BJ Penn Interview
Hawaii Tribune Herald Tuesday September 19, 2006...
"It seems like everything just fell in place," Penn said. "Two months before I even got the phone call, I got over going out and having a good time. I started having fun training and it all just sort of fell into place. I was two months away from my next fight with this Japanese guy (Kuniyoshi) Hironaka when I heard that St. Pierre was hurt. A week later I got the phone call. It's unbelievable. As long as I give 100 percent that's all that matters, but I've just got a feeling that something good is going to happen."
Penn, who has a first-degree assault charge hanging over him for allegedly punching a uniformed, special-duty police officer in Waikiki after Rumble on the Rock 7 in May 2005, said he doesn't think about that since it's something he has no control over. No court date has been set. He also said that he has been training harder for this fight than he has in quite some time.
"I'm in phenomenal shape," he explained. "For my last couple of fights, I had just been doing long-distance slow running. It really doesn't pay off in the ring. You need to be able to explode for five minutes and you've got to keep being able to explode. I just keep changing my training around. But you know -- even if people consider me the true champion -- if I had gone into the ring in the shape I was in for the (St. Pierre) fight, I would have gotten a rude awakening. I learned what I learned from the last fight how the judges are going to score the fight and all the different stuff that's going on. But Hughes is fighting Superman now. This fight is for me. It would be good to bring the belt back to the islands so Hilo can have a world champion."
Penn has found himself on the short end of questionable decisions at least twice in UFC bouts. One time was a draw in his rematch against Japan's Caol Uno, a fighter that he had previously knocked out in 11 seconds. The other was in his last match with St. Pierre, when the judges gave the Canadian the nod in a close fight. He is hoping to submit or KO Hughes, to make scoring academic.
"With the beating I'm going to give (Hughes), even if he doesn't get (submitted or KO'd) I've learned my lesson," Penn said. "I know how the UFC is going to judge the fight. The last couple of fights I was fighting with a 25-pound weight on my back which was extra weight and the way I'd been training. Sometimes it was hard even to get out of the chair for the next round. I don't feel that anymore. I still feel fatigue, like everyone else, but I can still find that explosion and keep exploding. It's the will the win.
"Everybody knows what Hughes is going to try to do. He's going to try to put me on my back, push me into the fence and elbow me. Every fighter at this level, you know what he's going to do. The question is, 'Can you stop it and can you stop me from what I'm going to try to do to him?'"
"I give it to Hughes, without a doubt," he said. "Two-time world champion -- almost 10 title defenses. You can call him the greatest welterweight ever, even if I beat him again, unless I decide to stick around the welterweight division that long. But I'm thinking about going middleweight and lightweight, too, so we'll see what's going to happen. But even if I do fight at a heavier weight, I'm going to stay at this weight that I'm at right now, 167, 168. This is my fighting weight, unless I go down to 155. ... He's the bull; I'm the matador. I'm going to bring speed. I'm not going to go in there and try to match power with power.
"I'm not saying I'm going to win; but I am saying I'm ready."
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