B.J. Penn gick sin första professionella MMA-match 2001, och har lyckats med en hel del fantastiska bedrifter i UFC då han bland annat hållit i både lättviktsbältet och welterviktsbältet i organisationen. Enligt Penn är det dock en hel del som förändrats inom sporten under den senaste tiden, och detta hade han att säga via ”MMAFighting”:
Especially today, with all of the fans, there’s a new star created every week. One guy gets a knockout and you see his name all over the internet and you hear it everywhere. That’s not how it was. Before, you had to get like 10 knockouts to get some kind of credit, you know? There’s just a new guy created every different week. One guy, he wins one fight with a spinning kick and everybody loves him. That’s just the game, that’s what it is today.
It just blows me away, these guys. I guess it’s just a different era though. Different times. Some people want to get one-million followers today, and back in the day it was just, ‘oh, I want to be the toughest man on the planet.’ I think that the times changed. You’ve got to go with them, I guess.
That’s it, the guys today, they’re very good, man. You better be ready. The styles are changing. People are doing all these spin kicks and everybody has their own one special move that they’ve got. So, it is amazing, and I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘oh, it’s all because of me.’ No, no, no. You guys went and put in the work.
It’s different game though, I’ve got to say. I never studied martial arts until I was 17, and now you’ve got five-year-old kids already saying they want to be the UFC champion. So it is, it’s just a really different game than it used to be. And it’s fun for me to see.
B.J. kommer under natten att återigen kliva in i oktogonen, då han valt att återvända från pensionen för att ta sig an Yair Rodriguez under ”UFC: Fight Night 103”.
