All-In Penn
Fighting always came easy for B.J.
Penn (Pictures). Training to fight was another
story.
The second man to capture UFC gold in two weight divisions -- Randy Couture (Pictures) was the first -- Penn admits he spent much of his career in an immature fog, content to do the bare minimum and rely almost entirely on natural ability. His perspective changed, however, on a September night in 2006, when he found himself pinned beneath the brutish Matt Hughes (Pictures) in a rematch for the UFC welterweight championship.
Finished for the first time in his career by a man he had already beaten, Penn reassessed his approach and took a deeper look into the direction he was headed.
"As time started to go by, I started asking myself, ‘What am I doing? Why am I at the bar four times a week?'" Penn says. "I focused on what I wanted. I wanted to be as good as I could possibly be."
Penn was reborn as a mixed martial artist, as he gradually melded his incomparable talents together with a renewed dedication to training and conditioning. He returned to the lightweight division to seek a championship that had eluded his grasp for the better part of a decade, determined to achieve the greatness pundits had always predicted for him.
"Before, I used to half-ass it," Penn says. "You train half-assed, you fight half-assed. I put so much into this thing now, and it shows in the ring. That's the difference in me now. I'm not doing this halfway."
Jens Pulver (Pictures) and Joe Stevenson can vouch for the rejuvenated Penn's claims. Both were submitted in systematic fashion by the Hawaiian, the latter for the vacant lightweight crown at UFC 80 in January. By the time Penn finished Stevenson, he was a bloody mess, his forehead opened like a sliced tomato by a first-round elbow strike. Stevenson ultimately succumbed to a rear-naked choke, and afterward, a vampirish Penn licked his fallen foe's blood off the back of both his gloves. This was the bloodthirsty B.J. Penn the rest of the MMA world had long feared.
"Blood gets all over you," he says. "Once you cross over, it's hard to get back."
Penn's latest challenger has done nothing to cool his renewed passion. He will defend his title against former champion Sean Sherk (Pictures) in the featured bout at UFC 84 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Sherk, who was stripped of the lightweight belt following a positive test for suspected steroid use last summer, doubts Penn (12-4-1) has changed his habits dramatically and publicly questions his drive to remain atop the 155-pound totem pole.
Penn scoffs at his assertion.
"All I have to say is don't confuse me not blood doping with lack of heart," he says. "He's taking money off my table and off the tables of people who do it the right way."
Never one to mince words, the outspoken Penn has bombarded Sherk with criticism and has used the chiseled Minnesotan's own pre-fight rhetoric as further motivation to maintain his grip on the lightweight division. A genuine dislike runs deep on both sides.
"Fighting is all I live for," Penn says. "I'm more of a fighter than an athlete. You take something so pure, and you want to pervert it [with steroids]? It gets to you after a while. I can't handle it. I don't want the title to go to someone who doesn't deserve it. He took steroids. He's colored by that."
Despite the hostile banter between them, Penn sees a formidable rival in Sherk, a 5-foot-6 dynamo with a kingly physique who has put together a pair of double-digit winning streaks in his career.
"Sean's good everywhere," Penn says. "He's got some good takedowns, and he's going to be in good shape. I'm doing everything but steroids for this fight. This is the Super Bowl of martial arts; it's go hard, or go home. If you're not here to give it all you got, then what the f--k are you doing here?"
Sherk's motor runs constantly in combat, as evidenced by his back-to-back five-round decision wins against Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts Kenny Florian (Pictures) and Hermes Franca (Pictures). While Penn considers himself fit to go the distance with one of the sport's most finely conditioned athletes, he concedes the thought of finishing Sherk quickly revs his engine.
"I'm not looking forward to this going to the later rounds, not because I don't think I can win in the later rounds but because the fans want to see a fight; they want to see somebody go down," Penn says. "I want to go out there, put a great combination together and maybe hurt him, or get a nice takedown, mount him and put him away."
In the prime of what has already been a brilliant career, Penn hears those who doubt he has the wherewithal to handle Sherk in a match that requires the full 25 minutes. Such criticisms have nipped at his heels for years.
"All I can do is get into the best shape that I can," Penn says. "Different people can have their opinions. I did everything I could do. Maybe this will be the fight that they finally turn around and say, ‘Look, B.J. finally got himself in shape.'"
The 29-year-old Penn's lofty goals are well-chronicled and include a return to the welterweight division for a rematch with champion Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), a man who eked out a split decision against him at UFC 58 two years ago. That said, he understands a loss to Sherk could thwart those plans.
"Right now, I'm only thinking about Sean Sherk," Penn says. "I can't envision any way that I lose this fight. If I go out and do what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to win."
