So it’s been a few days since Edgar vs Penn III and I wanted to take some time to clear my head and express my feelings on what was BJ Penn’s last fight. I have been a fan of MMA for quite some time now and if you know me and my personality you’d know that when I take a liking to something I go 200% into it to the point of obsession. A friend of mine who was into martial arts lent me some old Pride Fight Championship dvd’s from his personal collection. Pride FC is a Japan-based organization which had some amazing shows in the 2000’s. I was hooked. All I did was watch MMA. Shortly after getting into Pride, I became familiar with UFC which is now the world’s biggest MMA organization. I am not the type of person to leech onto a champion just because he wears the gold. There has to be something about him that draws me in. The funny thing is when I first became a fan of BJ he was getting ready to fight GSP. At the time, GSP was an up and comer while BJ was coming back to the UFC from fighting in other organizations around the world.

BJ lost the fight with GSP via split decision and he wound up losing his next one to Matt Hughes. At this point I was emotionally involved. Records don’t mean anything to me – it’s all about the style of the fighter and the mystique they bring to the octagon. Penn’s nickname is ‘The Prodigy’ and he was named that for a reason: he started training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in 1997 and three years later was awarded his Black Belt. See, what most people wont understand is how hard that feat actually is. Most people train for decades before being awarded a black belt. What’s even crazier is a few weeks later he became the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the World Jiu Jitsu Championship that was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Instead of boring you with statistics and records at the current time let me just say that from this point onward, Penn took me on a wonderful ride on the sport of MMA. He trained harder than he ever had before and went on a tear through the lightweight division. He went on to win his next five fights in the this division and eventually became its champion. He even took on GSP again in a welterweight super fight. It didn’t end up going Penn’s way but the one thing that I always admired about him is his willingness to fight anyone at anytime. He wasn’t the biggest man but he fought in the lightweight, welterweight and even the heavyweight division.

Over the next couple of years Penn somewhat struggled mainly by testing the waters of the welterweight division (again). This was hard for me as it is for any fan. Like other sports, MMA has what people call “haters” and my favorite term “nut huggers”. Fans hated on BJ mainly because of his record and his failure to live up this potential. His cardio is what was lacking and it sometimes put him in positions that he shouldn’t have been. It’s hard fighting a bigger man and people tend to forget that.

In the end BJ was one of only two fighters to ever win UFC championships in different weight classes (the other being Randy Couture). His losses speak for themselves. Two times to GSP (former welterweight champ), three to Frankie Edgar (former lightweight champ), Machida (former light heavyweight champ), Matt Hughes (former welterweight champ), Pulver (former lightweight champ), Nick Diaz, and Rory McDonald (both welterweight contenders). He had a ‘no fear’ attitude, sometimes to a fault.

BJ is my first favorite when it comes to this sport and he forever will be. I had so much enjoyment (and heartache) over the years watching him fight. I’ve seen him three times live and even got a chance to meet him at one of his book signings. I look back at his career and see some things that he maybe could have done differently but I wouldn’t change a thing. Thank You BJ for all you’ve done and will continue to do for the sport (and for us little guys).

Your Fan

– Brian C.

p.s. Check out this entertaining article on his Top 10 moments.