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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC 123 on Saturday features the third bout between Matt Hughes and B.J. Penn. As former Champions and two of the sport's greatest fighters, this fight will be a historic concluding chapter in a trilogy that began nearly six years ago. In this five part series this week, we'll take a look at the careers of each fighter, each of the first two meetings between the two of them, and finally what this third fight means for both men. Today we take a look at former UFC Welterweight and Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn.
B.J. Penn rightfully earned his nickname "The Prodigy" in 2000 when, after training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for only three years, he became the first non-Brazilian to win the Mundials (the World Jiu Jitsu Championship) in the black belt division.
It wasn't long after that achievement that Penn made his debut in the sport in the UFC, and he took the, at the time, fledgling sport by storm with his first three fights in 2001. Blasting through Caol Uno in 11 seconds at UFC 34 earned Penn a shot at UFC Lightweight Champion Jens Pulver, but he came up short for the first time in a five round battle.
Penn worked his way back to a second title fight over the next year, but when his rematch with Uno ended in a draw, the lightweight division was essentially eliminated from the UFC with no Champion on top. But Penn returned to the UFC 11 months after the draw with Uno to challenge the dominant Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes.
In one of the most triumphant moments of his career, Penn breezed through the Champion, shocking him and everyone watching with a first round submission victory to capture his first UFC title.
It was to be short-lived, however, as he was stripped of the title during a contract dispute and wouldn't see the inside of the Octagon for over two years.
Penn took that time to fight in Japan and his home state of Hawaii, taking fights in the middleweight division, and one open weight fight against future UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida, who outweighed him by 30 lbs. And yet, Penn's only defeat in that span was to Machida by decision.
His return to the UFC didn't go quite as planned, however. He dropped a split decision to Georges St. Pierre, and when GSP suffered an injury before his fight with Hughes, Penn stepped in to take on the Champion a second time. This time however, he lost by TKO in the third round.
He made his return to the lightweight division following that loss, and regained the dominance he had been known for at 155 lbs. After getting revenge over Jens Pulver after a season of coaching The Ultimate Fighter, Penn captured the Lightweight Championship that had eluded him earlier in his career when he destroyed Joe Stevenson at UFC 81.
Penn put a stamp on his hold of the division with a TKO victory over Sean Sherk, but then decided to move back up to welterweight for an ill-fated challenge of new 170 lb. kingpin GSP. After being handily defeated, Penn continued to establish his dominance over the UFC's 155 lb. fighters when he took out Ultimate Fighter season one finalists Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez in consecutive title defenses.
But 2010 brought Penn back down to earth. Rumors of bad training camps and bad habits while in camp have followed Penn throughout his career, and his motivation as a fighter has come into question on numerous occasions. Never before had that come as much to the forefront as it did after consecutive losses to Frankie Edgar, at UFC 112 and UFC 118.
Now, Penn re-enters the welterweight at UFC 123 division to meet his old foe Matt Hughes for a third time. As he continues to see a future for himself in the lightweight and welterweight divisions, he's first going to need to get back on track with a victory. If he can settle the score with Hughes, he'll need to find a way to focus his efforts towards a clear goal to get his career back on track.
TOMORROW: A look back at the first fight between Penn and Hughes from UFC 46 in 2004.
[B.J. Penn art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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