At UFC on FOX 5, fight fans were treated to a long-awaited welterweight clash between BJ Penn and Rory MacDonald.
Back in June, “Ares” challenged Penn to fight at UFC 152 in September and the Hawaiian gladly accepted, cutting his retirement short.
The bout had to be rescheduled when MacDonald suffered a nasty cut over his eye during training, but the match up finally happened as planned on Saturday night.
Penn and his camp insisted this would be a vintage performance for the future UFC Hall of Famer, crushing the likes of Sean Sherk, Matt Hughes, Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian, among others, in his prime.
However, those expecting to see the best version of Penn were given a serious disappointment.
His younger, larger, better conditioned opponent battered him for 15 minutes, with Penn seldom able to land a combination throughout the fight. Arguably the most disappointing aspect of the fight was that “The Prodigy” simply covered up and tried not to get knocked down as he was punished with big shots from MacDonald.
As has become all too typical of Penn in recent memory, he seemed to have a gas tank for one round and that was it. He had absolutely nothing to offer after that, even when MacDonald showboated by dropping his hands and stutter stepping around the veteran as the fight wore on.
When Penn retired following a lop-sided decision loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 137 in October of last year, it seemed like the right move to make. Penn had not beaten a contender in ages and once he got tired, had no answers for his larger opponent.
Penn made a big mistake by accepting a fight with MacDonald, one of the sport’s hottest prospects who legitimately looked two weight classes bigger than Penn.
If Penn really wanted one last hurrah, he really should’ve made his return at lightweight. Given his two 2010 losses to Frankie Edgar though, it’s tough to envision him beating any of the division’s elite at 155-pounds now either.
The bottom line is Penn is 1-4-1 in his past six, with his sole victory coming over another aging veteran in Hughes.
Fighting Rory MacDonald was a big mistake but taking another fight after this would be an ever bigger one. Thanks for everything BJ, but Saturday proved it’s time to hang up the gloves for good.