BJ Penn – All about the Fight

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By Thomas Gerbasi

You never forget your first love. For BJ Penn, that first love was the UFC lightweight title. From the time he stepped into the Octagon for the first time in 2001, it was the 155-pound belt that captivated him. Even now, as the belt sits firmly around his waist, he remembers what it meant to him.

“Just talking to you right now, thinking about how it was a 21-year old kid’s dream to be the lightweight champion of the world, that just got me pumped up,” Penn told UFC.com. “I’m gonna keep this belt on August 8th. I just remembered how I used to sit and think about how I wanted to be the lightweight champ. But then sometimes you get there and you take it for granted.”

What prompted this trip down memory lane for Penn was a question about his dominance at the weight, where he hasn’t lost since 2002. And even that lone lightweight defeat – to Jens Pulver – was a razor-thin majority decision later avenged by submission. But despite wins over Pulver, Caol Uno, Takanori Gomi, Matt Serra, Din Thomas, Joe Stevenson, and Sean Sherk, a seductress named History came a knockin’ on Penn’s door. Sure, being one of only two men in UFC history to hold belts in two weight classes was nice, but to become the first to do it simultaneously? That was too much for Penn to refuse, and as he left his lightweight belt at home in Hilo, he went chasing after Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight title.

And this wasn’t some impossible dream for Penn. The first time they fought, in 2006, Penn handed GSP his head for five minutes before the Canadian roared back over the next two rounds to eke out a split decision win. So this was a goal within the reach of Penn, who was about to turn 30, and was a new father settled into his role as UFC champion and superstar. To win another title? That was intoxicating. So much so that Penn began camp not eight or 12 weeks out from the January 2009 fight, but five months earlier.

“I started five months out,” said Penn. “I told myself I want it more than Georges. I’m gonna stay out of the bars, live a clean life, and five months out, I started training.”

It was a bad move, something Penn realized as the fight drew nearer.

“By the time I got close, maybe I burned myself out a little,” he said. “I tried to pull the reins in, but it was too late.”

Add in the distractions of having cameras following him around for the filming of the UFC Primetime series (something St-Pierre was forced to deal with as well), a pre-fight controversy over a break towards the end of camp, and Penn admits that “maybe I was getting unfocused here and there.”

But come fight night, ‘The Prodigy’, one of the most talented fighters to ever step into the Octagon, felt that he could pull it all together and make history.

“I knew what I had to do when I stepped in the ring that night,” he said. “I was ready and confident and all that stuff for the job at hand.”

It wasn’t meant to be though, as St-Pierre dominated the bout for four rounds before Penn’s corner decided their fighter had had enough. It was a crushing defeat, one that Penn wished he could wipe off his record, and one he still alleges St-Pierre cheated in, though his complaint to the Nevada State Athletic Commission didn’t change the end result of the bout. Despite all this, he’s moved on.

“With all that stuff said, I trained, I did my roadwork, I did my sparring, I did all those things, but as far as my mistake, I think I started too early and I got too excited for the fight.”

Luckily for Penn, now 13-5-1, his faithful lightweight title belt was waiting at home for him, and despite pre-GSP talk that hinted at retirement, in his mind, there was no question that he was coming back to the Octagon to defend that belt.

“I knew that wouldn’t have been the last one,” he said. “There’s no way. What would I have done? Sit home and twiddle my thumbs? There’s no way that could have been the end. I’m not gonna say it never crossed my mind, but I just don’t know what else I’d be doing.”

Simply put, Penn’s a fighter, and fighters fight, especially when they’re only 30 years old and at the height of their powers. So when number one contender Kenny Florian was brought to the table, Penn signed on the dotted line.

“Kenny’s good,” said Penn. “He’s hungry, he’s coming off a good winning streak, he’s got good footwork, good kickboxing, he’s no slouch on his takedowns, and he’s a black belt in jiu-jitsu. He definitely poses a lot of problems for a lot of people out there and he’s not somebody to be underestimated.”

But around the Penn camp, the question wasn’t just what Florian was bringing to the table, but what BJ Penn needed to do to get ready for perhaps the most pivotal fight of his career. Following the loss to St-Pierre, what’s needed is a vintage BJ Penn performance. And brother / manager JD knew what needed to be done, and it involved a little shaking up of the camp.

Enter Marv Marinovich.

A former college and pro football player, Marinovich was nonetheless best known for the training and development of his son Todd, a star quarterback for USC who was a disappointing number one pick of the Oakland Raiders. First praised, then ridiculed for his methods, Marinovich has kept a low public profile over the last few years, but not among the athletes he works with at the Sports Science Lab in California. Soon, BJ Penn would be one of those athletes.

“We got hooked up with him through a friend of ours and just talking to him, it just all made sense,” said Penn. “I did one workout with him, then I went back to Hawaii and I did my MMA training, and just from that one workout I felt like it helped me already. I said ‘there’s something to this guy, we’ve got to see what’s going on.’ And then from there, we got more serious, we flew out to see Marv and told him we wanted to work out with him for a week. We did the week and said ‘okay, we’re coming out for the two months.’”

For two months, Penn was removed from the distractions at home and simply focused on training. Those who have seen him in camp say he’s never looked better, but as the world knows, what matters is what happens when the bell rings. Penn’s ready for that bell to ring on Saturday night, and it may be the sweetest sound he’s heard in a long time. There’s no more talking to do, no more speculation, nothing more than him and Kenny Florian fighting for a belt Penn has no intention of giving up. It’s just like the old days.

“When I first got into the game of fighting, it was all about the fight,” he said. “Then came promoting the fight and trying to get the fight bigger, but I’m back to the mindset that it’s just about fighting again.”

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