How does the rest of the card play out? Hughes/Penn really isn't important. But its kind of interesting in an non-significant type of fight. My first thought has Hughes lost enough for BJ to take him at 170 now?
hughes's coming off some impressive wins and is naturally the bigger guy. that and he beat penn the last time they fought. hughes is the one w/ mental and physical edge going into the fight.
Even Hughes is coming off some good wins and is the bigger guy, I didn't like how his stand-up looked in his last couple of fights. He seems really slow.
if anything, hughes should rely on penn to gas out. penn appears to have stamina issues when facing a bigger foe. but you're right, penn does have a better stand up game. i read on espn that he's weighing around 165. that's not very smart going in against a guy who'll weigh around 182 on fight night.
Penn is better off coming in a little light. He doesn't hold the weight that well. He's really small at 170 and looks soft. He better off just being in good shape rather than trying to bulk up. Hopefully that's the case.
People seem to forget that Penn was a replacement for GSP in the second fight with Hughes. He was clearly out of shape and couldn't do anything with Matt. He also won the first two rounds of that fight until he hurt his ribs late in the 2nd. He was obviously dead tired after that and Hughes took him down and got the finish with relative ease in the third. So basically BJ clearly won 3 of 4 rounds with Hughes. Personally I think BJ destroys Hughes in this fight. I think it will resemble the Sanchez fight and be an ugly beatdown.
Other than the highlight of Jose Aldo the most impressive thing on this card was watching that kid Barbosa fight in the last match. His standup was awesome. He totally dominated the other guy with counters and kicks. His floor game isn't all that good but he did manage a couple slams and some sound defense. He even got the stoppage just by kicking the guy in the leg so often that he practically crippled him. I'm looking forward to seeing him again in the future.
