I didn’t call this fight, and I’m glad I didn’t. Not because I would’ve gotten the results wrong–I probably would have–but because Penn brought nothing new to the fight and lost again because of his lack of newness. Penn vs. Edgar II was basically the exact same fight as Penn vs. Edgar I. Edgar threw weak blows that did nothing to hurt Penn but racked up points on the judge’s scorecards. He took Penn down a few times and was unable to hold him down but again used his takedowns to rack up points.
Meanwhile, Penn just took it. Did he use his championship level jujitsu? No, he tried to play the exact same boxing game as last time. He took Edgar down in Round 4, but by that time, they were all sweaty and tired, and Penn wasn’t able to pull off anything. He was seriously gassed out by Round 5.
When he finally lost the decision, Penn wasn’t gracious in defeat. He said something like, “Well, he got a decision the first time, and he got the decision today.” The emphasis was on the fact that it was a decision, not a decisive finish.
Which makes Penn’s performance all the more baffling–Penn, like everyone else on the planet who watches MMA, knew that Edgar was going for a decision. It wasn’t a Chael Sonnen lay-and-pray decision either, where an opponent might suffer by allowing a takedown. Edgar couldn’t knock out or submit Penn if he wanted to, and he couldn’t do the lay and pray. Why didn’t Penn bring anything new to this fight? It wasn’t like he was going to pay for trying something new.
If you look at my Machida/Rua thread, you’ll notice that I wasn’t the least bit angry at Lyoto for losing. I thought Rua got under him psychologically, and I think Rua mentally broke down Machida. Machida, as a result, didn’t show up for the fight. He took a beating the first time, and he got beaten badly the second time with a quick knockout. But I’m not angry at him for that. Rua is a dangerous fighter. If you miss a beat, he’ll either knock you out or slap on a submission. Rua is a finisher who puts fear in his opponents.
Edgar, on the other hand, is no Rua. Anyone fighting Edgar should take great risks because Edgar is unable to finish his opponents. He has very little power in his punches, and he doesn’t know submissions. He proved this against Penn in the first fight, and he’s proven it against much lesser fighters. Penn could’ve rushed him with a flying, backspinning ninja kick, or a somersault, aerial flying palm strike, and Edgar wouldn’t have been able to punish him for it. It’s not like fighting Demian Maia who can submit you if he gets your back, or Rampage Jackson who could knock you with a hard punch, or Matt Hughes or Shogun Rua who could do one or the other. It’s not even like Chael Sonnen who can take a man down and hold him there for five boring minutes. Edgar never finishes his opponents, and he doesn’t do the lay-and-pray. There’s no risk in taking risks.
So the paying audience once again was treated to Edgar’s boring bobbing and weaving, while Penn just stood there and took it. Penn even bloodied Edgar’s nose, while Edgar threw big shots that didn’t seem to hurt at all. B.J., I want my money back. Next time, please fight.
Edit: Oh, and B.J. needs to fire his corner coach. The guy kept telling B.J. how “great” he was doing. He definitely wasn’t watching the same fight.
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
I was rooting for Penn as was most of the audience, but he disappointed. My hats off to Edgar, though. He’s at bringing the fight to Penn. And I don’t forget that Frankie reversed BJ when he was taken down by him. The kid is trying and that counts for something.
If Penn’s not going to be into it, he might as well retire. Waste of talent if you ask me.
I agree. I take my hat off to Edgar too. He outworked Penn and put tons of effort in. He made the fight as exciting as he could.
But Penn…man. It’s one thing to lose if the guy is better than you. No one can fault Frank Trigg who gives every fight his all, even if he knows he doesn’t have the genetics to win. Similarly, lack of skill is also forgiveable–witness Tank Abbott.
But for a guy to be blessed with Penn’s touch, height, strength, and flexibility (the guy’s like Gumby) and to lose because he either didn’t train hard enough or didn’t feel like exerting himself–that’s just wrong. He owes ME an apology for that. That’s the definition of wasted talent.
There was a good article here on Penn’s apparent inability to create a legacy:
http://www.mmaforreal.com/2010/8/30/1658172/bj-penn-lacks-the-true-parts-of-a
Seriously, he is the ONLY top fighter where you never know what you’re gonna get.
I don’t want to write off Edgar yet. He has some really good takedowns and great speed.
Still, I’d like to see a judoka or BJJ guy at the top again, because right now wrestling in the UFC seems to be burying all other forms of grappling as far as strong bases go (at least under the current UFC rules).
I agree. A point that someone made on one of the forums is that Edgar is really a featherweight, and he did what was necessary for him to succeed in a weight class where he is smaller than everyone else. It’s not that he’s not trying to knock his opponents out; it’s that he just doesn’t have the power, being smaller and all. I have to give him some kind of props for that.
I agree with you too on BJJ/judo guys. I think a lot of it has to do with the UFC format. The cage favors wrestling over other martial arts, which is why one typically sees better striking in K-1 and better submission specialists in Dream, since it’s in a ring rather than a cage (K-1 is obviously more of a striking competition, but it would seriously be less strike-like if it were in a cage.). Not that rings don’t have problems either; it always feels strange to me when the ref moves fighters back into the center when they go to the edge.
A new format is Bellator, which has a very, very large cage. One would expect to see some great BJJ/Judo there, but I haven’t yet watched enough to know.
Notty,
I don’t know if you’ve seen this Bellator submission, but it’s pretty sick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpr9lPqcMDM
The guy was getting killed the whole fight, and then he pulls off a triangle while the other guy is standing.
Not even a tap out. Just lights out. That is pretty awesome. I just sent it to my friends, thanks!