UFC 127 Fight Card Preview: Is The Prodigy Still Believable?

UFC 127 is coming around the corner and I'm wondering if B.J. "The Prodigy" Penn will show up ready to fight or just hype up his own ego. Fighting against powerhouse Jon Fitch, he better be ready to throw down.

Penn is without a doubt a superb martial artist but his performances have not been too consistent. In certain fights he is like a sharpshooter, never missing the target. In other fights, he seems to mentally disappear. Take, for example, his trilogy fight with former UFC champion Matt Hughes. 

The first bout at UFC 46 showed Penn's incredible jiu-jitsu skills, where he easily dominated Hughes. Many predicted the rematch at UFC 63 would be a cakewalk—but it turned out it was Penn who either completely gassed out or simply lost the interest to fight. Hughes won via TKO.

In their third bout at UFC 123, Penn landed an overhand right with pinpoint accuracy inside the opening seconds of the opening round—knocking out Matt Hughes in spectacular fashion. It looked like the "old B.J. Penn" had arrived back into the Octagon.

Penn's more recent fights with UFC champions Georges St. Pierre and Frankie Edgar are further examples of his inconsistency. He lost by split decision at UFC 58, claiming it was a fluke that GSP beat him. Yet in their rematch at UFC 94, GSP dominated him even more.

Frankie Edgar also defeated Penn in both of their matches at UFC 112 and 118. Penn looked confused and almost seemed unsure of his own fighting ability against Edgar at both UFC events. Penn was simply outclassed.

Whatever happened to all the drive, tenacity and "talk" that fans saw when B.J. Penn first came onto the MMA scene? At times, it seems to me that Penn's desire to truly fight in the Octagon fluctuates like a child wanting ice cream one day and hating it the next.

But with Penn's outstanding performance at UFC 123, he may have re-ignited the fire in order to take on Jon Fitch at UFC 127. 

Fitch, however, hasn't lost a fight since 2008 at UFC 87 against Georges St. Pierre. Since then, he's taken out top contenders such as Paulo Thiago, Thiago Alves and Akihiro Gono. Fitch has only three losses in his MMA career and Penn should be aware that the Californian is like a locomotive—he does not stop.

My prediction for this main event sees Fitch use his superior wrestling skills to take down Penn and unleash ground and pound. If Fitch follows a similar strategy to the one that St. Pierre utilized against Penn, he can easily dominate with take downs and "grind" out a unanimous decision victory over Penn.

Both fighters are BJJ black belts so it's possible that there could some attempted submissions from each fighter—but it's unlikely that choking out B.J. Penn is something that Fitch has on his mind.

Of course, we won't know exactly what will happen once the cage closes. Like Fitch, Penn is always dangerous and possess the skills to defeat anyone he faces in the Octagon. The question might be do fans still believe in the Prodigy?  We'll find out this weekend at UFC 127.

UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch Results, News and More