The BJ Penn Conundrum

Bj Penn...insanely gifted mixed martial artist,former welterweight and lightweight champion,and now he's at a crossroads in his career. Last night at UFC 118 we saw BJ picked apart and handled by champion Frankie Edgar in a way we've only seen Georges St Pierre do before. Now Bj had every chance to change his gameplan coming into this second fight with Edgar and he did nothing he let the much quicker Edgar hop in and pepper him with shots before hopping back out of range. Even scarier was how easily Frankie seemed to take Bj down at one point slamming Penn in the first round. Where was Bj's insane balance? where was his top level boxing? The answer is simple he didn't prepare for this fight at all, he came in and once again expected to win on talent and the old adage proved true once again. Hard work beats talent when talent doesnt work hard and if that doesn't describe the two Edgar/Penn fights perfectly i don't know what does. Now Bj can bounce back but he needs to do a few things first.

1.Change Camps
Now Bj has done well out of his training camp in Hilo but sadly it's time to pack it up. Last night this issue was brought to light but Joe Rogan as Frankie and Bj went back to their corners there was a drastic difference in what each corner was saying. Edgars was giving him advice and telling him to mix up his strikes and keep pressuring Penn and wear him out. Penn's corner was telling him to "kick that little cocksuckers ass" and "he doesn't belong in the ring with you"...What kind of advice is that? This is a title fight not some schoolyard brawl for godsake tell him to shoot more and work your ground game. The problem is Penn is surrounded by people who tell him what he wants to hear not what he needs to hear. I guess thats what you get when your brother is your head cornerman. But this can all be fixed by switching to another camp and truly testing your skills during training. There have been rumors that the famous Blackhouse Gym would like to add Penn to their roster. Thats a scary thought having Penn training with both Nog brothers,Anderson Silva,Lyoto Machida and Jose Aldo. Theres no easy training sessions there and they could easily add on to what Penn already has good boxing and great jiu jitsu. The other option would be AKA with the amount of top flight wrestlers and kickboxers there Penn could add several more tools to his game and overcome what has been a weak point for him in the past. Training with human blanket Jon Fitch and number one contender Josh Koscheck would greatly improve Penn's wrestling and open up more chances for him to use his jiu jitsu. Either way if Penn wants his belt back he's gonna have to leave Hilo to train elsewhere for it.

2.Rededicate and Focus
Earth to Bj you aren't unbeatable stop thinking you are,in his post fight interviews Penn was holding on to the thought of Edgar didn't beat me the first time. Guess what? he did get over and stop treating your opponents so lightly. Everytime he loses a close fight or something he always gets beaten worse in the rematch just look at his two fights with St Pierre. He needs to realize theres alot more to winning then just talent and he showed flashes of this with his wins over Florian and Sanchez. But in his last two fights with Edgar his heart doesn't look like its been in the fights. Theres a point last night in which we all just saw Penn quit and pack it up. After Edgar scrambled out of Bj's back mount Penn looked discouraged and disheartened. He's gotta realize his ground game is way better than Edgar's and focus on getting it back to the mat quickly.

3.Take some time off and soulsearch
After a fight like that Bj needs to take some time off from fighting and training and prioritze what he wants. Does he want his belt back? or does he want to move back up to welterweight? He just needs to lock in on what he truly wants out of his career because when his mind is split between multiple issues his performance suffers.

Not to take anything away from Penn's career but he talks about his legacy alot and after last night there isn't much to his legacy besides complaining and excuses. People will point out his title reigns,interesting fact Penn is 5-5 in title defenses,.500 isnt a very good title defense average. Lets just see what Bj will do following this fight. Will he grow and admit he needs major changes or will he sit back and whine about how Frankie did this and his corner helped him. The minute Penn starts making excuses or shifting the blame from himself is the minute I know he'll never get that belt back.