BJ Penn (14-4-1) is one of the top Pound for Pound fighters in the world.
He defeated the two top contenders in the UFC's Lightweight division in convincing fashion by finishing them both. Now he has interest in fighting one man that had defeated him two years ago.
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So my question is who else is there to beat to clear out the division? Kenny Florian (9-3-0) and Roger Huerta (21-1-1) are fighting to distinguish themselves for the next title shot. Nate Diaz (8-2-0) is making a run, so is Rich Clementi (40-12-1). Tyson Griffin (12-1-0), Frank Edgar (8-1-0Mayard (5-0-1) are looking great.
I don’t think any of these fighters mentioned really stand out as a potential title contender, but that has never stopped the UFC to give away title shots. I think it would be O.K. for Penn to meet Georges St. Pierre at a catch-weight of 175 pounds for a rematch, after that they can go back to defending care of their respected belts.) and also Gray
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about 1 month ago
Uriah Faber should move back to UFC from WEC to fight Penn, that would be my choice.
about 1 month ago
Urijah was never in the UFC and did help train BJ Penn for his fight agianst Sherk That would be a good fight though but Penn has better standup.
Please excuse the errors on the article. I typed it in Word and Copied/pasted it onto this page.
about 1 month ago
Catch weight of 175? Why would the UFC make Penn fight GSP at a higher weight? That, by definition, would not be a "catch weight." If they fight, it will be for the Welterweight title.
As for other fights at LW, I tend to agree that there are not many threats to his crown, but there are still interesting fights for him there. I don't think Penn can be beat at 155 though unless a better striker comes along. He is the best striker at LW that I can think of and has excellent takedown defense. I see him outstriking every contender in the LW division or beating them from top position via sub or GNP. I don't see him letting any of the fights at LW go to the ground unless it is him getting the takedown and ending up on top. Dana White keeps saying one of the contestants on TUF 8 is the "next Anderson Silva." I am interested but suspect this is just more Dana White hype.
If BJ beats GSP, I think the UFC needs to let him have his moment and bask in the glory of being a title holder in two divisions, but needs to make him give up his LW title for the others to battle it out. If they were to allow BJ to keep both belts, that would cut the number of title defenses in both weight classes in half which is not fair to the other fighters.
from about 1 month ago
Most people believe that the fighter Dana is excited about is Joe "hybrid" Duarte. He is confirmed for TUF 8 and is pretty talented. If the lists of fighters that has been leaked are correct there is alot of talent this year.
about 1 month ago
Maybe he means a catch-weight of 160 or 165? Also, shouldn't it be Nate Diaz instead of Nick Diaz, unless Nick is rejoining UFC?
about 1 month ago
Jared, you need to do your homework friend before you write an article. Catch weight of 175? Nick Diaz for a title shot? What are you even talking about?
from about 1 month ago
Chris the homework was done. I feel the 175 catchweight would be fine tfor the UFC since no title would be in the way since 175 is a middleweight bout. Sorry for the confusion, I did mean Nate Diaz. It sounds like you don't agree with my article.
from about 1 month ago
Hey folks it is BJ Penn himself who jumps around weight wise. He was choked out at 205 by Thiago Alves, he has wrestled at 170, 155 and I don't think anyone is expecting Georges to go down to 155 b/c BJ wants to fight him. That means that flibberty jibbet Penn is all over the place at any particular point in time not Jared.
from about 1 month ago
BJ Penn fought Thiago Alves? When? I thought he fought Lyoto Machida and lost the decision.
Isn't Thiago Alves welterweight? When was bj ever choked out? I know he gases out lot of times.
about 1 month ago
I don't mean to be a dick but shouldn't it be like a catchweight of 165 or 160? cause if it was 175 both men would have to gain weight. Why would they fight at middleweight? BJ is 155 and GSP is 170, so BJ would gain 20 pounds and Georges would gain 5? And I think the UFC needs some Lightweight talent from overseas like Kawajiri, Aoki(without the pants), Hansen, or from here in the States, Alvarez, if they really want to test BJ.
from about 1 month ago
They wouldn't gain weight but cut less. Neither BJ nor GSP walk around at their fighting weights. But a true catch weight would be between 155 and 170. But weight has never stopped BJ before.
about 1 month ago
thats true that they don't walk around at their fighting weights, but BJ wouldn't have to cut weight to make 175, GSP would though.
about 1 month ago
Actually I'm pretty sure BJ walks around pretty darn close to his fight weight. It's GSP that walks around at 200 pounds.
And Jared a catchweight of 175 makes zero sense and would never happen. Fighting at 170 is perfectly fine. Or if you really wanted a catchweight for some strange reason, it would be at 165. 160 isn't even plausible because you'd be asking GSP to cut too much weight. There's no logic you can use to back up your idea here.
about 1 month ago
When BJ challenges someone at another weight I say he fights at THEIR weight not his.
Incidently, when did he defend his title in the first place (?), I must have missed something big.
Also he doesn't appear to be the least bit interested in ANYTHING except fighting Georges. Defending the LW title does not seem to interest him at all. He should vacate that title to go up tp fight Georges and let the winner of the Florian--Huerta fight have it, I can assure you that they would take it much more seriously than the "Prodigy" has.
from about 1 month ago
great point Dorothy, I agree that he should have to fight GSP at 170 because he's challenging him. However I dont think that BJ should be challenging him at all until he cleans out the Lightweight division first, 3 wins and all of the sudden he wants to move to 170 and fight GSP? I know he beat Pulver, Stevensen, and Sherk in dominating fashion but he still has guys like Griffin, Edgar, Guida, Huerta, Diaz, and Florian. I think he just wants to fight GSP now because GSP is hot right now and he wants a chance to be the guy that beats him, which he does have a good chance of doing that, but I would like to see him clean out the Lightweights first.
about 1 month ago
It should be required that he defend his title first. Then he should have at least two WW fights against Fitch and Alves to earn the right to fight Georges. He is line jumping and it should not be allowed. Dana White needs to get his ba**s back and let BJ know who is the boss of the UFC--and the boss was NOT BJ Penn last time I looked.
about 1 month ago
In my opinion I think the UFC Lightweight division has plenty of challenges for BJ Penn.
Huerta
Florian
Edgar
Griffin
Guida
Thomas
Diaz
Tavarez
Guilliard
Maynard
BJ has just defended his belt for the first time against Sherk. I think he needs to face a few of the guys on this list before we start talking challenging different weight classes.
28 days ago
man...what are you guys talking about?!?? Even tho BJ took Joe "Daddy" Sevenson down he still has to be the next contender because huerta didn't show me nething in the fight against florian and tyson griffin is an ok fighter but still has to learn a lot n besides him the only other person i see on the list is Guida and he should fight florian to get to Joe and then after Bj's done fighting GSP then he can defend his belt against whoever but im dissapointed that you people didn't even put him on the list...
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