October 7, 2016
By Ryan Porzl
On July 6, 2014, MMA Legend BJ Penn suffered a third straight loss to long time rival Frankie Edgar. Following this, Penn announced his retirement and acknowledged that he never should've came back after having been out for more than a year. It appeared as though one of the greatest careers in MMA History came to a close or so we thought. In January 2016, Penn announced he would return to competition and to say the least, it's a mistake. Sadly, Penn will likely go down as another fighter who stayed way too long and in this article, we'll take a look at why it's best for The Prodigy to stay retired.
Usually fighters in Penn's position mostly continue fighting because they have something to prove but Penn doesn't have anything to prove. Penn is both a former UFC Lightweight Champion and a former UFC Welterweight Champion which makes him one of two (the other being Randy Couture) to have held a belt in two weight divisions. He main evented many Pay-Per-Views, he's a UFC Hall of Famer, an MMA Pioneer, a former Rumble On The Rock Champion, and ROTR Tournament Winner. He's scored wins over guys like Caol Uno, Matt Hughes two times, Takanori Gomi, Duane Ludwig, Jens Pulver, Sean Sherk, Diego Sanchez, and Kenny Florian to name some. What does he have to prove? He's won the big one more than once, he's achieved stuff that many have not, he's considered one of the greatest fighters of all time while some consider him the greatest lightweight of all time, and he's got the hit list. He's not like a Kenny Florian who came close so many times to the brass ring only to repeatedly come up short. Penn also doesn't need the money. As far as I know, he didn't come from a poor family and even if he did, it wouldn't matter as he's made a lot of money throughout his MMA career and has a lot going for him as he has two gyms along with being a UFC ambassador so he has a lot of projects to stay busy as well as ways to make money. Meanwhile, Penn could easily be a trainer as many aspiring fighters would love to train with him while many gyms would love to have him conduct seminars.
Penn has WAY too much mileage as well as up there in age. As of writing, Penn has fought for 15 years as he originally debuted at UFC 31 on May 4, 2001. Many fighters are usually way past their prime after competing for 15 years and Penn is no different. Penn also has had a combined 28 MMA fights which granted isn't as much as many fighters that have been fighting as long as him but it is still a lot. Penn has had a lot of wars and in his last few fights had taken a lot of damage. His body can't go the way it used to as we've seen in his recent fights as he hasn't shown any flashes of his former greatness. Penn is also 38 years old as of writing which is not only old for fighting but it's really old for the smaller classes that Penn competes at which is Lightweight (155 pounds), Welterweight (170 pounds), and Featherweight (145 pounds) where the fighters are much faster and have better reflexes which is stuff fighters lose as they get older. Penn has shown age has affected him as he's not as sharp or fast as he used to be.
Penn has also looked dreadful and depressing in his recent fights. His last win was nearly six years ago against a very aging Matt Hughes who was three years removed from his prime, was 37, had 52 fights, and only fought one more time before retiring. Outside of that, his last competitive fight was when he lost the Lightweight Championship to Frankie Edgar in their first fight back at UFC 112 on April 10, 2010. Since then, he lost decisively to Edgar in their second fight, went to a draw with Jon Fitch where he struggled in the last two rounds & later admitted he didn't win the fight, and then took three beatings while losing to Nick Diaz, Rory MacDonald, and a third encounter with Edgar. Even worse, Penn never showed any glimpses of his old self or had moments where he gave fans hope that he would pull it off. It wasn't like Chuck Liddell against Rich Franklin or Matt Hughes against Josh Koscheck where Liddell and Hughes had some good moments before losing. If Penn comes back then he'll likely get trashed against a top ten fighter.
Now, I did bring up that Penn had nothing to prove which he doesn't. However, there are three things that would complete Penn's career. One is to become Featherweight Champion which would make him the first UFC fighter to win a belt in three weight classes. Two would be to score a win over Frankie Edgar. Three would be to regain the Lightweight Title as he would rule over a stacked lightweight division. In the past, Penn never dominated a stacked lightweight even though he defeated great fighters. In the early 2000s, the UFC's lightweight division was very weak to the point where they shut it down from 2003-2006 while the late 2000s featured a better division but one that still paled compared to the current division. Penn also never competed in either PRIDE or Shooto when they had much deeper divisions in the early to late 2000s. Unfortunately, Penn has no chance of any of these things happening. Going to Featherweight would be foolish at this point as Penn's 38 and fighters usually have a harder time cutting weight as they get older. Even worse, Penn has used IVs and they're banned now which will make cutting weight even harder which means Penn will likely be drained going into fights. Penn's also likely too slow to keep up with the elite featherweights. A win over Edgar isn't happening unless Edgar suffers a major injury and declines badly but Penn likely wouldn't want to beat a broken down Edgar. Outside of that, Penn's not winning as he's looked worse and worse with each fight going from competitive in the first fight to losing decisively in the second to being a moving punching bag in the third. Penn's also not winning the Lightweight Championship either as that division has gotten stacked in the years since he last was champion.
Finally, there's a reason for superstitious people which is Penn's recent fights have been delayed repeatedly. Since he announced his return back in January, Penn had been set to fight three times and each fight ended up cancelled. He was first set to fight at UFC 197 in April 2016 only to be pulled out after criminal allegations, then was set to fight Dennis Siver at UFC 199 in June 2016 only to be pulled after he used an IV which is banned even in non-fight periods, and was then set to face Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night 97 in October 2016 but pulled out of that fight due to injury. Obviously, not everyone believes in superstitions but if you do then you could consider this a sign that Penn shouldn't come back since it seems like he can't make it back for one reason or another. It's almost like fate is telling him not to.
BJ Penn has had a career to be proud of but that career should be over and he should move on to other things instead of risking more damage or permanent injury by staying around for too long especially when he doesn't have a bright future fighting anymore. Hopefully, he'll come to realize this sooner than later and the sooner he does, the better he'll be off.
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