Tag: BJ Penn

UFC on Fox 5: Rory MacDonald Says of BJ Penn, ‘I’ll Probably End Up Killing Him’

Rory MacDonald’s cut has opened up a feud with BJ Penn that has gone beyond innocent trash talk.A bout that was initially based on the respect of a rising, young star facing an MMA legend has turned into something much uglier.Penn is upset at MacDonald…

Rory MacDonald’s cut has opened up a feud with BJ Penn that has gone beyond innocent trash talk.

A bout that was initially based on the respect of a rising, young star facing an MMA legend has turned into something much uglier.

Penn is upset at MacDonald for withdrawing from their scheduled UFC 152 bout. According to “The Prodigy,” the cut is only a “detail” in a more elaborate reason for MacDonald not to step into the cage on September 22.

“I know the reason why Rory pulled out on September 22,” Penn told Sherdog.com. “The cut is a detail, but I know the reason why he pulled out is because he knew he wasn’t going to win.

“If he let the cut heal, tried to train, whatever it was, brother he should have been in shape already by the time he came in. For sure now, 10 weeks—10 weeks, I never heard of a guy pulling out of a fight 10 weeks from a cut.”

Penn makes some interesting points. Surely, it wouldn’t take 10 weeks for MacDonald’s cut to heal, but what about training? As announced by UFC President Dana White, MacDonald would have to go at least a month without any physical contact, which could seriously hamper his training camp.

If he ignores medical advice and trains anyway, he runs the risk of getting the cut infected and prolonging the injury.

MacDonald was in a tough situation, but he believes he made the right decision. With the bout now rescheduled for December 8, he has plenty of time to heal his wounds and put in a proper training camp for the biggest fight of his young career.

In an interview with Sportsnet.ca’s Tim and Sid, MacDonald addressed Penn’s remarks about him pulling out of the fight to avoid a loss.

That’s just a bunch of [BS] because not only do I know I’m going to win, I’ll probably end up killing him. He can’t rile me up. I just think he’s a joker. He’s trying to get attention and his fans hyped up. He can do what he wants. I just want him to accept the fight for December.

If plans go accordingly, Penn and MacDonald will join a stacked UFC on FOX 5 card, which also features Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson and the lightweight title bout between Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz.

Can Penn derail the young phenom, or will MacDonald add a legendary name to his ever-growing résumé?

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Power Ranking the UFC’s Top PPV Draws

UFC 147 was plagued by card changes and was widely considered to be the worst pay-per-view offering of the last few years. MMAmania.com predicted that the event was “set for massive failure” and they were right. Only 175,000 viewers bought the irr…

UFC 147 was plagued by card changes and was widely considered to be the worst pay-per-view offering of the last few years. MMAmania.com predicted that the event was “set for massive failure” and they were right. Only 175,000 viewers bought the irrelevant event and who could blame them.

But what about UFC 150? 

An early report from MMAmania.com indicates that the card headlined by a championship fight between popular stars Benson Henderson and Frankie Edgar would pull in only 190,000 buys.

Are the elite fighters of the lightweight division unable to pull in viewers? Jonathan Snowden seems to think so. His article on the poor buyrates generated by main events in lighter weight classes has a lot of interesting points, but it begs a question: If the little guys don’t draw, who does?

In the interest of optimism, here is a look at the top 10 PPV draws currently in the UFC. 

All pay per view numbers in this article come to you via MMAPayout.com Blue Book.

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BJ Penn: "100-Percent Fact Rory Pulled out Because He Knew He Would Lose"

BJ Penn isn’t buying Rory MacDonald’s excuses for pulling out of their scheduled UFC 152 bout.At the post-fight press conference for UFC on FOX 4, UFC President Dana White informed the media that MacDonald pulled out of his fight with Penn after suffer…

BJ Penn isn’t buying Rory MacDonald’s excuses for pulling out of their scheduled UFC 152 bout.

At the post-fight press conference for UFC on FOX 4, UFC President Dana White informed the media that MacDonald pulled out of his fight with Penn after suffering a huge cut on his forehead during training.

Reporters on-hand were stunned when White broke the news.

“Rory’s out. He got cut open today, wide open, 38 or 48 stitches, something like that. No contact for a month,” said White.

None were more disappointed than Penn, who came out of retirement specifically for a shot at the rising welterweight star.

Despite reports of a cut, Penn told Sherdog.com he believes MacDonald’s reasoning for pulling out of the fight runs much deeper. He sees it as a case of MacDonald biting off more than he can chew and not preparing properly in camp:

I know the reason why Rory pulled out on September 22. The cut is a detail, but I know the reason why he pulled out is because he knew he wasn’t going to win. If he let the cut heal, tried to train, whatever it was, brother he should have been in shape already by the time he came in.

For sure now, 10 weeks—10 weeks, I never heard of a guy pulling out of a fight 10 weeks from a cut. Never in my life have I heard of a guy, 10 weeks before a fight he got cut and he pulled out.

Penn went through a similar experience leading up to his fight with Nick Diaz in October 2011.

