After recent performances from guys such as Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and Lyoto Machida, BJ Penn has been discarded as being the man who could top the MMA mountain.
Not surprising, after he got dismantled by Welterweight boss Georges St-Pierre.
However, in spite of the humiliating loss to St-Pierre, BJ Penn seems to be unstoppable in the weight class his frame for which he was built.
After two failed attempts to seize the lightweight strap, a decision loss to Jens Pulver and a draw with Caol Uno, BJ finally managed to capture what he felt was always his at UFC 80 in January of 2008.
UFC 80 also marked the day that MMA fans finally got to see the prodigy reach his true potential, and unfortunately for Joe Stevenson, he was the victim. BJ showed what he is truly capable of and choked out a bloody and battered Stevenson late in the second round.
BJ finally cemented his place as the true lightweight champion at UFC 84, when he took on the former title holder Sean Sherk, who had been stripped of his belt due to a positive test for steroids following his UFC 73 win over Hermes Franca.
BJ dismantled Sherk with relative ease, eventually scoring a third round TKO. However, this marked the night that BJ felt it was time to vocally state he wanted to avenge his 2006 split-decision loss to St-Pierre.
He got his wish at UFC 94 and in what was hyped as the biggest rematch in MMA history, BJ found out that a man who is around 15 pounds heavier and of equal skill level will usually win.
In this circumstantial win in devastating fashion, Penn's cornerman threw in the towel at the end of the fourth, and with such a devastating loss, many immediately wrote BJ off, saying he was always overrated and lazy.
However, BJ soon managed to make people reminisce on why he is the lightweight champion at UFC 101. He went into the fight against Kenny Florian, who was riding a six fight win streak, since his failure to capture the lightweight strap.
In the bout, BJ made it look like a glorified sparring session, as Florian tried to employ a similar tactic and St-Pierre tried to exhaust BJ by pushing him against the cage. But at 155 lbs., BJ is the lightweight version of St-Pierre, and in the fourth round, he decided enough was enough.
BJ simply hoisted Florian into the air, landed in half guard, progressed to mount, and, with the expectancy of the MMA population, he got the choke.
BJ said that he "Only wants to be known as the best ever," and at 155 lbs. he can without a doubt try to become that.
Guys like Edgar, Maynard, and Sanchez will all suffer the same fate, and certainly, BJ Penn can become the best pound for pound fighter in the MMA.
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