Tag: BJ Penn

BJ Penn to Train in Brazil With Jose Aldo and Renan Barao Before Frankie Edgar Fight

bj penn val kilmer
(Alright BJ, now that you’ve kicked your training camp up a notch, it’s time to fire your dietician.) 

Before B.J. Penn joined the UFC and became a multi-division champion and future hall of famer, he received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from Nova Uniao’s head coach, Andre Pederneiras. Now, as Penn plans his come back fight against Frankie Edgar in 2014, the fighter has asked Pederneiras to help prepare him.

Pederneiras coaches featherweight champion Jose Aldo, so he has experience preparing for Edgar. “We’ve studied Edgar’s game a lot for Aldo’s fight,” he said, according to MMA Fighting‘s Guilherme Cruz.

“So I believe there’s no better place and sparring’s better for B.J. to come back in great fashion and motivated.”

Details are not official but Pederneiras says that he wants Penn to conduct his training camp in Rio where he can train with the likes of Aldo and bantamweight champion Renan Barao. This is an interesting piece of news, though it may be premature to assume anything about what Penn will do just yet.

First off, we were under the impression that Penn was told he’d get a chance to fight for the featherweight title if he were to beat Edgar, as they are doing the bout at 145 pounds. Their first two fights were lightweight title affairs. That seemed dubious at first precisely because of Penn’s connection to Aldo’s Nova Uniao’s team. It seems unlikely that Pederneiras would prepare Penn to become the #1 contender to his prize pupil’s title.

bj penn val kilmer
(Alright BJ, now that you’ve kicked your training camp up a notch, it’s time to fire your dietician.) 

Before B.J. Penn joined the UFC and became a multi-division champion and future hall of famer, he received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from Nova Uniao’s head coach, Andre Pederneiras. Now, as Penn plans his come back fight against Frankie Edgar in 2014, the fighter has asked Pederneiras to help prepare him.

Pederneiras coaches featherweight champion Jose Aldo, so he has experience preparing for Edgar. “We’ve studied Edgar’s game a lot for Aldo’s fight,” he said, according to MMA Fighting‘s Guilherme Cruz.

“So I believe there’s no better place and sparring’s better for B.J. to come back in great fashion and motivated.”

Details are not official but Pederneiras says that he wants Penn to conduct his training camp in Rio where he can train with the likes of Aldo and bantamweight champion Renan Barao. This is an interesting piece of news, though it may be premature to assume anything about what Penn will do just yet.

First off, we were under the impression that Penn was told he’d get a chance to fight for the featherweight title if he were to beat Edgar, as they are doing the bout at 145 pounds. Their first two fights were lightweight title affairs. That seemed dubious at first precisely because of Penn’s connection to Aldo’s Nova Uniao’s team. It seems unlikely that Pederneiras would prepare Penn to become the #1 contender to his prize pupil’s title.

Sure, Edgar already made the move down but Penn is still the major drawing name in this match up and if he wants to fight at lightweight, we’re betting the UFC will accommodate him. Now, there’s no reason that the 5’9 Penn couldn’t make 145 pounds simply by living healthy, dieting down slightly and cutting a little water weight right before the fight.

Heck, there’s no reason Penn couldn’t have done that his entire career. But he never did.

For whatever reason, probably because he is good enough to get away with it, Penn never thought it necessary to do what most other fighters do and that is eat well to stay around a weight that would allow them to fight in a weight class where they are best suited. Instead, he fought at lightweight, welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight.

Is Penn committed enough to do what is necessary to fight at featherweight now, in his mid-thirties? Perhaps.

He doesn’t have anything to prove and has taken a lot of damage throughout his career, so this writer is still not on board with the idea of him coming back to begin with. More cynical members of the CP staff are dubious that this fight will materialize at all, regardless the weight it is supposed to be contested at (Ed note: But especially at featherweight.)

Do you think the TUF curse will catch up with either Edgar or Penn, nation? And do you think that Penn will overcome the poi curse that has afflicted him throughout his career and make featherweight?

