This week the UFC will see the return of a hall of famer. BJ Penn will make his return at UFC Fight Night 103 on FS1. BJ is my personal favorite fighter of all time and although his last couple fights have seen a seemingly diminished fighter I am holding out hope to see the "Prodigy" get himself a win on Sunday.
BJ has had an amazing career and to try and hit on it all would keep us here all day so let's just cover the highlights I think you need to know.
- He is one of only 3 fighters to hold a belt in 2 weight classes (Randy Couture and Conor McGregor are the other 2).
- Penn has also fought in 5 different weight divisions and had an undefeated streak at lightweight for 9 fights which happened over 8 years.
- He became known as the "Prodigy" after getting his black belt in around 3 years and was the first non-Brazilian to with the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
- Multiple fighter awards including being the inaugural inductee of the Modern-Era wing of the UFC hall of fame.
He has taken the Hilo idea of "Just Scrap" and defined it. The guy has fought way out of his natural weight class and taken fights out of the UFC as he was a champ just to keep going. I would recommend his book "Why I Fight" to hear a lot more in depth details of his career from the man himself. Fight wise I suggest checking out BJ vs Sean Sherk at UFC 84 and BJ vs Matt Hughes at UFC 46. The fight against Sherk was to really show who was the true champion of the Lightweight division and Penn used his stand up to show how dominant he truly is. Against Hughes BJ won the Welterweight strap in a first round submission of one of the best at the time. This Sunday will be a hell of a test for a guy who hasn't fought since his loss to Frankie Edgar on July 6th 2014. Yair Rodriguez is an animal and after watching his last bout he showed a lot of variety and some amazing kicks. No matter what happens I will always consider BJ to be the GOAT and hopefully he comes into this fight to prove something to himself because nothing seems to motivate BJ like BJ. Watch all the action on FS1 this Sunday starting at 10 PM Eastern time.