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B.J. Penn Explains His Decision to Fight Rory MacDonald

Several fighters have tried to get B.J. Penn out of retirement, but all have failed. Josh Koscheck couldn’t do it, and he seems to have the perfect combination of fighting respectability and personal combustibility that Penn likes to go head-on with.&n…

In the end, it was Rory MacDonald who did the trick in getting Penn interested enough in a fight to come out of retirement. MacDonald didn’t have to be disrespectful or resort to name-calling. He simply asked for a fight, and he got it.

Penn further explained his decision to come out of retirement during an episode of Just Scrap Radio on his website, BJPenn.com:

So with that said, I like everything. I am definitely motivated for this fight. I like everything that’s going on with this fight. Rory is one of the best guys—Firaz and everyone says he is going to be the champion in two years.

I’m not thinking about any kind of title runs. I’m just coming back and doing this fight, and I am pretty sure this is the last fight on my contract. I will have to go back and check again, but I think this is the last fight on my contract, and I would like to finish out my contract, so.

Penn is being brutally honest here. He has no desire to come back and become a title contender again, because he seems to realize that those days are long behind him. Good for him.

I’m intrigued by the fact that Penn was more interested in fighting MacDonald than he was Koscheck. With Koscheck, you’d have two guys who are on the down side of their careers. They both have the kind of magnetic personalities that would create a ton of interest in a pay-per-view fight, despite the fact that neither guy will likely ever be contending for a title shot again.

Instead, Penn chose MacDonald, a rising welterweight prospect who many hail as the future of the division. He’s a significantly tougher test for Penn than Koscheck would be. MacDonald’s strengths in wrestling and ground control play right into Penn’s weaknesses.

There’s no upside for Penn here, but given his comments above, that doesn’t seem to matter. He’s looking to fulfill his contract and finish out his career, no matter what happens against MacDonald. But a win for Penn, even if it’s the final pro fight of his life, would be quite the way to close out a stellar Hall of Fame fighting career.

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Ian McCall Will Have a Distinct Weight Advantage Against Demetrious Johnson

Plenty of people, myself included, believe that Ian McCall will beat Demetrious Johnson tonight. It’s a sound prediction, at least in my head. I think McCall did enough to beat Johnson the first time around. He did more damage, and if not for a fe…

Plenty of people, myself included, believe that Ian McCall will beat Demetrious Johnson tonight.

It’s a sound prediction, at least in my head. I think McCall did enough to beat Johnson the first time around. He did more damage, and if not for a few moments when he decided to showboat instead of going for the finish, he may have scored an outright judges decision instead of the marred non-draw he was forced to settle for.

And then there is this: just hours after weighing in at 126 pounds during yesterday’s weigh-ins, McCall posted on the Underground that he weighed in at 150.5 pounds.

I just stepped on the scale at 150.5 with sweats and a shirt on.. i’d say i gained a few lbs since the weigh ins hahaha!

Yes, McCall gained 25 pounds in just a few hours. That’s a lot of weight.

If McCall’s story is true—and we have no reason not to believe him—McCall will have a significant size advantage over Johnson going into the fight. I don’t believe Johnson ever gets larger than 150 pounds or so, and that’s when he’s out of training camp. There’s no way he’ll put that much weight back on before he steps in the cage with McCall tonight.

All of this just solidifies my prediction for the main event tonight: I believe McCall will use his wrestling effectively to put Johnson on his back and control the fight from there.

McCall saw, in the first fight with Johnson, that “Mighty Mouse” doesn’t have the best takedown defense. Johnson has defended just 48 percent of takedown attempts since joining the UFC, and that provides a clear path to victory for McCall.

Look for McCall to learn from his mistakes and the areas he succeeded in the first fight and work his way to a decision.

Jeremy Botter is the national UFC blogger for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for breaking news and hilarious stuff.

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UFC 148 Preview: Rickson Gracie, Anderson Silva and an MMA Paradigm Shift

Rickson Gracie, one of the greatest jiu-jitsu artists of this or any time, has laid bare the truth about his art’s efficacy in modern mixed martial arts. And the picture he paints isn’t a pretty one for any of the stalwart fans from Brazil who once cha…

Rickson, who made his reputation spreading his family’s martial system across the world, often selling it at the end of a balled fist, forcing acceptance with a tap, has determined something many of us noted years ago. MMA is no longer about an art. MMA is about the man.

“You may use like 30 percent of jiu-jitsu,” Rickson told Brazil’s Tatame. “You can’t put Royce [Gracie, Rickson’s brother and an early UFC champion] or any other guy only using it… Technology has changed the sport a lot in terms of how much you train, the capacity of losing weight to fight… It’s completely different. You can use many jiu-jitsu things, but the body is your main element.”

