B.J. Penn looks to write history again at UFC 137

Throughout his storied MMA career, B.J. Penn has frequently found himself at the center of controversy. From his departure from the UFC while still holding the UFC welterweight title to his heated words with Jens Pulver and Sean Sherk to the controversy surrounding his second bout with Georges St. Pierre, Penn has not shied away from the public limelight. Heading into UFC 137, Penn again finds himself in the middle of controversy. But this time it has absolutely nothing to do with him.

UFC 137 was originally scheduled to be headlined by a UFC welterweight title bout between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz. But after Diaz no-showed a pair of press conferences promoting the bout, UFC president Dana White called off the bout. Penn was scheduled to fight Carlos Condit in the semi-main event of the show, but Condit was moved up to face St. Pierre for the title. White then decided to give Diaz another chance by putting him in the semi-main event with Penn. Penn had a new fight against a man he had trained with in the past and had now become a lightning rod for controversy.

As if that wasn’t enough, Georges St. Pierre then had to pull out of his main event contest due to injury. Diaz would end up headlining UFC 137 this Saturday night after all, only against Penn rather than St. Pierre. Penn takes the events in stride and doesn’t seem to know what to make of the situation.

“I don’t let it bother me,” Penn said. “Such is life. I’m definitely feeling positive about being in the main event. Some things happen for a reason. What Nick does in a press conference doesn’t affect my life. I get a kick out of watching what Diaz does. But I do understand that Dana doesn’t want other fighters thinking they can do that and needs to set a precedent.”

Diaz vs. Penn has all the makings of an action packed fight between two fighters that have followed similar career trajectories. Both men started in MMA with jiu jitsu training and developed reputations for excellent submissions before slowly gravitating towards striking. Now their submissions almost serve as a backup plan to their lethal striking ability. Diaz’s heavy volume punching and reach is extremely difficult to deal with, while the smaller Penn’s striking has been labeled the best in MMA by no less an authority than Freddie Roach.