Saturday night at UFC 94, B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre will compete in a bout that could set MMA's all-time PPV buy rate record. It will be the top lightweight in the world battling the top welterweight. Each man is highly motivated and at his best, with an aura of invincibility.
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| It's hard to imagine St. Pierre or Penn losing, but somebody has to. (UFC) |
St. Pierre has defeated most of the welterweight division's top fighters, with only two losses. One came early in his career against MMA legend Matt Hughes. St. Pierre said he was still intimidated by Hughes, but when had the opportunity years later, he avenged the loss twice in completely overwhelming fashion.
St. Pierre's only other loss came against Matt Serra, in a classic "trap" situation. St. Pierre was coming off his emotionally satisfying first victory over Hughes, and Serra was a relatively lightly regarded opponent. Serra shocked St. Pierre with a barrage of strikes and stopped the Canadian in the first round. St. Pierre rebounded from that fight with a pair of impressive wins and then gave Serra a brutal beating in their rematch.
With no unavenged losses, off-the-charts athleticism and a who's-who list of victories, there are many who view a fully motivated and concentrated St. Pierre as unstoppable. But at UFC 94 he will have to take on an opponent with a similar aura.
B.J. Penn was born to fight. While St. Pierre could have ventured into a number of sports, Penn was always fixated on combat. He began training for jiu jitsu in 1997, and by 2000 he was already a world champion. In fact, Penn was the first non-Brazilian to win the black belt division in the world jiu jitsu championships.
Given that background, it was a shock to many when Penn entered UFC and began dominating in the standup. Quick knockouts over Caol Uno and Din Thomas earned him the nickname of the Prodigy, and many believe him to have the best standup game in all of MMA.
Unlike St. Pierre, Penn does have a number of unavenged losses. But much like St. Pierre's losses are blown off as the product of a lack of focus, so too are Penn's. Penn himself acknowledges that because of his raw talent, he became complacent. He didn't train as hard as he should have, and he suffered losses as a result. But after a loss to Matt Hughes in September 2006, Penn rededicated himself.
"Matt Hughes hurt me," Penn says. "It motivated me to get serious about this thing. I wanted to be remembered as someone that did his best. I didn't want to be one of the guys that could have, would have, should have. I wanted to be remembered as a champion, someone who fought the best and beat the best."
With new dedication, Penn scored consecutive one-sided victories over Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk. Penn was able to dominate in the standup, dominate in the wrestling and dominate in the ground game. Penn looked at his absolute best, and UFC president Dana White gave Penn the opportunity to be the first fighter to hold two championships in two UFC weight classes at the same time.
The bout between St. Pierre and Penn is a rematch of a close split decision victory by St. Pierre in March 2006. Each man takes different points out of that fight, but they agree it has limited bearing in evaluating the rematch.
"The fight is done," Penn says. "I wasn't living my life like a champion, so what happened in that fight is done and in the past. I can't really take anything from that fight. I feel we're two totally different people. I improved my will to prepare and I feel that's more important than any techniques he has learned."
St. Pierre doesn't view the first fight as irrelevant but says he is much improved and is eager to give a more impressive performance.
