BJ Penn Was Certainly Not Motivated Last Night
OH. MY. GOODNESS.@panteraufc demolishes BJ Penn to claim #UFCPhoenix!https://t.co/3wilhSIS36
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) January 16, 2017
Yep. That’s about right. BJ Penn stepping back into the octagon 2 years after he retired and 6 years after his last win to face Yair Rodriguez was a bad idea from the moment it was announced.
On the bright side, I think a good amount of casual fans tuned in after the football game to see BJ, who they may have fond memories of, and watched Yair Rodriguez kill him. Now Yair’s on the radar of people who wouldn’t have seen him otherwise, and he deserves to be. I think it’s safe to call him the #1 featherweight prospect in the world. The speed at which he throws kicks and combos is absurd. The cardio he displayed in the fight with Alex Caceres showed me he can go 5 rounds with anyone in the company, and he may need to with all the main events he’ll be given.
My boy Joe Lauzon didn’t have the best night, but it turned out OK in the end (for my parlay). It seemed pretty clear to me that he lost his fight decisively, but the judges fucked it all up and gave him the victory. I didn’t hate it, but Lauzon did. He took to the microphone after his fight to talk about how he lost and the judges got it wrong.
Hey, look on the bright side. Joe got fucked on a split decision with Jim Miller in August, so karma came back around for him. ¯\_(?)_/¯
Seriously, Joe showed why he’s the biggest class act in MMA with that interview. The easy take here is “Accept the win and shut up about it!” but I think it’s totally honorable what he did. Marcin Held is now 0-2 in the UFC and as a young, new, fighter, that could be grounds to get cut, and Joe is so respected he may have prevented that.
Some other highlights included this RIDICULOUS knockout* from Walt Harris:
Right hook + Knee + Straight left = FINISH HIM!!! @TheBigTicket205 w/ a HUGE KO!!! What a start to #UFCPhoenix pic.twitter.com/GtW5RiGw1A
— #UFCPhoenix (@ufc) January 16, 2017
*At the time of this writing, I’m not sure whether Sherman is dead or alive
As well as the first ever Ezekiel choke finish (while his opponent was in full mount, what??? How do you fuck that up, dude?):
He’s not Alexey “The Boa Constrictor” Oleynik for nothin’!
What a submission!!#UFCPhoenixhttps://t.co/gVkOl1jhSY
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) January 16, 2017
And finally, the commentary team of Pardon My Take recurring guest Jon Anik and UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier. They were fantastic all night, and DC is the perfect fighter to provide some legit insight. We’ll be hearing more of them soon, because UFC 208 will have a three man booth with Joe Rogan thrown in.
Finally, I’d like to issue an apology to those who doubted me to the point they countered all of my picks last night, sucks that you went 0-4. If you paid attention to my “0-3″ blog last time, you’d know I went 5-4, but I’ll take that 0-3 loss. I’m not gonna win ‘em all.