Ronda Rousey visited the Medes Brothers’ gym last weekend, where she sparred with Jiu-Jitsu prodigy B.J. Penn. Before Penn suffered through his late career, winning just one of his last seven fights, he was regarded as a ground-fighting phenom with sometimes seemingly impenetrable takedown defense. But in this clip, Ronda Rousey ties him up standing, and then sweeps him, maintaining top position for a bit. It is a shocking few seconds to be sure.
The clip, which ends while the two are still grip fighting, nonetheless contains footage of Rousey sweeping B.J. Penn and stopping an instant reversal, as I mentioned earlier. B.J. even had to resort to fancy half-guard defense work, the sort that looks a little desperate, like an easy roll has just gone dreadfully wrong, playtime is over, and a legend’s dignity is hanging by the thin thread of his own frayed black belt, strung over the burning eye of a camera-phone lens.
Yes, the exchange lasted about two minutes, and there is no telling if B.J. was rolling around like a kindly old lion with a newborn kitten, but the sweep happened notwithstanding.
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