Who Can Stop BJ Penn?

Who can stop BJ Penn?

Probably not anybody in the UFC lightweight division, and it probably won't be anytime soon.

BJ Penn is simply leagues better than the rest of the competition in the weight class, but it's worth explaining it in a little more detail.

Few lightweights in the world are able to hang with BJ Penn in the stand-up. What makes this even worse, is that if there are strikers who could even test BJ on the feet, most of them wouldn't be able to work their way to a title shot through the wrestling gauntlet that is the UFC lightweight division.

The division is almost even built in such a way that no such strikers could even get through, unless they also possessed BJ Pennesque takedown defense.  I predict the eventual coming of such an Uber-fighter, but He won't be arriving any time soon, if he's even started fighting professionally yet.

That leaves the bulk of fighters who can't handle BJ Penn on the feet, and so must attempt to beat BJ with grappling.

Out of those fighters, most of the lightweight division is still completely out-matched, but there are perhaps a few explosive wrestlers who might be able to take Penn down.

Among those fighters, wrestlers like Gray Maynard probably don't have the type of submission defense necessary to survive on the ground once they get the fight there.

An even smaller group exists of grapplers who might be able to threaten BJ with some sort of submission game. This group is more of a theoretical possibility, but assuming its existence, I would still contend that most of these fighter probably don't have the explosive wrestling necessary to even take BJ Penn to the ground.

The one possible way that I can see any sort of opening for a UFC lightweight is in the area of intelligent game-planning, and even then, the type of fighter that might be able to pull this off is extremely rare.

It's going to be tough to beat BJ Penn in any sort of firefight, be it on the ground or on the feet, but perhaps a fighter might stand the chance were they to find an interesting way to win rounds, or slow down BJ Penn.

As good as BJ Penn has looked physically, I still think that pushing BJ up against the fence doesn't seem like a bad idea to me in principle, considering that it is at least the one thing that Florian and Sanchez were able to do successfully.

My issue is that neither fighter used that position to work any effective dirty boxing, or perhaps attack the body or legs to slow down BJ up a bit, also having the effect of taking away BJ's ability to really do anything extremely damaging.

Perhaps one of the better wrestlers in the division might even be able to do this, and land a takedown late in the round, thus winning a round.  Isn't this something that someone like Gray Maynard could look at and see as an opening?

It certainly worked for Randy Couture against fighters with more dangerous striking and better Jiu Jitsu, and it still seems to me to be a much better idea than trying to engage BJ Penn in any type of fire fight. Obviously I don't see someone crushing BJ like GSP did, but maybe someone could win some rounds.

That being said, I'm also far more interested in seeing against some of the welterweights in the UFC.

Penn has obviously shown some interest in pursuing a rematch with Georges St. Pierre, and given his dominance over the lightweights and a new dedication to conditioning and fitness, such a pursuit might not even be the worst of ideas.

If he does want to pursue the rematch though, I think he first needs answer to a few of the welterweight contenders who don't deserve to be stepped over in title contention once again in Penn's pursuit of glory and vengeance.

So how would Penn fare against the current welterweight crop? I think he would stand a good chance against any of them outside of GSP, but there are a few matchups that I at least think would pose some interesting problems for the Prodigy.

BJ against Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, and Anthony Johnson are all intriguing options to me as they all at least have the big weapons that might force BJ Penn to do something different than he has done in his past two fights.

Thiago Alves might actually be able to land leg kicks and threaten BJ on the feet, and seems to be able to get off his back even against a great top game, as he did against Georges St. Pierre.

Koscheck's boxing is not at Penn's level, but he's got a good chin and powerful punching to at least make Penn cautious on the feet. Moreover, he's one of the few wrestlers who could probably take BJ down if he put his mind to it, and might just have enough of a submission grappling game to keep him there and do some damage, and win some rounds.

Anthony Johnson has some serious range and power, and might have enough wrestling to stay on his feet long enough to land a big shot. His submission game is suspect, but he has wrestling talent, and getting taken down by Koscheck isn't exactly something that convinces me that BJ could necessarily do the same.

If perennial contender Jon Fitch fought BJ, I feel that Fitch's only chance would be to work some sort of grinding strategy like I've outlined above for the lightweights. He's just not dynamic enough to deal with Penn in my opinion.

Unfortunately, were Penn to beat Fitch right now, it would prop up the popular idea that BJ Penn would in fact be the No. 2 welterweight fighter in the world, therefore deserving of another welterweight title shot. I personally feel that Penn would be benefiting from a good stylistic matchup in a fight against Fitch.

Amongst the rest of the welterweights, there are still some other guys who might be able to do things against Penn, but I would probably still heavily favor Penn against any of them.

As much as Penn has been criticised for arrogance, vanity, or even narcissism in the past, it might just be the case that he really is just that good.

By Darren Wong