BJ Penn Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

http://www.themmanews.com/?p=2068

BJ penn 3 months out from the GSP fight working out.

First off, BJ is weaker than most T-Men.
Secondly, how awful is his training program for MMA. If this is a legit workout, it has no clear goal. He’s not increasing strenght with his sets of what seem like 8-10, and work capacity is not going to be going way up either as opposed to doing sets of 20-50 or something.

Does BJ know something we T-Men don’t know? or is he just uninterested in getting better in the gym?

2

Friend of mine gave an excellent analysis:

3

Then I guess it’s better that he’s a world chapionship BJJ player and professional fighter, rather than a “T-Man” weightlifting competitor.

4

chest flies huh?

bj penn needs to get in contact with Chad Waterbury

5

Search for “GSP training” on youtube you get a lot of shit. Here’s a few:

Things seem very slotted in GSP’s favor imo. short analysis would be.

Size?

decidedly GSP

Speed?

GSP

Strength

Watch the vids, easily GSP.

Overall S&C?

No hesitation. GSP. He’s never had a problem with gassing. The one thing we don’t have to do is qualify any statement regarding him with “if he comes in shape”. He WILL. BJ on the other hand…

Wrestling?

GSP without a single doubt.

Ground Game/Subs?

GSP earned his black belt (real recently) and has been spending time in Brazil training with top black belts. I don’t expect him to be subbing BJ but I think he can more than handle himself. I am ok with giving this category to BJ though.

Striking?

debatable. I’d go with GSP as of late. He brings more tools to the table.

Focus/Guidance/Coaching?

GSP seems to have the decided advantage there with the fucking Yoda of MMA greg jackson in his corner. I mean look what he did with Rashad and Keith Jardine.

Competitive Schedule?

BJ lost to matt hughes (nothing to balk at, but hughes appears to be on the downhill slope), has fought a 5 years past his prime Jens pulver, and a mid-ranking level fighter in joe stevenson. He went toe to toe with a one dimension fighter that really had nothing for him except that he was maybe the better wrestler… but had just been suspended for months if i recall correctly.

GSP on the other hand beat matt hughes, lost to serra (lol), beat hughes AGAIN, beat koscheck (a top contender), avenged the serra loss (showed it was a fluke, imo), and had a WAR with jon fitch (who was on a 15 fight win streak against TOP competition).

I’d have to give that edge to GSP as well.

Imo it looks like all signs point to GSP. But I will say this. BJ Penn is kind of like Randy Couture. You don’t want to bet against him. He can pull off some amazing shit if he wants to.

6

bj wins

becuz hes part korean

7

Then there’s this:

Trainer says GSP has better MMAjiujitsu than BJ:

BJ is better at BJJ but this isn’t exactly the mundials

8

Well, I think we can all agree that what we’ve seen of BJ’s work with weights is pretty sad.

I’ll still give him a first round advantage. After that, GSP FTW.

9

Xen I think its interesting you think GSP has better striking, one of the few who I’ve heard. I think he may have better footwork but it seems like he has fallen in love with the ground game. I personally think BJ has heavier hands, he is not as diverse as GSP with all those fancy karate kicks and that slick superman punch, but in their first fight it just seemed like he was doing better standing, and he looked like he had solid boxing against Sherk. I will say GSP seems above him in just about everything. GSP FTW

10

Come on Xen you created categories that clearly favor GSP one could do the same with BJ.
Flexibility-BJ
Balance-BJ Randy Couture said he had a hard time taking BJ down
Dexterity- BJ
Drive- BJ initiated the fight I’ll say he wants it more
Mental side- BJ he’s always calm and smooth we have seen GSP fold mentally with the Serra fight
Oh and Bj is coming in shape he wants this fight bad GSP has better mmajiujitsu anyone who belives that is dreaming BJ is the PRODIGY for a reason

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For what it’s worth, I saw an interview where Matt Hughes said that he thought if BJ Penn came in shape, BJ would win. If not, then GSP would win.

12

That video was weird. His crew seems… interesting. I dunno, they look like hacks to me. I wasn’t really impressed to be honest. I’m gonna give it GSP. I was before watching this vid too, but now for sure.

13

[quote]danew wrote:
For what it’s worth, I saw an interview where Matt Hughes said that he thought if BJ Penn came in shape, BJ would win. If not, then GSP would win.[/quote]

Well then, judging purely from the above posted videos, things don’t look good for BJ. Unless he’s trying to pull some sort of “rope a dope” and releasing fake training videos to give GSP a false sense of security. But I doubt it.

14

[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
danew wrote:
For what it’s worth, I saw an interview where Matt Hughes said that he thought if BJ Penn came in shape, BJ would win. If not, then GSP would win.

Well then, judging purely from the above posted videos, things don’t look good for BJ. Unless he’s trying to pull some sort of “rope a dope” and releasing fake training videos to give GSP a false sense of security. But I doubt it.[/quote]

I talked to someone who trains some top mma fighters, and he said the stuff you see on tv is only the half of it. Think about all the UFC All Access shows. All the fighters pretty much did the same thing over and over again. So he could be half-assing it for the vid.

