BJ in first fight against Edgar. Photo: Josh Hedges
BJ Penn will have a tough task this Saturday, when he tries to recover the UFC lightweight belt against Frankie Edgar in Boston. Penn ended up losing his belt by unanimous decision after a close contest at UFC 112. For this fight, the black belt promises a better performance.
“I’ve been training really hard. In the old days, I’d pride myself on how little I needed to train to win, but now I prefer to brag about how much I train to do so. I try to train a lot, eat right and see how far I can go,” he says.
“Everyone talks about my physical conditioning and how they can beat me. But they forget that I fought Sean Sherk and he’s considered to be a cardio machine. I fought Kenny Florian and he never gets tired. I’ve fought so many guys with good conditioning in recent years, but they insist on bringing up the subject,” adds the fighter on the UFC website.
BJ Penn has beaten such beasts as Diego Sanches. Photo: Josh Hedges
BJ is considered by many to be one of the greatest MMA fighters of all times. Besides recovering his lightweight belt, the fighter wants to reaffirm that position.
“I want to be categorized in a level all my own, like Randy Couture. You don’t want to be in the middle, along with all the rest. When they talk about us, we want them to say something special, like Joe Frazier or Muhammad Alia, that type of people. You want to be extraordinary.”
In the end, BJ hopes to use in the rematch an ingredient that was missing in his last appearance.
“I have to not like the person at the other end of the ring and that’s why I consider myself different in several aspects, not just as an athlete, but as a fighter. When people fight in real life, it’s not because they are athletes, but because something irritated them. When a man raises his fists, it’s because he’s run out of ideas. Those are natural instincts that I have and if someone wants to fight me, I hope they’re irritated so I can get irritated and, then, we can fight,” he closes.