I was shocked when Penn just beat up and choked out the much larger and stronger Hughes. Since then both have had five fights ..with BJ going 3-2 losing a hotly disputed decision to St. Pierre and a decision to the MUCH larger Machido. Matt Hughes in his 5 fights since has looked as dominant as ever, with great wins over St Pierre and the underrated Joe Riggs. Hughes has improved his submission skills both on offense and defense, and his standup isn't nearly as bad as some suggest. Penn has been facing bigger guys and hanging in theere tough. The one advantage is obviously that Penn has the dominant win over Matt. I don't think though that Hughes will allow that to affect him one iota. I hope BJ pulls another upset, but I am going with Matt Hughes by solid decision over Penn.
I'm a fan of both fighters, but Hughes wins this one. He's at the top of his game right now. The fact that he lost to Penn won't effect him, in fact I think it'll make him want it even more. Plus Penn is coming off a loss, so he doesn't exactly have the momentum coming in. Hughes by Unanimous Decision. TFK
Penn is one of the most talented fighters on the planet, boxing or MMA. Last night, he showed in the first 2 rounds how talented he is, but the guy wasn't in shape to go 5 rounds. hE DOESN'T like to train and you aren't going to beat a guy with a heart like Matt Hughes on talent alone. Penn needs to just chill out and enjoy Hawaii.
He ALMOST had Hughes beat at the end of that 2nd round. That triangle was getting tighter by the second. BJ Penn is a guy who could give 2 shits about training, and he's still giving these guys the fights of their lives. Did you see the state of St.Pierre's face after BJ was done with him? I thought BJ should've gotten the decision win over Pierre. Let's hope neither Pierre nor Hughes ever has to meet a focused in shape Penn. If they do, they will die!
.... Stamina is part of fighting. Penn was pretty much in as good of shape as he gets in. He came in a good bit under the weight limit in fact. No excuses need to be made for Penn. BTW- he didn't just get tired by himself. While he was beating Hughes, Hughes was making him work hard. Siome guys have different strengths and weakness's and Penn's weakness is stamina.
Nah, Penn was in shit shape. He LOOKED ripped for him...but its obious to anyone with eyes, that he wasn't conditioned to fight hard for 3 rounds, let alone 5. The BJ of old was a run and gun fighter, but he could still go the distance and handle his shit. @ 170, he's pathetically underdone and It makes me wonder how much weight he sucked down in quick time to get to the limit. I wouldn't be shocked if he was juicing.
Word coming out is that BJ seperated his ribs in the 2nd round and claimed he was having problems breathing due to this.
I became a big Penn fan after his fight with Caol Uno. When he tried that running kick at the begining of the fight and Penn just sidestepped him, put him up against the cage and beat the bejesus out of him, I thought that was the coolest thing I ever saw. But Hughes is on a whole different level right now. He just doesn't lose. No matter what is thrown at him, he finds a way to win. When Newton had him in the choke he was able to slam to him to the ground and KO him. When Trigg nailed him in the balls and had him all but beat, he miraculously came back and won. Now Penn had him in a wicked leg triangle\arm bar, and he was able to hang on until the bell and come back to win the next round. Right now Hughes is definitely one of the top P4P MMA fighters in the world. TFK
Penn injured his ribs when he took Matt's back off of that near-standup transition to taking the back. When I saw that, I thought "Jeez, that could mess your back up if you did it wrong!" Evidently he did. His hands dropped and he couldn't move well. He didn't even seem hurt from the accumulated punches in the reverse crucifix...just dead tired. Rib injuries are a b***h!
When I was 13 or 14, I bruised my ribs pretty bad in a fall, and man, that was some pain. It hurt to breathe, but when you had to cough or sneeze, forget about it. TFK
