It appears BJ Penn is finally moving on from his loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 94, well, at least for now.
In a story that ran over the weekend in the Honolulu Advertiser, Penn confirmed that he’s shifting his attention away from GSP and the ensuing controversy to focus on defending his lightweight title against Kenny Florian sometime this summer.
“Of course, I was sad after that loss and a lot of things were going through my head,” he said. “But I woke up one day and said, ‘You know what? I’m still the lightweight champ. Let’s keep fighting.’ ”
Penn said his camp is currently negotiating with UFC officials for a lightweight title bout against No. 1 contender Kenny Florian of Boston.
“That will probably be this summer, so that’s my focus now,” Penn said.
While Penn may be spending the next few months preparing for Florian, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to forget about GSP, and a possible third rematch.
“After I defend my belt and he defends his belt, I’d love to do it again,” Penn said. “Mostly because of the controversy. I just want it to be clean — no questions, no controversy.”
Well, I can’t speak for anybody else, but I think the majority of fans, not to mention Kenny and Thiago, will be happy to hear that BJ isn’t going to continue to push for an immediate rematch with GSP.
If they both win, I think a third fight would be a much easier sell rather than putting both divisions on hold for even longer.
That said, I really have no desire whatsoever to see that fight again. So, here’s to hoping if there’s going to be another weight class jumping superfight happening in the UFC in the next year or so, it’s GSP vs. Anderson Silva, and not GSP vs. Penn 3.
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No interest in Penn at welterweight either. Good to see him focusing on lightweight. He’s too small for the GSP’s and Alves’.
I think both these men have to move on from this. The fight was one-sided enough that a third fight in the near future doesn’t make much sense. If the list of opponents for these men dry up in the future, however, I think there is enough interest from fans, the UFC, and the fighters themselves to book a third fight.
As soon as he started with the accusations towards Kenny I figured he had move on to that fight cuz he seems to feel a need to stir up some contraversy before his fights these days.
BJ will have to deal with Diego before getting another shot at GSP.