The collective MMA conscious should feel bad about its self after last night’s BJ Penn fight. It wasn’t so much of a fight but more of a ritual or rite of passage where the oldest animal in the pack is sacrificed to the youngest alpha male. At UFC Phoenix, Mexican striker Yair Rodriguez was the powerful dog who beat the shit out of a slower, weaker, slower, older, slower, passive and much slower BJ Penn.
In this metaphor the head of the tribe, arranging pieces on his chessboard is UFC President Dana White.
Way back in July 2014, after a 35 year old Penn had lost three straight in the UFC, two in embarrassing fashion, White made a declarative statement at the post-fight press conference. These words from a money hungry, always pushing his product fight promoter may or may not come back to haunt Dana White sometime in the not too distant future.
Roll the tape.
And he quotes “What more do you want BJ? There’s nothing left to prove. Fighting is a young man’s sport. Guess what? Matt Hughes could still fight in the UFC, so could Chuck Liddell and so could Forrest Griffin. I don’t want to make one dollar of that kind of money.”
………so about last night and a 38 year old BJ Penn getting booked in the main event versus 24 year old Yair Rodriguez? Welp, anyway. Excuse us as we get ready for Fedor Emelianenko’s and Anderson Silva’s next scheduled fights both happening in February, in 2017, for our collective enjoyment.
