A new video has emerged from BJ Penn’s camp showing the former lightweight and welterweight champion looking in excellent physical condition just two weeks out from his ‘UFC On FOX 5’ clash with Rory MacDonald.
Penn has previously acknowledged that the fact that this bout was moved back from September to November has turned out to be a positive for him as it’s given him a longer training camp to get in shape for the fight, and it certainly shows.
In the video, which notes he’s currently at 175lbs, he looks more muscular than we’ve seen him in the past, and at the same time doesn’t have the excess weight around his midsection that he sometimes carries.
So, based on physicality alone I’d say this is the best we’ve seen him at 170lbs, however looks can be deceiving.
Conditioning has always been a problem for Penn, particularly at welterweight since it’s really a step above his ideal weight class, and that’s shown in his last couple of fights with Nick Diaz and Jon Fitch – starting strongly, but then fading in the later rounds.
Since then he’s been on hiatus and at one stage it looked like he may even have hung up his gloves for good. He’s since changed his mind, but taking over a year out, regardless of the shape he’s in now, isn’t a great idea when you then look to get straight back into the cage with a future star of the division like MacDonald who’s in tremendous condition all-year round.
It’s good to see that Penn is taking this fight seriously though, and there’s a certain magic about him that means that on his day he’s still capable of beating anybody, so this is going to be an exciting fight to watch on December 8th.
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