On a related note, does anyone know where a brotha can get some good poi in the Midwest?

– Elias Cepeda

BJ Penn May Train with Jose Aldo for Third Fight Against Frankie Edgar

Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn hasn’t had a lot of luck when he’s been put inside the Octagon with Frankie Edgar. At 0-2 versus “The Answer,” something better change for Penn because the old foes will once again duke it out in…

Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn hasn’t had a lot of luck when he’s been put inside the Octagon with Frankie Edgar. At 0-2 versus “The Answer,” something better change for Penn because the old foes will once again duke it out in 2014.

But before the fight itself, Penn and Edgar will face off as coaches on the 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter. I reckon that’s good news for “The Prodigy,” who will therefore have the chance to best Edgar in a different sort of game.

But back to the fight. 

Penn’s lack of success against Edgar demands he shake things up a bit. For starters, he has decided to drop to featherweight, a bold move considering he last competed two weight classes up.

Secondly, Penn has the option of calling on someone with experience beating Edgar, namely Jose Aldo.

During a recent interview with Combate, Nova Uniao leader Andre Pederneiras announced that he will act as one of Penn’s trainers on TUF. 

But besides that, Pederneiras has extended an invitation to Penn to train with the featherweight champ.

In a translated version of the interview by MMA Fighting, the long-time coach noted “We’ve studied Edgar’s game a lot for Aldo’s fight, so I believe there’s no better place and sparrings better for B.J. to come back in great fashion and motivated.”

That’s quite an opportunity for Penn, not only because Aldo has beaten Edgar before, but also because, well, you know, he’s Jose Aldo.

Anyway you slice it, there looks to be a lot of intrigue on the horizon for Penn. 

How will he do in his second stint as a TUF coach?

Will he wind up training with Aldo?

How will he deal with cutting to 145?

And of course, will his fight with Edgar signify the resurrection of his career, or will it be another nail in the coffin?

 

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BJ Penn: ‘Frankie Edgar Should Have Never Beat Me, That Guy Can’t Beat Me’

For nine months, B.J. Penn watched and waited from afar, patiently contemplating if he would ever step into the Octagon again.
The chances seemed bleak with the passage of time. Penn had already accomplished everything there was to accomplish in the UF…

For nine months, B.J. Penn watched and waited from afar, patiently contemplating if he would ever step into the Octagon again.

The chances seemed bleak with the passage of time. Penn had already accomplished everything there was to accomplish in the UFC. He was a future Hall of Famer and—alongside Randy Couture—the only fighter in MMA history to hold a UFC title in two separate weight classes.

What else did he have to prove?

Besides, the landscape of the UFC had completely changed. Frankie Edgar, the man who defeated him for the lightweight title, was competing at featherweight and no longer a UFC champion.

The top fighters in the lightweight division were all new faces, and the welterweight division was still overrun by brutish wrestlers. There simply appeared to be no place for Penn, a 34-year-old legend on the downside of his career.

But then UFC President Dana White received a text message.

“B.J. Penn sends me a text that says, ‘Dana, I want to fight Ben Henderson.’ So I immediately pick up my phone and called him, and he doesn’t answer,” White said during an appearance on Fox Sports’ Google+ Hangout.

For White, it was shocking enough that Penn wanted to continue fighting, but why would he call out Benson Henderson?

Initially, it didn’t make any sense, but the puzzle pieces slowly began falling into place when Penn returned White’s phone call.

White continued in the Google+ Hangout interview:

So B.J. calls me like 45 minutes later, and he’s like, “Hey Dana, I didn’t answer your phone call because I don’t want you to talk me out of this. I know how you are, I know what you’re going to say and you’re going to talk me out of it.” I’m like, “You’re damn right I’m going to talk you out of it. I mean I just don’t get it.”

Then he says, “The reason I want to fight Ben Henderson is because I believe if I beat Ben Henderson, you’ll give me a shot to fight Frankie Edgar.” And I’m like, “Frankie Edgar?” And he goes, “Yeah, I want this Frankie Edgar fight worse than anything. Those two losses are the rock in my shoe. He should have never beat me. That guy can’t beat me.”

