DAMN! They Have been Good celebrates the careers of essentially the most thrilling and influential fighters in MMA historical past, and on this episode, the MMA Preventing crew remembers the perfect of former UFC light-weight and welterweight champion, B.J. Penn.
As the primary non-Brazilian to ever win gold on the BJJ World Championships, Penn entered the UFC in 2001 with an immense quantity of hype — and over his 18-year profession, the person named “The Prodigy” greater than lived as much as his moniker.
Arguably the perfect light-weight on this planet on the time, simply three years into his MMA profession, Penn did the unthinkable, leaping up a weight class and submitting the highest pound-for-pound fighter within the sport, Matt Hughes, to say his first UFC title. After that historic win, Penn bounced round, chasing ever better feats, like destroying lineal light-weight champion Duane Ludwig after which dealing with off with future mild heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, dropping a aggressive resolution.
In 2008, Penn lastly determined to cease chasing his fights of fancy and put his head right down to stake out a legacy at light-weight, claiming the title with a win over Joe Stevenson to develop into the second fighter in historical past to win titles in two weight lessons contained in the UFC, and nonetheless the one man to win the light-weight and welterweight belts.
For almost a decade, Penn chased greatness anyplace he might in a approach that few ever have. That daring made him beloved to followers and revered amongst his fellow fighters. Even to this present day, all time greats like Anderson Silva have known as him the best fighter ever, and so for this version of DAMN, host Jed Meshew is joined by MMAFighting’s Shaheen Al-Shatti and Eric Jackman to recollect their favourite moments from “The Prodigy.”
New episodes of the DAMN! They Have been Good podcast come out month-to-month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever else you discover your favourite podcasts. This week’s episode might be heard beneath.