The second man to capture UFC gold in two weight divisions -- Randy Couture (Pictures) was the first -- Penn admits he spent much of his career in an immature fog, content to do the bare minimum and rely almost entirely on natural ability. His perspective changed, however, on a September night in 2006, when he found himself pinned beneath the brutish Matt Hughes (Pictures) in a rematch for the UFC welterweight championship.
Finished for the first time in his career by a man he had already beaten, Penn reassessed his approach and took a deeper look into the direction he was headed.
"As time started to go by, I started asking myself, ‘What am I doing? Why am I at the bar four times a week?'" Penn says. "I focused on what I wanted. I wanted to be as good as I could possibly be."
Penn was reborn as a mixed martial artist, as he gradually melded his incomparable talents together with a renewed dedication to training and conditioning. He returned to the lightweight division to seek a championship that had eluded his grasp for the better part of a decade, determined to achieve the greatness pundits had always predicted for him.
"Before, I used to half-ass it," Penn says. "You train half-assed, you fight half-assed. I put so much into this thing now, and it shows in the ring. That's the difference in me now. I'm not doing this halfway."
Jens Pulver (Pictures) and Joe Stevenson can vouch for the rejuvenated Penn's claims. Both were submitted in systematic fashion by the Hawaiian, the latter for the vacant lightweight crown at UFC 80 in January. By the time Penn finished Stevenson, he was a bloody mess, his forehead opened like a sliced tomato by a first-round elbow strike. Stevenson ultimately succumbed to a rear-naked choke, and afterward, a vampirish Penn licked his fallen foe's blood off the back of both his gloves. This was the bloodthirsty B.J. Penn the rest of the MMA world had long feared.
"Blood gets all over you," he says. "Once you cross over, it's hard to get back."
Penn's latest challenger has done nothing to cool his renewed passion. He will defend his title against former champion Sean Sherk (Pictures) in the featured bout at UFC 84 on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Sherk, who was stripped of the lightweight belt following a positive test for suspected steroid use last summer, doubts Penn (12-4-1) has changed his habits dramatically and publicly questions his drive to remain atop the 155-pound totem pole.
Penn scoffs at his assertion.
"All I have to say is don't confuse me not blood doping with lack of heart," he says. "He's taking money off my table and off the tables of people who do it the right way."
Never one to mince words, the outspoken Penn has bombarded Sherk with criticism and has used the chiseled Minnesotan's own pre-fight rhetoric as further motivation to maintain his grip on the lightweight division. A genuine dislike runs deep on both sides.
"Fighting is all I live for," Penn says. "I'm more of a fighter than an athlete. You take something so pure, and you want to pervert it [with steroids]? It gets to you after a while. I can't handle it. I don't want the title to go to someone who doesn't deserve it. He took steroids. He's colored by that."
Despite the hostile banter between them, Penn sees a formidable rival in Sherk, a 5-foot-6 dynamo with a kingly physique who has put together a pair of double-digit winning streaks in his career.
"Sean's good everywhere," Penn says. "He's got some good takedowns, and he's going to be in good shape. I'm doing everything but steroids for this fight. This is the Super Bowl of martial arts; it's go hard, or go home. If you're not here to give it all you got, then what the f--k are you doing here?"
Sherk's motor runs constantly in combat, as evidenced by his back-to-back five-round decision wins against Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts Kenny Florian (Pictures) and Hermes Franca (Pictures). While Penn considers himself fit to go the distance with one of the sport's most finely conditioned athletes, he concedes the thought of finishing Sherk quickly revs his engine.
"I'm not looking forward to this going to the later rounds, not because I don't think I can win in the later rounds but because the fans want to see a fight; they want to see somebody go down," Penn says. "I want to go out there, put a great combination together and maybe hurt him, or get a nice takedown, mount him and put him away."
In the prime of what has already been a brilliant career, Penn hears those who doubt he has the wherewithal to handle Sherk in a match that requires the full 25 minutes. Such criticisms have nipped at his heels for years.
"All I can do is get into the best shape that I can," Penn says. "Different people can have their opinions. I did everything I could do. Maybe this will be the fight that they finally turn around and say, ‘Look, B.J. finally got himself in shape.'"
The 29-year-old Penn's lofty goals are well-chronicled and include a return to the welterweight division for a rematch with champion Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), a man who eked out a split decision against him at UFC 58 two years ago. That said, he understands a loss to Sherk could thwart those plans.
"Right now, I'm only thinking about Sean Sherk," Penn says. "I can't envision any way that I lose this fight. If I go out and do what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to win."
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