15

Last I checked, BJ Penn was doing fairly well for himself inside the Octagon. I’m really not concerned with what he’s doing outside the cage, just as long as he comes to the fight in good shape.

Hell, he’s better than most when he doesn’t train hard; now that he is (even if some say what he’s doing isn’t ideal for MMA) he’s been tearing through guys.

It’s going to be a hell of fight, and I don’t know who’s going to win. Yet.

16

who gives a shit if he is worse then most t-men at lifting weights,

he would RAPE all “t-men” in less then a minute in a fight, and last time i checked thats his proffesion, stop posting shit

17

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:
chest flies huh?

bj penn needs to get in contact with Chad Waterbury[/quote]

if this is a joke, it’s a funny one. if it’s not, well…I dont want to get banned

18

[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Last I checked, BJ Penn was doing fairly well for himself inside the Octagon. I’m really not concerned with what he’s doing outside the cage, just as long as he comes to the fight in good shape.

Hell, he’s better than most when he doesn’t train hard; now that he is (even if some say what he’s doing isn’t ideal for MMA) he’s been tearing through guys.

It’s going to be a hell of fight, and I don’t know who’s going to win. Yet.[/quote]

I don’t think anyone is arguing against Penn’s skills as a fighter or his natural gifts. Like someone said above, he’s nicknamed “The Prodigy” for a reason.

But you have to admit that his track record (especially at 170) is that he does quite well at the onset of the fight, but gases out and eventually loses the fight.

Considering that Penn already lost to GSP, because he gassed, and that was only a 3 round fight, you’d think that he would be placing a lot of emphasis on getting his conditioning up, not doing a BB’ing style workout 3 months out.

19

But me must all remember that BJ kept up with Sean Sherk who is one of the best conditioned fighters in the UFC

20

[quote]drewh wrote:
Come on Xen you created categories that clearly favor GSP one could do the same with BJ.
Flexibility-BJ
Balance-BJ Randy Couture said he had a hard time taking BJ down
Dexterity- BJ
Drive- BJ initiated the fight I’ll say he wants it more

Mental side- BJ he’s always calm and smooth we have seen GSP fold mentally with the Serra fight
Oh and Bj is coming in shape he wants this fight bad GSP has better mmajiujitsu anyone who belives that is dreaming BJ is the PRODIGY for a reason[/quote]

Except that mine are actually related to fighting and aren’t ambiguous. but fine we can still use them.

Flexibility

debatable. GSP is probably just as flexible as BJ penn we’ve seen no evidence to the contrary. Being flexible just isnt a huge part of his game though. Usually because he’s in top position. When was the last time you saw BJ throw a high kick?

Balance & Dexterity

GSP all the way. GSP is the natural athlete here, and balance/dexterity pretty much sum up what makes someone athletic. Aside from that, he has a much larger toolbox of skills to utilize than BJ. Not only does it “exist”, but he also utilizes it in nearly every fight. Superman jab, superman right cross, to right low kick? Fucking incredible.

Drive?

LOL! Chael Sonnen wants to fight Anderson Silva that doesn’t mean he has a snowballs chance in hell. I’d love to fight for the lightweight title, and I think I’d beat BJ’s fucking ass.

Say that right now. But there’s a difference between my self confidence talking and REALITY (Reality being that BJ would end my existence). If you’re at that level in the sport having a drive is a prerequisite. No one has ever doubted GSP’s hunger.

Mental Side?

Unfortunately I dont know where you got the idea that BJ is a smooth operator all of a sudden. Very few break under pressure like him. Watch the fights he loses, I hate to give an anaysis of something I really don’t know but he almost seems like after he gases that he just doesn’t give a fuck.

Almost bored. Thats conjecture though. I’ll just tell you this, if you don’t come into the fight in shape, that speaks volumes for your “mental” side and for your “drive”. BJ Penn has a history of not being the most prepared version of himself that he could be… and I already addressed the superiority of GSP’s training camp.

And yes GSP’s mma ground game seems to be on par (I wouldn’t go as far to say better, but on par) with BJ’s. IMO the mma ground game is divided into top players and bottom players. If you’re on the bottom you’re in an automatically defensive position, but there’s an assortment of guys that are so good from the bottom that they can flip the script and use it offensively.

BJ Penn is one of those guys. Being in his guard is damn near verbally submitting… Unless you’re a guy like GSP who can more than deal with that shit.

So lets just say

Striking, Ground Game, Physical condition, Mental integrity

Striking- I’d say GSP but to be fair lets say they’re even.

Ground Game- I think they’re even personally but if you gave it to BJ i wouldn’t balk at that result. like you said he’s the fucking prodigy.

physical condition- GSP i don’t even know why you’d argue that.

Mental integrity- GSP. Historically and from what we’ve seen of their training camps.

Again. GSP would come out on top.

But I’d be a fool to bet against BJ Penn. As I stated earlier, all signs point to GSP winning, but that’s just on paper. BJ is like Randy in that betting against him is foolish. He’s lowkey a super sayian or something, if he dug deep enough I don’t think there’s anyone at 155 or 170 that can beat him.

Living up to his potential you have to put him amongst the names Fedor, Anderson Silva & BJ Penn.