During training, he suffered a laceration over his eye, but he still made the decision to continue training and take the fight. He sees MacDonald as having the same obligations to go out and compete for the fans.

There certainly was plenty of time for MacDonald to heal up for the fight, but his inability to spar would’ve seriously hurt his training. Is Penn right? Should MacDonald have already been in shape and ready to go?

Penn continues:

[Rory] feels he has to do what’s best for him, his team, they’re going to do that, but it’s a 100-percent fact the reason why they pulled out is because they knew they were going to lose on September 22. If not, you wouldn’t pull out.

Like I said, I had a cut on my eye, 13 stitches inside it and out five weeks before the Diaz fight. I didn’t care. For eight weeks, it opened up every single week, all the way to the fifth week before the Diaz fight, but did I ever think about pulling out? Not even once. Why? Because I owe it to the fans, I owe it to the UFC, I even owe it to Nick Diaz to show up to the fight.

The bout between Penn and MacDonald has been rescheduled for UFC on FOX 5. The extra time should only serve to fuel the growing beef between the welterweight stars.

On December 8, MacDonald will get his opportunity to prove Penn wrong.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Outrageous BJ Penn Claim of the Day: Rory MacDonald Pulled Out of Fight Because ‘He Knew He Wasn’t Gonna Win’


(BJ Penn is the ultimate killing machine. Seriously, do you know how many shrimp had to die in order to make his lunch?)

Unless your name is Ken Shamrock, you probably wouldn’t carve a second mouth into your face in order to avoid a fight that you already agreed to. And yet, BJ Penn is questioning Rory MacDonald‘s excuse for withdrawing from their scheduled meeting at UFC 152, claiming that the young Canadian pulled out because he knew he wasn’t going to win, and that withdrawing from a fight due to a cut is a cowardly move in the first place. Here’s what Penn told Sherdog in an interview published yesterday; roll up your pants because the bullshit is about to get deep in here…

“I know the reason why Rory pulled out on September 22nd. The cut is a detail but I know the reason why he pulled out is ’cause he knew he wasn’t gonna win. If he let that cut heal, tried to train, whatever it was, whether he should have been in shape already…I’ve never heard of a guy pulling out of a fight 10 weeks early from a cut. [Ed. note: It was actually seven weeks early, but you can’t blame Penn for rounding up in order to make a point.] Never in my life have I heard of a guy, 10 weeks before a fight, he got cut, he pulled out. You know what I mean? He feels he has to do what’s best for him, for his team, they’re gonna do that, but it’s 100 percent fact that the reason why they pulled out is because they knew they were gonna lose on September 22nd. If not, you wouldn’t pull out.


(BJ Penn is the ultimate killing machine. Seriously, do you know how many shrimp had to die in order to make his lunch?)

Unless your name is Ken Shamrock, you probably wouldn’t carve a second mouth into your face in order to avoid a fight that you already agreed to. And yet, BJ Penn is questioning Rory MacDonald‘s excuse for withdrawing from their scheduled meeting at UFC 152, claiming that the young Canadian pulled out because he knew he wasn’t going to win, and that withdrawing from a fight due to a cut is a cowardly move in the first place. Here’s what Penn told Sherdog in an interview published yesterday; roll up your pants because the bullshit is about to get deep in here…

“I know the reason why Rory pulled out on September 22nd. The cut is a detail but I know the reason why he pulled out is ’cause he knew he wasn’t gonna win. If he let that cut heal, tried to train, whatever it was, whether he should have been in shape already…I’ve never heard of a guy pulling out of a fight 10 weeks early from a cut. [Ed. note: It was actually seven weeks early, but you can’t blame Penn for rounding up in order to make a point.] Never in my life have I heard of a guy, 10 weeks before a fight, he got cut, he pulled out. You know what I mean? He feels he has to do what’s best for him, for his team, they’re gonna do that, but it’s 100 percent fact that the reason why they pulled out is because they knew they were gonna lose on September 22nd. If not, you wouldn’t pull out.

Like I said, I had a cut on my eye, 13 stitches inside and out five weeks before the Diaz fight. I didn’t care. Opened up from eight weeks, opened up every week all the way up to the fifth week before the Diaz fight but did I ever think about pulling out? Not even *once*. Why? Because I owe it to the fans, I owe it to the UFC, I even owe it to Nick Diaz to show up to the fight. If you’re gonna tell the guy you’re gonna go to the fight, go to the fight.”

Now, the idea of a young killer like MacDonald ducking the declining Penn — who has won just a single fight since 2009 — well, that’s absolutely positively fucktarded, right? Either Penn is trolling to get inside Rory’s head, or he’s delusional enough to actually believe the words that are coming out of his own face. Personally, I’m going to go with option B. Penn suffers from the same condition that afflicts Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz, where you still consider yourself the best in the world despite all evidence to the contrary.

Directly after Penn gave that quote, Sherdog’s Greg Savage suggests that maybe Rory pulled out because he didn’t want to be subjected to random drug testing. Now that’s a conspiracy theory worth jumping on, but BJ doesn’t really take the bait. Nope, he’s going to stick with his original story: Rory MacDonald — a guy who dominated Nate Diaz before utterly destroying Mike Pyle and Che Mills — is terrified of meeting BJ Penn in the year 2012. Sure thing, brah.

