Hunting the Shark: BJ Penn’s Quest for the Undisputed UFC Title

My fighter profiles have been getting a lot of positive feedback from people, so I appreciate it, and I’ll continue to put them together, but I felt like this series on BJ Penn and Sean Sherk (and, yes, Sherk’s will be out shortly) is one that has to be done, because no two fighters have really danced around each other for so long while remaining so close in level of competition.

There was a time when BJ Penn was considered the most dangerous fighter in the world, pound-for-pound the most frustrating man that you could have standing across the cage.

Even before BJ came into MMA, his skills as a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner were well documented. He was a prodigy in jiu-jitsu and he didn’t come across the name by accident. Penn is a world class submission fighter, and has one of the most incredible, innate abilities for learning the martial arts. Fighters as legendary as Frank Shamrock, who coached him when Penn first turned to MMA, have always been impressed with his ability to learn techniques and put them into practice.

While Penn is really most noted for his jiu-jitsu, his striking skills are also impressive, and he has displayed them most effectively when fighting at 155. When he initially began fighting at 155 pounds, he knocked out his first three opponents: Joey Gilbert, Din Thomas and Caol Uno.

There’s a serious chance Penn will fight Sherk off of his back, as Sherk has been known to ground and pound and hasn’t been afraid to take down any of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts he’s fought recently (and both of the competitors who challenged him for his belt have been blackbelts). Still, there is a serious difference in competition between a blackbelt and a world champion blackbelt.

Penn has a level of jiu-jitsu that Sherk has not had to deal with, and has fought off of his back against bigger, powerful ground and pound fighters before, including in both of his fights with former Welterweight champion Matt Hughes. While Penn dropped the second fight with Hughes when he broke a rib and was eventually TKO’d in the third, he dominated the fight off of his back previous to that point and his quick submissions and flexibility make it hard to stay aggressive.

If Sherk chooses to take the fight to the ground, there’s a good chance that we will see the world class wizard at work, and if Sherk forces him to stay standing, we will see one of the most aggressive strikers in the lighter divisions.

Wherever BJ goes, it will be somewhere he is comfortable. He has power in every position and he can do damage from anywhere, and there’s a serious chance that the Prodigy will bring the undisputed title back to Hilo.