For Penn, Edgar is the fighter who triggered the domino effect of his impending retirement.

Life before Edgar was like an alternate reality. Penn was widely recognized as a UFC champion and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Pundits of the sport even began insinuating that Penn was becoming bored with the competition at 155 pounds, and his reign would surpass that of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre.

Then Edgar, an undersized lightweight from New Jersey, came along and proceeded to change the course of history. After one of the greatest lightweight runs ever, Penn’s quest for continued domination was thwarted by Edgar, the most unlikely of champions.

Despite Penn’s greatness, he was never able to match Edgar’s heart and resilience. Speed was also a major factor.

Reflecting on a lifetime full of regrets is a hard burden for any man to carry. Penn has accomplished everything in the UFC, but given his talent, it still doesn’t seem like enough.

“B.J. is one of these guys who I think is fighting some demons right now, and if he could go back and do it all over again, I think he’d do it differently,” White said on Google+ Hangout.

Penn and Edgar are set to meet for a third time at featherweight in April 2014 after serving as opposing coaches on the 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter. Second chances are hard to come by in life.

What will Penn do with his third?

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Frankie Edgar: Facing BJ Penn Again Will Serve as Proof That He’s ‘The Man’ Now

The announcement was made on Wednesday that former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar would match up against BJ Penn for a third fight after the two competitors square off as coaches on the 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Edgar’s role as coach on …

The announcement was made on Wednesday that former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar would match up against BJ Penn for a third fight after the two competitors square off as coaches on the 19th season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Edgar’s role as coach on the show made sense considering his long-standing status as one of the best lighter weight fighters in the sport, and the fact that he’s never actually taken over the reins during the nearly 20 seasons of the reality show.

The odd choice was placing Penn, who has gone 1-4-1 over his last six fights, into a coaching role opposite Edgar. This would be Penn’s first fight dropping down to featherweight after a career spent as either a lightweight or welterweight.

Edgar says the first choice that came up was actually former WEC champion Urijah Faber, but when Penn made a call to UFC president Dana White the perfect storm came together.

“I was willing to do it against Urijah (Faber), it would have been a good show, I just didn’t want to go all the way down to 135. I thought maybe possibly get it at a catchweight or at 145,” Edgar said on Friday. “I guess Dana was milling that around, and somehow or another BJ called him and said he wanted to fight (Benson) Henderson because he eventually wants to get to me, so Dana saw the opportunity to make it bigger with both coaches at 145 and it kind of works out that way.”

The big question then became what Edgar gets out of a third fight with Penn?

Edgar originally fought Penn at UFC 112 in 2010 and despite entering the fight as an underdog, he surprised everybody with his performance and won the bout by unanimous decision. The first matchup did end in a very close call, so the UFC opted to put Penn and Edgar together again four months later at UFC 118.

This time around, Edgar left nothing to doubt and routed Penn in a one-sided unanimous decision victory.

With two fights and two wins over Penn, the last of which was the equivalent of pitching a shutout, why would Edgar sign on for a third fight given the fact that he’s already highly ranked in the featherweight division and seemingly could be on the cusp of another title shot with a win or two more?

“It’s the opportunity of the show, it’s the UFC asking me to do the show and it’s BJ Penn,” Edgar explained. “He’s a legend, he’s one of the best lightweights ever. I know I beat him twice, he really thinks he can beat me. He gave me my title shot so why not give him a chance to kind of restart his career. I want to put a stamp on this one. I don’t want anybody’s mind doubting that I’m the man now. I’m the guy all the lightweights should be talking about.”

A dominant performance in their second fight may have shut the door to a third matchup in theory, but Edgar says there’s still room to prove something against Penn again. Most notably, Edgar believes that he can be the first fighter to truly put Penn away inside the distance.

Penn has been finished before in his career—against Georges St-Pierre he retired between rounds and could not continue.  He was also put away by strikes against Matt Hughes in 2006, but that was after suffering a broken rib during the fight.

