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"The fighter that I am will present a challenge for B.J... I'm just a little bit different with the way I approach my stand-up and my wrestling ability... Florian tried to implement GSP's game plan a little bit, and [the lightweights] are not GSP. Nobody is. Diego was going too forward on him, and when he got rocked in the first flurry in the first round, his game plan was tough to get back to... I don't think you can say, 'I'm going to be able to beat [Penn] standing' because if I say I have the advantage standing, for sure he's going to look to take it to the ground. If he has the advantage standing, I'll be looking to take it to the ground. B.J. can do it all. I just have to be well versed in everything."
-UFC Lightweight Championship challenger Frankie Edgar talks to MMAJunkie.com about his belief that he'll present a challenge to B.J. Penn along with what went wrong for Penn's last two challengers.
Penick's Analysis: He at least knows he's going to need to be on in every facet of his game coming into this one, and that's a good first step, but it's a tall task for anyone to pose much of a threat to B.J. in the lightweight division, no matter how well rounded they are. I think Edgar does have the tools to hang with the best of the best in the division, and I think he'll make it competitive with B.J. here, for a time, but Penn is just too good and has simply been unstoppable at 155 over the last couple of years. I hope we get a great fight out of these two, and hopefully Edgar can make this one more competitive than Florian and Sanchez were able to do, it just may not end up being the case in the end.
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"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
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