Penn talks about a permanent move to the Welterweight division
Posted on March 16, 2010, 04:33 PM by Daniel CassidyFor what could be the fourth time in his career, it seems BJ Penn hasn't fully decided on whether or not to return to the welterweight division, but still thinks he has a good chance at moving up permanently. Currently, the worlds number 1 Lightweight holds a Welterweight record of 1-3, with his only win a title victory over Matt Hughes, and his 3 losses coming as one from Hughes, and 2 from current Welterweight Champ, Georges St, Pierre.
“I think there is a possibility of moving to Welterweight. I don’t in no way want to look past Frankie Edgar, he’s a good fighter. You never know what could happen. But if I go back to Welterweight, maybe I’ll try to give it a run, maybe fight a couple of fights there, we’ll see how it goes…I might try to do it permanent. We’ll see, I just don’t want to rush anything, just take my time and go out there and do my best.
I think I could do good against some of the top welterweights. Yeah, pretty big guys, but you gotta live some times, you gotta step up sometime, huh? Yeah, you never know what could happen with Hughes. Let’s see how him and Renzo go, let’s see what happens there.”
Another run in the Welterweight division could set up some exciting matches, against the likes of Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, and even a possible third match with GSP himself. Penn faces Frankie "The Answer" Edgar at UFC 112: Invincible; in Abu Dhabi, on April 10th.
Comments
I think he should do it. He will clearly destroy Edgar, and who is left? he should move up for a while and let the lightweight contenders battle it out, maybe even for an interim title and then he can go back down when the time comes and crush them. ahahha. This is exciting
boooo
If he moves back up he needs to take his time fight a couple contenders
before fighting for a belt again....but he has cleared out the light wieght,
but there is some really good fighters making there way...do like Silva a couple challenges....was worried after the GSP fight but his training is great now but as he gets older jumping around in weight classes will be hard....
Just magine all the Epic fights we wuld get to see if he moved up for good. Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck and the new guys, like Hardy and Semtex. Now THAT would be exciting matchups that I'd pay to see.
And some divisions in the UFC are leading towards a stalemate because of the dominating champs redoing what works for them, so its nice to see Penn get out of his "comfort zone".
Big respect for Penn!!!!
i say.... by the end of the year, if no one can take the belt from any of the 3 champs.... GSP, SILVA, PENN they should be forced to move up a weight class so others have chance's to become champ after 2-3yrs of being champ move on!!!
He was some dominated by GSP it would be a little bit like Rich Franklin taking another crack at Anderson Silva. Why not stay at LW where he clearly rules the roost. That makes the most sense but it seems he feels a need to challenge himself as strongly as possible.
You have to give it to him for cajones.
true but i want to see him fight some top guys at 170 that would be bad ass
yeah,he got dominated by a champ who was fighting a smaller guy and still needed to cheat. Leave the vasoline at home and i don't think it would have been the same fight.
BTW when you "dominate" a fighter you can usally finish them in less then 4 rounds, GSP couldn't even finish a smaller Penn (even with cheating)
Reality? I'd say you need a check! Penn was outclassed from the start and never even came close to threatening gsp. Moaning about the grease-gate afterwards made his loss all the more embarrassing. Penn is a great fighter but a realy sore loser. And I wouldn't want to see a gsp-penn 3 cause the fight was utterly fookin boring.
thats why he beat him twice, right???? the vasoline stuff is bullshit
-beat him the first time= i'm not in shape (bj penn)
-beat him the second time= he used vasoline (bj penn)
he's ashamed to have gotten owned by a CANADIAN
excusses, excusses, excusses................... typical american
Its the vaseline guy again
when you "own" someone you usally finish the fight.
He should stay at LW but go and fight maybe once or twice a year at WW like Anderson does from Middle to LHW.
BJ PENN is in a dream,stay where your at ...if you know whats good for you!!
BJ Penn fought lyoto machida to a decision, i am pretty sure he can handle himself at 170lbs, even GSP couldn't finish him.
Uh, way to not look past Frankie, BJ.
I think it's all really about BJ wanting revenge on GSP, he just didn't use his name this time.
Why else would a fighter who dominates the LW division, want to move to a division where he's lost 75% of his fight?
The only was I think Dana lets this happen is if BJ loses the belt.
Georges has only gotten better since the last horrible beating...
This is something Penn should do after his next fight. There are some awesome match ups that can be made.
I think some of these fighters don't move up for good cause they don't want to give up there belts.
like what kind of match up i only see one and thats, tyson griffin...hes pretty much beat every good fighter in the lightweight div.so movin to welterweight will be interesting...
I hate to say it but I think BJ would be like the KenFlo of the WW division. He would beat probably everyone but the champ.
Penn fights for the love of fighting its well documented that he dosent do it for money he has that. He prob feels their is no one to challenge him in the LW, just like Silva i want to see him move up while their current divisions can rebuild, then comeback when their is strong competition and show you are still number 1.
Awesome post
yep, awesome!
BJ is going to destroy Edgar. Edgar still needs his baby steps, he's gonna go in there with the best lightweight alive and get overwhelmed within the second round. We saw it with Diego Sanchez and Siego has way more experience and actually fought some real competition and he still got wrecked. In my opinion there's no more compitition in the lightweight division for BJ. He's just on a whole new level. Therefor, a permanent move to the welterweight division would be the best thing for him now
I think he should do it if he totally dominates Edgar, or he should do one more lightweight after that. But he can definitely do well. Penn is one of the best but things happen and you can't win every time.
I don't agree with champs going up and down weight classes and if they do the should be forced to release their own belt first. Obviously the problem for BJ is that so many top Lightweights are outside the UFC.
poor sanches...he just cant get away from bj...maybe sanches will drop down to lw again
This would be a bad move, but i understand Bj is a real champ that wants a challenge. He might screw up his record, but if he wanted to move up to welter weight he should do it with real muscle this time.
I think if BJ took a proper approach to putting on weight, then he could do very well in WW. He was under weight for his last bout with GSP, and GSP came down from 190. If Penn is serious about going up in weight class he should be at least a lean 185 before he fights. That takes a lot of work though.
He's got the passion, but not the discipline. IMHO. He has a lot of weight that he could drop as it is, without losing any muscle, he's fairly soft. That's not an insult... It's just reality. I don't think he has the drive (maybe his pure genetic physical gifts have made things too easy for him?) to make it work. He would beat most of the fighters at WW, but he would still have no chance against Georges. Powerful wrestlers with that kind of physical strength, that kind of core-strength, just have too many tools BJJ experts.
BJ is a soft 155lbs, if he got ripped like Georges he'd be what? 120lbs? He would need to be very lean at like 185lbs and cut to WW for him to have a chance. He simply hasn't got the drive to put on that kind of muscle (which would take him a couple years).
Too many tools FOR bjj experts that is.
To all you GSP haters in here....please let it go - all that vaseline/steriod talk was BJ's ego hurt and explaining why he lost....Penn is a great fighter, and I actually like him but he is UNDENIABLY the worst sore loser I've ever seen...Some fighters when they lose they look at themselves of what they did wrong....Not BJ he looks how to exploit his fans to see how the other guy "cheated"....On the other side, I do hope he moves up to welter and bring in his new improved skills on that division - and not be sore loser as he was before.
Go Penn Id love to see him win like four fights before he gets a shot.