Edgar wants to finish Penn in a fashion that has never been done before, and truly define his own legacy in the UFC as the best fighter to compete in the lighter weight divisions.

“That’s the goal and it’s always easier said that done, but the fight’s a long ways away and we’ve got the show in front of us, but it’s hard not to think about the fight that’s looming,” Edgar said. “I don’t want to get criticized for not finishing, so finishing a guy that’s never been finished really—that would really put a feather in my cap.”

There is also zero risk that Edgar won’t get excited for a third fight with Penn, regardless of holding two wins over him already. Edgar isn’t the kind of fighter that needs personal vendettas or grudge matches to get him ready to go to war.

He just loves the competition of it all, and facing Penn is always going to be a challenge.

“There’s never going to be a fight I’m not going to get up for, and I’ll never make the mistake of thinking just because I beat BJ twice that I’m going to go in there and take it easy,” Edgar said. “BJ is still a big threat. People see his past fights at 170, I just don’t think 170 was the best weight class for him anyways. I think you’re going to see a BJ at 145, and I’m going to be ready for that. You’ll never catch me slipping or slacking because I think I’m going to steam roll, and BJ’s definitely not the guy you want to make that mistake with.”

The fight with Penn won’t take place until deep into 2014 after the show finishes filming and airs on Fox Sports 1 starting in April next year. Edgar’s goal right now is to get his team set up to travel to Las Vegas in a month’s time to get ready to coach The Ultimate Fighter.

While final preparations are still being made, Edgar revealed that his jiu-jitsu coach and good friend Ricardo Almeida, as well as head coach and boxing guru Mark Henry, will definitely make up part of his staff for the show. He also expects to bring wrestling coach Steve Rivera to Las Vegas to help his team, and if the timing works out Edgar is hoping to bring legendary coach Renzo Gracie for at least a guest spot on the show.

All told, Edgar is looking at this as a big chance to raise his profile with UFC fans and coach against one of the all-time greats in MMA history.

“It’s something that I’ve never done before so it’s going to bring different challenges and just different experiences,” Edgar said. “The exposure can’t hurt either.”

Edgar will leave for Las Vegas in about a month to begin filming for The Ultimate Fighter 19, and then head home to New Jersey to begin his full training camp to get ready for a third fight against Penn in 2014.

Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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MMA’s Great Debate Radio: Johny Hendricks, Bryan Caraway and Virgil Zwicker

MMA’s Great Debate Radio returns with a loaded show for Thursday with guests including UFC welterweight contender Johny Hendricks, Ultimate Fighter 18 coach Bryan Caraway and Bellator fighter Virgil Zwicker, plus the best debate in MMA.
On Thursday’s s…

MMA‘s Great Debate Radio returns with a loaded show for Thursday with guests including UFC welterweight contender Johny Hendricks, Ultimate Fighter 18 coach Bryan Caraway and Bellator fighter Virgil Zwicker, plus the best debate in MMA.

On Thursday’s show, Hendricks joins us to talk about all the controversy swirling around the drug testing ahead of his fight against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 167. He will also discuss his training and hopes of putting GSP away to win the belt in November.

Also on the show, new Ultimate Fighter 18 correspondent Bryan Caraway stops by to talk about his role as coach this season, the upset we witnessed Wednesday night as Julianna Pena put away prohibitive favorite Shayna Baszler plus his thoughts on Ronda Rousey’s meltdown.

Finally, Bellator fighter Virgil Zwicker joins the show to talk about his return to action, how hard the time off has been for him and what it means to be a proud representative of the Native American people.

The debate also heats up Thursday as we discuss the hot topics in news, including the announcement that B.J. Penn would be dropping down to 145 pounds to coach on The Ultimate Fighter 19 against Frankie Edgar.

Thursday’s debate topics include:

  • UFC books Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn as Ultimate Fighter coaches, and the pair will fight for a third time. Like it, love it or hate it?
  • Do you believe B.J. Penn can reinvent himself at featherweight?
  • Matt Riddle has retired after issues with both the UFC and Bellator. Are you buying his statements or is Dana White right about him?
  • Is Julianna Pena beating Shayna Baszler the biggest upset in TUF history?

