by Tommy Hackett

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This week, BJ Penn has been getting friendly with the English press in preparation for his fight next week for the UFC Lightweight title. He’s showing an unusual candor, even by BJ’s standards.

Among the revelations:

Matt Hughes “fought like a pu**y” against Georges St. Pierre. (Ouch!)

Matt Hughes “is an a**hole.” (Like our own Lee Casebolt, BJ seems disappointed in Matt’s recent literary stylings)

The UFC All Access program featuring Sean Sherk was a joke. Penn elaborates: “(Sherk) was showing off saying ‘I eat all this good food, I work out this hard… he was walking into the bathroom and sticking a needle in his a**.” (This begs the question: do we really want all access?)

Well then…

It’s safe to say there’s not a fighter which divides MMA fans more clearly than BJ Penn and despite a general dislike of trash talk, I make no secret that I’m a fan of “The Prodigy”. I’m actually convinced that the genius who does our own rankings system here at Total-MMA has actually excluded Penn from any top-ten listings just to spite me (!). But even a fan like me will admit that there are arguments to be made, not just against the brashness he exhibits in the above interviews or the legal problems which he admittedly regrets, but also some disappointing performances.

Recently our own Kendall Shields mentioned in passing that Penn’s #7 pound for pound ranking by Yahoo! Sports was unjustified. He chose to elaborate on a point about Fedor instead, and also presents an argument against the concept of a pound-for-pound ranking system, but I’ll guess what Kendall has in mind. Penn’s detracors miss the point when they say how they hate the “Prodigy” strutting his way onto top ten lists and title shots while only registering wins against Jens Pulver and Renzo Gracie in the last two years. Yes, the losses to Matt Hughes and Georges St Pierre in that period would admittedly seem more important. Sure, I could counter this by bringing up the manner in which he lost seemingly being owed to deficiencies he’s addressed, but I’m not sure it’s entirely relevant. I could list the dominant wins going back to his debut or the fact that he remains undefeated at lightweight other than one loss he avenged, but I think I’d be missing the point too.

Any true MMA fan has to have a little love in his heart for Penn, even when he slags your favorite fighter or gets a ranking that seems out of touch with his accomplishments. It’s simple: when BJ Penn enters the cage there’s still the feeling that he may accomplish the impossible. He’s the guy who started training jiu jitsu in a small town of 50,000 or so under the tutelage of a Tae Kwon Do instructor. Within a few years he was the first American BJJ Mundial champion at black belt. A year later, the BJJ fighter had won all three of his UFC bouts by knockout inside of a round against strong competition. Cast aside after a surprising loss to Jens Pulver, he beat down and stopped the world’s top lightweight in Gomi. Laughed at for wanting to challenge the world’s top welterweight and UFC’s most dominant champion, he notched another first round submission. Yep, he’s that guy, the only guy.

While BJ Penn.com is known for its technique section, it’s also charted Penn’s progress in nutrition and conditioning. Joe Lauzon has described rolling with BJ like his first day as a white belt again. I don’t entirely disagree with some of his criticism leveled at Penn, but with his fitness now matching his form, any ranking for Penn will be warrented within a year. Hopefully the trash talk won’t be necessary to get the fans’ attention by then.