Quote: The Sport Has Passed By BJ Penn, It’s Time To Retire
UFC Hall Of Famer BJ Penn made his return to fighting action last night (Sunday, January 15, 2016) when he took on No. 10-ranked featherweight Yair Rodriguez in the main event of UFC Phoenix, suffering a brutal second round knockout loss to ‘El Pantera’.
Rodriguez systematically picked apart ‘The Prodigy’ throughout the first six minutes of the contest, before landing a devastating hook that dropped the former lightweight and welterweight champ and eating a barrage of punches to end the night. Penn did not speak to any media following the loss, however, a few fellow fighters chimed in on the matter (via FOX Sports) during the FS1 post-fight show, stating that they believe it’s time for Penn to hang up the gloves.
Former UFC featherweight and lightweight title challenger Kenny Florian, who lost to Penn back in 2009 in their 155-pound title clash, believes the sport has finally caught up to ‘The Prodigy’ and doesn’t want to see Penn take another vicious beating like that again:
“Retire at this point. No one needs to see a legend like BJ Penn go out like that,” Florian said. “That was very hard to see, not to mention the last fight against Frankie Edgar was very hard to see. Now we’re it again with Yair Rodriguez. The sport has passed him by.
“This is an eventuality for every single fighter. It doesn’t matter, eventually, you don’t move the same way if you don’t keep up with the sport, you’re going to get beat down like this. This sport is way too hard. There’s other ways to make money and I hope BJ Penn finds some kind of peace in retiring finally.”
Previously Penn’s return was scheduled to take place against lesser-caliber competition, as he was at one point booked against Dennis Siver, followed by Cole Miller soon thereafter. Unfortunately neither of those bouts were able to hold up, eventually landing Penn standing across the Octagon from Rodriguez.
Current UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley isn’t too quick to tell Penn to walk away from the sport, but to perhaps ease back into things by picking his opponents more carefully:
“From the beginning this matchup was problematic,” Woodley said. “Maybe a Cole Miller or a matchup like that would have been a better interest fight back into the UFC.
“Coming in and fighting Yair Rodriguez, who has been on a complete tear might not have been the wisest choice by BJ Penn so I’m not going to completely say retire but he needs to consider his opponents in his next bout.”
Do you think Penn should fight again? If so, who should he throw-down with next?