The body is you main element. For a sport built on technique, on the principle that a smaller man can beat a larger one with the right tools, this is a paradigm shift of the largest conceivable magnitude.

UFC champions aren’t built with knowledge anymore. There are no more Jeremy Horns, marginal athletes who succeed at the highest levels by being savvier and more skilled than the opposition.

The UFC is an athlete’s game now. Rickson specifically mentions Anderson Silva, who defends his title at UFC 148 against Chael Sonnen, as one of the astounding athletes that didn’t exist in his MMA. Silva and his ilk force a different set of questions for any fighter looking to succeed.

How strong are you? How fast? How much weight can you cut? How easily do you bounce back from that cut? These are physiological factors. And in a sport where you have 15 minutes to succeed or fail, these factors are just as, if not more important than how much you know about fighting.

Of course, Rickson hasn’t completely torn his own legacy to shreds. It’s the time limits, he contends, that have changed the sport so dramatically. “They impose a rhythm to the bout,” is how he explains it, no doubt in delightfully broken English.

In other words, in a world where you fight to the finish, jiu-jitsu is still king. With no artificial time constraints, it’s still possible for pure jiu-jitsu to prevail. Gracie and his contemporaries were playing the long game. In a different atmosphere and environment. With different and more realistic rules.

Rickson Gracie might not have been a champion in today’s MMA. But in the street? With limited rules? With enough time to play his game, spring his traps? Rickson by armbar. Some things never change.

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UFC on FX 3: Info and Predictions for Every Fight

UFC on FX 3 marks the end of the semifinals of the UFC flyweight tournament with Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson squaring off after their first fight ended in controversy. The first bout is an early contender for Fight of the Year, which means there …

The 12 fight card showcases some of the best young, up-and-coming talent in the UFC. While none of the fighters will be challenged for a title in the near future outside of the main event, the undercard does have some interesting prospects, including the brother of Vinny Magalhaes.

When the UFC puts together a card that builds future stars, it usually translates to a fun night of fights, which is exactly what we should expect on Friday night.

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Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Brandon Vera to Headline UFC on Fox 4

After news broke Wednesday afternoon that Brian Stann was out of the main event for UFC on Fox 4, there were concerns that the UFC would be unable to find a new bout suitable for the top spot. Well after some deliberation, it appears that Joe Silva has…

Just minutes ago the UFC broke the news that Brandon Vera would be facing former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the main event. Rua was originally slated to fight at UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, but when Thiago Silva went down with an injury, Rua’s future on the card was up in the air.

This is a case of the UFC making the best out of a bad situation, and for some, the fight is more deserving of the top spot. There were concerns that UFC fans were not familiar enough with Hector Lombard, which would have been disastrous on Fox.

This summer has been an absolute nightmare for the Zuffa brass as they’ve had to constantly rearrange cards due to so many injuries. Though they have “saved” the Fox event, they weakened UFC 149 and, in the process, UFC on Fuel TV: Munoz vs. Weidman.

I love the idea of seeing Shogun on Fox as he’s arguably the most exciting fighter on the roster. Even his boring fights keep me on the edge of my seat, however few they may be. Vera has also been exciting at times, and a win over Rua will vault him back into relevancy.

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Brian Stann out of UFC on Fox 4 Main Event Due to Injury

And the UFC’s summer of injuries continues.Brian Stann was scheduled to welcome Hector Lombard into the UFC at UFC on Fox 4 in Anaheim, California on August 4th. The bout would be the main event of the card and promised to be an exciting scrap between …

And the UFC’s summer of injuries continues.

Brian Stann was scheduled to welcome Hector Lombard into the UFC at UFC on Fox 4 in Anaheim, California on August 4th. The bout would be the main event of the card and promised to be an exciting scrap between two of the division’s heaviest hitters.

According to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com, Stann has reportedly suffered a shoulder injury and will be pulled from the fight. The injury will not require surgery, but it will keep Stann sidelined for roughly six to eight weeks.

Details are sketchy as to how Stann injured his shoulder, but it was bad enough to force him from the fight. Helwani reports that there has been no one tapped to replace Stann as of yet.

Brian Stann was looking to get back into title contention, and a win over the former Bellator middleweight champion would have been a huge step in that direction. The shoulder injury will now halt any momentum that Stann had built and will send him back down the middleweight pecking order.

For Lombard, this may not be the greatest of news either. Many saw Stann as a winnable fight, as he’s mainly known just for having heavy hands. Whoever the UFC finds to replace the “All American” will provide a much different stylistic matchup.

I know I speak for everyone when I say that I’m getting very tired of all of these injuries. At this point, the UFC’s biggest concern is keeping their fighters healthy. Unfortunately, it just seems that when it rains it pours, and the UFC is apparently in the middle of monsoon season.

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