This is MMA’s Great Debate Radio for Thursday, September 12, 2013

(If the embeddable player does not work, click HERE to listen to the show. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or listen on Stitcher Radio)

 

 

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Stop the Drama: Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn Isn’t Pointless

Ariel Helwani’s announcement on UFC Tonight on Wednesday (h/t Fox Sports) that former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn would be returning from a brief pseudo-retirement to serve as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 19 was met with a curi…

Ariel Helwani’s announcement on UFC Tonight on Wednesday (h/t Fox Sports) that former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn would be returning from a brief pseudo-retirement to serve as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 19 was met with a curious reaction, at least among those who reside on the Internet and consider their opinions to be hard facts agreed upon by the rest of the world.

Perhaps this is a bit harsh. But if I’m being honest with you—and what else do we have here, dear reader, except for the honesty between us?—I found the entire reaction a tad silly, if not downright ludicrous.

You’d think the end of the world was upon us, or at the very least that the UFC suddenly forgot how to make money. Or that Penn was somehow—after losing a few fights and looking lackluster in a weight class he never should have competed in—never as good as he actually was.

Because that’s how things happen in this sport—a fighter approaches his twilight years and loses a few fights, and then everything he accomplished before didn’t actually mean that much in the first place.

The biggest criticism I saw of Frankie Edgar vs. Penn 3 is that it was “pointless,” and I realized that perhaps not everyone understands what the word means.

Here is The Free Dictionary’s definition:

point·less
adj.
1. Lacking meaning; senseless.
2. Ineffectual: pointless attempts to rescue the victims of the raging fire.

You may not like the fight. Hell, given the reaction I saw from most of you, there’s a pretty good chance that you hate the fight. Which I assume means you won’t be watching next July when Penn and Edgar finally fight, except you will.

We all will. But that’s neither here nor there.

Pointless would indicate that there’s no reason for booking Edgar vs. Penn. Edgar has already beaten him twice, right? And so why would we want to see it happen a third time?

I can understand that line of thinking, and I’m right there with you in wanting to see both men fight other people. 

But that being said, it is not pointless. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And if you think that Dana White—who stopped short of saying that the winner would face featherweight champ Jose Aldo—is not above putting Penn in there with one of the modern pound-for-pound greats, you’ve already forgotten Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen occupying 12 weeks of time on your television before Sonnen stepped into the cage for a wholly undeserved title shot.

Penn doesn’t deserve Aldo. It’s ridiculous to think otherwise. And I don’t even know if Penn can make featherweight; after all, this is a man who struggled to make lightweight. He certainly has the frame, but the “motivated BJ Penn” meme was played out, oh, six or seven years ago. The proof is in the pudding, not in the talking that comes before the pudding.

But “deserve” isn’t the point. Who deserves what is rarely what spurs the UFC decision-making machine, and nearly every person who follows the sport religiously is aware of that. Or, at least they should be.

The point of all of this, of the entire sport, is to make the UFC money. And Edgar vs. Penn, even on the third iteration, is going to attract casual fans much more than any other featherweight would taking on Penn or Edgar separately. 

Well, except Edgar vs. Chad Mendes. That one would pull in hardcore fans and casuals alike.

I wish the UFC had been able to put together the deal for Edgar and Urijah Faber to coach the show. That’s much more intriguing than seeing Edgar and Penn go for a third time or watching Penn try to recapture some of his former glory in a different weight class against a man who has already beaten him twice.

But that doesn’t make the fight pointless. It has a point: to pull in television ratings on Fox Sports 1. To make the UFC some money, even if it’s a nominal amount. And to attract eyeballs that don’t spend their days on message boards, comment sections or Twitter.

Edgar vs. Penn isn’t pointless. It isn’t the best fight, but it’s not the worst either. And if you’re that adamant that you hate the idea so much, well, you always have the option of tuning out with your remote. Do it. Next summer, when the fight hits pay-per-view, don’t watch it. 

That’s not going to happen, though. And we both know it. 

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