Penn draws incentive from loss
PHILADELPHIA — The last time BJ Penn competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he was battered and beaten for four full rounds by Georges St. Pierre before Penn’s corner mercifully called a halt to the carnage.
Penn continued to relive that Jan. 31 fight for months, but not merely because of the opportunity he squandered or the way he was manhandled.
Penn himself kept his UFC 94 defeat in the headlines by alleging St. Pierre had cheated and lobbying the Nevada Athletic Commission several times to investigate his claim.
As Penn prepares to fight in the main event of tonight’s UFC 101 card at the Wachovia Center, he said the events of the past several months have not sidetracked him. Quite the contrary.
“With all that stuff going on, that’s all just motivation,” he said. “I think if I would have just blown through that fight and there would have been no problems, there might have been a lack of motivation for this fight. As we stand here right now, there’s no lack of motivation.”
Penn’s brother J.D., also his manager, says it is not in BJ’s nature to dwell on what happened in January or in commission meeting rooms.
“All that energy he had afterward, even if it’s bad energy or frustration or whatever, he gets to focus it 100 percent on the fight,” J.D. Penn said. “He never uses anything like that to hinder him or hold him back. He just goes straight forward with it.”
Penn will defend the UFC lightweight title against Kenny Florian. Penn has been dominant in his career at 155 pounds, losing once at that weight, to Jens Pulver in 2002.
Penn’s loss to St. Pierre came at 170 pounds when he tried to move up to add the welterweight belt.
As he moves back to his natural weight, Penn has made changes to his training.
He moved his entire camp out of Hawaii to California to avoid the distractions that come with being one of the state’s most popular athletes.
It also moved Penn away from his 10-month old daughter, Aeva, for two months.
“The best thing for me is being away from my daughter because I’m too soft when I’m around her,” he said. “You just want to hug and kiss her. It softens you up.”
Penn’s parenting style differs somewhat from the new man in charge of his strength and conditioning. Penn has been working in California with Marv Marinovich, who famously ruled his quarterback son Todd’s workouts with an iron fist.
“He is just an awesome trainer. He is the best I’ve ever seen, and it’s good to have that kind of knowledge around,” Penn said. “He works your balance and your explosion and your speed and your power.
“I honestly believe people look at him and they think he is a joke. They think, look what he did to his son and all this stuff. If you’ve seen someone go as far as he did with his son, wouldn’t you want that guy on your side?”
Penn is not the only champion on the card, but the only one with a title on the line.
Middleweight champion Anderson Silva will move up to take on Forrest Griffin in the co-main event.
Silva has a nine-fight winning streak, the longest in UFC history, but this will be his first meeting with a true contender in the light heavyweight division.
Amir Sadollah finally will return to action.
The former “The Ultimate Fighter” winner had to pull out of his first two scheduled fights in the UFC and will be in action for the first time since winning Season 7 of the reality show in June 2008 in the only pro fight of his career.
He will take on two-time NCAA wrestling champion Johny Hendricks, who will be making his UFC debut.
Also, Ricardo Almeida will face Kendall Grove in a middleweight bout, and lightweights Josh Neer and Kurt Pellegrino will meet.
The pay-per-view broadcast (Cox 501) airs live at 7 p.m.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@ reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509.
