B.J. Penn is considered by many to be the greatest lightweight in MMA history.
At this time last year, the 32-year-old former UFC lightweight champion was thought unbeatable at 155-pounds. Having dominated most of the top lightweight contenders including Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, and Diego Sanchez, many fans were left wondering where his next challenge could come from.
Conventional wisdom asserted that it would certainly not come from scrappy, but diminutive lightweight Frankie Edgar, who was pegged to be next on Penn's chopping block. In fact, many believed Edgar to be unworthy of the fight altogether.
However, after losing a razor thin controversial decision against Edgar UFC 112 in March of 2010, and then being dominated in a subsequent fight against him four months later at UFC 118, Penn found himself at a crossroads.
No longer the immovable object and irresistible force at lightweight, Penn decided to stop worrying about losing and start having fun again. A lesson he picked up when when he began training jiu-jitsu as a teenager.
"I was just having fun," Penn said about his early training. "I was a kid, enjoying myself, just loving the art. I would either be not doing much or just training jiu-jitsu. And then the jiu-jitsu just came so fast and before I knew it I was doing private lessons and teaching and I got really involved with jiu-jitsu. It was fun. It was no work, no discipline, just pure fun."
It was a strategy that worked wonders for the Hawaiian native as Penn became not only the fastest non-Brazilian to earn his black belt, at an unheard of three years (the average is 10-12 years), he also became the first ever non-Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion just two weeks after earning his black belt.
Penn aims to inject the fun of his youth back into his training and his career.
"We train really hard," Penn said. "I train three times a day. It's work sometimes, but I try to keep it fun as much as possible. I train three times a day, three days a week, and then Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday I do light physical activity just to flush my body of lactic acid."
After his second loss to Edgar, Penn also decided reinvigorate his career by taking big fights that interested and motivated him. He moved back up to welterweight, where he once held the UFC title, to challenge fellow former UFC welterweight champion and longtime personal rival Matt Hughes.
Penn dominated the fight, knocking out the legendary Hughes in just 21 seconds of the first round - only 9:39 seconds shorter than it took him to sign on to face his next challenge against highly regarded UFC welterweight contender Jon Fitch.
"I would say about 10 minutes after the Matt Hughes fight, I took the Fitch fight, Penn said. "Dana walked into the locker room and we got the deal done. I wouldn't think it would happen [that fast] too often, but Jon, I really think he's one of the best fighters, and everyone always talks so highly about him and I want to see how good he is."
To help him prepare for Fitch, a noted wrestler who employs a style of ground and pound, top-control-based fighting championed, literally, by Matt Hughes, will be Matt Hughes himself.
"[Matt Hughes] heads down [to Hawaii] on Superbowl Sunday," Penn exclaimed. "It's going to be really good work. He basically made up the whole, 'push the guy to the fence
and ground and pound thing,' so I think it'll work out fine."
The two rivals may even find time to hit the surf together according to Penn.
"For sure we're going to go get him out on the water," Penn joked. "Country boy can survive, and surf."
As for the fight itself, while Penn acknowledges that Fitch, who is a slightly favored to win, is a talented fighter, he believes that the former Purdue wrestler is in for a surprise.
"I think Fitch is going to be very surprised when we lock up and grapple," Penn said. "I think he thinks that's going to be the easy part, but he's going to be surprised."
With the winner of the fight slated to position himself for a strong claim on the next welterweight title shot, Penn is excited for the chance to vie for another title.
"Yeah, let's do it," Penn said. "I got nothing else better to do. Either that or go hang out at the beach, so let's go. Let's go get another belt."
Win or lose, Penn, one of only two UFC fighters in the history of the organization to hold two titles in two separate weight classes, wants to stay busy and fight the best fighters possible from here on out.
"I'm just kinda taking it in stride," said Penn. "I'm just going to go down to Australia and fight Jon Fitch at 170, and after that, if Dana White has something interesting for me at 170 I'll take it, or if he's got something nice at 155, I'll take that too. I just want to fight as much as I can, stay busy, and, not that I'm going to quit anytime soon, but just finish my career trying to fight the best people possible.
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BJ:"Fitch is going to be surprised when we grapple"
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