B.J. Penn has had a lustrous career and will always go down as one of the best UFC/MMA fighters of all time. I think we all agree he should retire or even have retired after the Hughes III fight. If anything, he should have just stayed at lightweight where he looks to return at the moment.
Penn just doesn’t belong at welterweight and some believe he could make another run at the title if he drops down. I really don’t think that is the case and don’t understand why he still needs a fight at this point. I will always admire Penn. But if the UFC let’s him fight again, there are only a few guys that makes sense for him right now.
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Evan Dunham and Khabib Nurmagomedov have made their case’s to challenge Penn, but those fights make no sense for the Hawaiian. I don’t see him putting his retirement on hold just for “another” fight.
Penn has somebody in mind to fight in my opinion, I’m just not sure who that would be. Frankie Edgar would be a good one if he wasn’t at featherweight now. I don’t think there is anyone that would deny a fight with Penn, but I think he will chose a opponent that best suits him.
~ Nate Diaz ~
As much as I would love to see this fight, it won’t happen. Penn wasn’t happy when he had to fight Nick Diaz, so I don’t see him stepping in there with the younger half.
Diaz is coming off a huge knock out loss to Josh Thomson and a he needs a win in his next fight. If the UFC wants Penn to move forward with a win, this fight makes perfect sense, but I really don’t see it ever happening.
~ Gilbert Melendez ~
This is a fight many fans wanted to see when Penn was running the UFC’s lightweight division and Gilbert was running the lightweight division in the Strikeforce organization. At one point both were considered the best lightweights that have never fought each other.
Since then, Penn has lost his title and Gilbert loss his title chance against Benson Henderson. Gilbert needs to get back to his winning ways and the UFC wants Penn to hang it up.
If that is really the case, then this fight makes the most sense right now. In Penn’s prime he would have given Melendez a great fight, but that fight has hit it’s expiration date. If the UFC wants Penn to get ran through, this fight makes sense, but Penn isn’t that dumb in my opinion.
~ Takanori Gomi ~
Give Takanori Gomi the rematch he has been waiting for. Gomi and Penn fought earlier in both of their careers in an awesome fight where Penn ended up choking out the “Fireball Kid” in the third round in a back and forth battle.
Penn isn’t going to make another run at the belt, so there is no point in giving him a Gilbert Melendez or a Gray Maynard when there is a guy in Gomi that fits the bill perfectly for the Hawaiian.
Both guys are at the end of their careers, Penn wants another fight where he has a chance in winning and the UFC doesn’t want him to go out on a loss if he returns. Well then, there is no better match-up than Gomi as far as I’m concerned.
~ Final Thought ~
B.J. Penn has nothing else to prove to the MMA world, to his fans, or even himself. He obviously just can’t shake out the fight inside him and I don’t blame him.
He has been fighting since such a young age and doesn’t know anything else. Penn should obviously retire, but if he won’t, then he needs challenging fights where he at least has a chance at winning. I love that if he returns that he will return as a lightweight, but as far as another title run, that ship has sailed. The UFC’s lightweight division is the most stacked division in the UFC and Penn can’t compete with the high level of competition in that division now a days.