MMANEWSLEAK Exclusive:
BJ Penn’s Unexpected Knockout of Matt Hughes Raises Questions For Both
Saturday night, in one fell overhand swoop, the fortunes of two guys took drastically different turns. Even though Las Vegas had BJ Penn as the favorite in his fight with Matt Hughes, wise guys and insiders were quietly licking their chops for this fight. However, after Matt Hughes’ stunned everyone by taking unscheduled nap just :21 into the first, a couple of things came into focus a little clearer.
First things first, Matt Hughes had a great run at welterweight but it’s over. He’s never looked or sounded more demoralized than he did during the post-fight Roganview. Hughes remains in good shape year round, and he hasn’t had many of those wars that shorten careers but at 37 his time has come. Mr. Hughes let the car come to a complete stop and exit to the left. The ride is over.
That being said, Matt Hughes has meant too much to the UFC to become an afterthought. He’ll most likely get two more matches with one being his farewell fight, and Dana White will present him with a plaque and keys to a Scion as a thank you.
BJ, on the other hand looks like he’ll be Octagonning against the guy who is quite possibly the worst stylistic matchup he could possibly have at 170 lbs, the human C-Span channel, Jon Fitch.
(To stray off topic just briefly, does any guy get less respect than Jon Fitch? I understand that his fighting style is excruciatingly boring, but winning is winning and Fitch does is consistently. From GSP to Jake Ellenberger to BJ Penn? Hell, at this rate he’ll be fighting on the UFC Youngstown card against Lenny “Hold My Beer” Kowalski. )
It’s a curious matchup for the UFC Brass and the Penn camp from my vantage point and one has to think there’s much more politics at play than simply welterweight matchmaking. BJ Penn is always just a given up back and rear naked choke away from licking victory blood but this one flat out bizarre.
BJ will obviously always be a draw. He’s polarizing, wildly popular with his fans, and talks a great game. He’s also produced some great and historic UFC moments. Love him or hate him, he’s him and that means big gate and PPV receipts for Zuffa.
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