UFC on FOX 5: Will This Be the Breakthrough Card for the UFC on FOX?

When UFC announced the deal with Fox, fans were exciting about the idea of huge pay-per-view-worthy cards coming to national television. Then, UFC on Fox 1 rolled around and gave us…one fight.One.Granted, it was a heavyweight championship fight betwe…

When UFC announced the deal with Fox, fans were exciting about the idea of huge pay-per-view-worthy cards coming to national television. Then, UFC on Fox 1 rolled around and gave us…one fight.

One.

Granted, it was a heavyweight championship fight between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez and featured dos Santos becoming the new champion with a first-round knockout. While it was a major step for the UFC, featuring one fight wasn’t quite the start fans wanted.

So, two months later UFC on Fox 2 featured three bouts on Fox including two title eliminators. All three fights were decisions that were fairly lackluster.

With the UFC wanting to guarantee the next Fox card more excitement, UFC on Fox 3 featured some of the UFC’s most exciting fighters Pat Barry, Rousimar Palhares, Alan Belcher, Lavar Johnson, Jim Miller and Nate Diaz.

It delivered with three of the four fights being finished, including Nate Diaz earning a lightweight title shot.

Earlier this month, UFC on Fox 4 came around and was hit hard by injuries that resulted in the main event being an odd pairing of Shogun Rua taking on Brandon Vera. Luckily for the UFC, the two men brought an exciting fight. 

Although the card didn’t feature a lot of big names, all four fights on Fox were finished in what was one of the more exciting main cards the UFC has put on this year.

Now, we get to December’s UFC on Fox 5, and finally, it appears the UFC will give us a stacked-free card.

As it was announced by John Morgan of USA Today, UFC on Fox 5 will feature a lightweight championship bout between Benson Henderson and Nate Diaz, a light heavyweight bout between Shogun Rua and Alexander Gustafsson and the previously announced battle between returning B.J. Penn and Rory MacDonald.

If UFC on Fox hasn’t really clicked with viewers yet, this will be the card that does so. The main card only has three fights so far, but they include a title fight, a title contention fight and a “Big-Name” fight.

UFC on Fox 5 is still four months away, but if these men all stay healthy, we can expect the biggest UFC on Fox card yet.

 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on FOX 5 Adds Henderson vs. Diaz Title Fight, Penn vs. MacDonald, ‘Shogun’ vs. ‘Bjönes’


(Final thoughts? Well, he still thinks you’re a bitch, and he’s not trying to shake your hand, homey.)

We might bitch about UFC pay-per-view cards being watered down, but fans are definitely going to get their money’s worth on the next free UFC on FOX card. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the December 8th event (venue TBA) will be stacked with three must-see showdowns, headlined by Ben Henderson‘s second lightweight title defense against Nate Diaz.

Diaz has earned his shot at the belt with three consecutive wins over Takanori Gomi (first-round armbar), Donald Cerrone (gangsterish unanimous decision), and Jim Miller (second-round guillotine choke). Meanwhile, Henderson is a perfect 5-0 in the UFC, and just beat Frankie Edgar for the second time last weekend at UFC 150. Will Diaz be the one to stop Bendo’s juggernaut-like momentum?

In other UFC on FOX 5 booking news…


(Final thoughts? Well, he still thinks you’re a bitch, and he’s not trying to shake your hand, homey.)

We might bitch about UFC pay-per-view cards being watered down, but fans are definitely going to get their money’s worth on the next free UFC on FOX card. As first reported by MMA Junkie, the December 8th event (venue TBA) will be stacked with three must-see showdowns, headlined by Ben Henderson‘s second lightweight title defense against Nate Diaz.

Diaz has earned his shot at the belt with three consecutive wins over Takanori Gomi (first-round armbar), Donald Cerrone (gangsterish unanimous decision), and Jim Miller (second-round guillotine choke). Meanwhile, Henderson is a perfect 5-0 in the UFC, and just beat Frankie Edgar for the second time last weekend at UFC 150. Will Diaz be the one to stop Bendo’s juggernaut-like momentum?

In other UFC on FOX 5 booking news…

The welterweight inter-generational battle between BJ Penn and Rory MacDonald will indeed be postponed to 12/8, after Rory was forced to pull out of their original UFC 152 meeting due to a nasty gash suffered in training.

And in the light-heavyweight division, legendary banger Mauricio “Shogun” Rua will return from his exciting four-round win over Brandon Vera at the last UFC on FOX card to face hot Swedish prospect Alexander Gustafsson. With five consecutive wins under his belt against tough competition, the aggressive and rangy Gustafsson is widely considered to be a future title contender — and if he can get past Shogun, he may clinch his shot as the next challenger in line after Lyoto Machida.

A fourth main-card fight is expected to be added to the FOX broadcast in the near future. For now, I’m gonna go with…Henderson by unanimous decision, MacDonald by second-round TKO, and Gustafsson by split decision. Your thoughts?