Just saw that Penn vs. Hughes III was announced on Sherdog for 123. Hughes has been looking better lately, and Penn a little slower. A year ago I think most would have Penn winning this, but some pretty significant things have happened since then.
I don’t know if I would say Hughes looks better. He looked decent against Serra, and outright bad against Renzo (though I admit, ultimate kickboxing isn’t either’s strong suit). Penn I’m undecided on, but I’m leaning towards him looking slower because of Frankie’s style more-so than physical depreciation.
I don’t think this fight will go any differently from the second, other than Penn winning. Hughes never had the size or strength to overwhelm BJ, nor the ability to get him down. On the feet, it’ll be usual; gifted striker vs stiff puncher. On the ground, unless Hughes had an epiphany in his ground game recently, specifically guard passing, he’s not getting past Penn’s butterfly hooks and will likely have triangles and armbars thrown at him.
I think that Hughes is past his prime. I also think that the division has passed him by.
On the other hand I think that Penn just needs to get out of hawaii and go train with a camp that’ll lite a fire under his ass and he’ll be back to his winning ways.
If Penn can get motivated for this fight and trains for it seriously (and can get some guys in his corner who won’t keep telling him to continue doing what is losing the fight for him) then I think he’s got a good chance of beating Hughes. If he doesn’t I think that Hughes might still have enough in the tank to grind out a victory against an unmovitated Penn.
I don’t know much about MMA, but I watched that last Penn fight, and the man looked old and slow. Looks like his legs are going.
Just my 2 cents.
Yeah it’s really weird, just his conditioning woes coming back to haunt him. BJ is my favorite fighter and he needs to change camps or get some fresh blood in there. He’s corners game plan was basically kick his ass BJ. If BJ wanted to he could have grapple fucked Edgar but he waited way too long to go for takedowns. And leg kicks were landing but he waited to damn long to use them.
And conditioning when he fought Sherk he was fast and crisp and his workout was running with some strongman style stuff. He looks like he’s overdoing the explosive stuff. But oh well people keep telling him this shit hopefully he listens.
I could see a standup match between the two: Penn , who’s so inclined to show how great his boxing is- and Hughes, who doesn’t intend to go to the ground with BJ, and wants to show how much HIS kickboxing has improved. Sigh.
Also: isn’t it a bit early to start a thread about UFC 123?
In any case, Machida, of course.
If Hughes doesn’t lean on the cage and rough BJ up, he’s fucked, and I hope he recognises this. Some people in MMA just can’t strike well, and he’s one of them.
I agree with all who said that Hughes is a poor striker. But, he’s always been a poor striker. He was a poor striker the last time he beat Penn. In fact, he was a worse striker the last time he beat Penn. Anyway, it isn’t up to Hughes. It will be Penn who decides how this fight goes. He has two major weak points:
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He has a very poor training camp. His handlers are border line retards.
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When he has to get his lazy butt to 155lbs. He HAS to train. When he can fight at the higher weight class he usually gets lazy knowing he doesn’t have to suck as much weight.
Hughes pounded him in their last fight and unless Penn changes camps, or at least comes in with really good cardio he will take another beating. If he’s in shape I’d pick him over Hughes. But as I said Penn seems only to be in shape (in most cases) when he’s at 155.
penn had a rib injury the last fight
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
penn had a rib injury the last fight[/quote]
I think we’ve been over this one before. If Hughes gave him the rib injury during the fight, that means Hughes was effective as Penn could not stop it. If Penn claims he had the rib injury from training, well he also said GSP was greased.
Personally, two of my favorite recent fights were Edgar/Penn. Is anyone else as sick of Penn’s nonsense as I am? Yes, he’s great at BJJ, and a really good striker, I get it. But he’s not as good at telling the truth, or sometimes owning up to losses. I hope the two losses to Edgar have matured him, because something needed to. Personally I hope Hughes crushes him, but as I’ve stated that will be up to Penn.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
[quote]sardines12 wrote:
penn had a rib injury the last fight[/quote]
I think we’ve been over this one before. If Hughes gave him the rib injury during the fight, that means Hughes was effective as Penn could not stop it. If Penn claims he had the rib injury from training, well he also said GSP was greased.
Personally, two of my favorite recent fights were Edgar/Penn. Is anyone else as sick of Penn’s nonsense as I am? Yes, he’s great at BJJ, and a really good striker, I get it. But he’s not as good at telling the truth, or sometimes owning up to losses. I hope the two losses to Edgar have matured him, because something needed to. Personally I hope Hughes crushes him, but as I’ve stated that will be up to Penn.[/quote]
I think hes a cocky sob… cant stand penns attitude