Analyzing BJ Penn: The Failure To Evolve or the Lack of Self-Motivation?

BJ Penn is his own worst enemy.

Time and time again, we have seen "The Prodigy" pick up notable wins in his MMA career by relying on his natural talent and skill alone. We have also seen him lose some highly competitive bouts where he appeared to lack motivation and look deflated and beat up from his opponents in the process.

The UFC 118 main event between Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and the challenger Penn pointed out two things about the Hawaiian: he cannot rely on just his skill and talent anymore, and he shows no heart or motivation to finish his opponent.

In his past two fights, Penn has been out-struck, and simply dominated in every area. You have to go back eight years ago to find the last time he suffered a loss at lightweight, against Jens Pulver at UFC 35 for the UFC Lightweight title.

In his first bout with Edgar, Penn was out-struck on the feet. The smaller Edgar used crisp, fast, and technical boxing to move in out of the pocket and counter nearly every strike that Penn threw. Edgar also used his wrestling skills to successfully take down Penn twice in the fight, controlling Penn, who was unsuccessful generating any defense on the ground despite holding a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu.

The rematch between the two competitors wasn't much different. Edgar mixed up his strikes with even more quickness and head feints to force his opponent, Penn, to step inside and counter. In both fights, Edgar broke Penn's will by coming in more prepared and confident in his abilities. 

These recent losses now lead to questions about how hard Penn actually trains, and the credibility of his camp. 

Prior to the bout, Penn's trainers said that he was at peace and in great shape, mentally and physically; Penn himself was constantly saying he was going to finish Edgar, but that wasn't the case.

In between rounds, Penn's corner didn't address problems with his strategy so much as give pep talks. This was due to the fact that his corner was frustrated that Penn was losing, and perhaps had no gameplan or strategy to rely on.

The best option for Penn would be to change up his training camp; not necessarily abandon his current one, but bring in other people to work with aside from his family and experts. He could certainly use a good gameplan to use, so why not bring a guy like Greg Jackson? Also, we saw he was taken down quite often, so how about using Rashad Evans to help his wrestling and takedown defense?

Although his camp needs to restructure, so does Penn.

He needs to refocus and motivate himself to reach his full potential because his recent losses are partly his fault, too. In the past Penn has been known to not fully commit to his training and rely more on talent rather than strategy; once that proves ineffective, he gives up on himself.

So is BJ Penn failing to evolve or does he have no motivation to fight?

The fair answer would probably be a combination of both, seeing how once he's been beaten up and given up on himself, his team does the same thing. If Penn trains with good people, who will assess his problems honestly, rather than experts or family members who only tell him what he does well, only then will he begin to reach his full potential as a mixed martial artist.

On more than one occasion, Penn has said he wants to be known as the greatest fighter of all time, but the consecutive losses to Edgar could affect his status. What separates Penn from elite fighters like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva is that they have evolved and risen to the occasion when it matters most, constantly adapting and improving.

If Penn wants his name to be included among the elite fighters, he might want to follow in their footsteps because right now he is on the outside, looking in.