to believe that the Prodigy had an off night in Abu Dhabi, but if he wants his belt back he’ll have to relocate the kind of violent aggression that got him to the top in the first place. With that in mind, let’s take a look back at four of Penn’s early fights that set him up as a star in the UFC, and laid the groundwork for the legend that was to come…

BJ Penn vs. Joey Gilbert, UFC 31, 5/4/01

As the first non-Brazilian to win the black belt division at the Mundials, Penn entered the UFC with a reputation to uphold. But he wasn’t looking to become the next Royce Gracie. Even from the beginning, the Prodigy was a true hybrid fighter, whose grappling and striking worked in tandem. His Octagon debut was against another UFC newbie, Joey Gilbert (1-1 MMA record at the time), and though Gilbert showed impressive ground defense in neutralizing Penn’s attacks and positions, Penn was finally able to flatten Gilbert out on his stomach and whale him in the head until the ref stopped the fight with three seconds left of the first round. It looked like there might be something to this BJ Penn kid after all.

BJ Penn vs. Din Thomas, UFC 32, 6/29/01

Penn returned to action just eight weeks later to take on another fighter who was making his UFC debut. But even though Din Thomas was new to the Octagon, he’d already been around the block, compiling a 12-1 record with all victories by stoppage and a notable win over future champ Jens Pulver. Penn plays guard for a while (and shows off his famous leg flexibility at the vid’s 2:13 mark), but once Thomas starts to threaten with ground-and-pound, Penn escapes to his feet and turns Din off with a perfectly-placed knee to the jaw. The Prodigy was no fluke, and the UFC’s fledgling lightweight division was officially on notice.