UFC
UFC NEWS: B.J. Penn taps old foe Matt Hughes in preparation for Jon Fitch at UFC 127
Feb 21, 2011 - 12:00:31 PM UFC NEWS: B.J. Penn taps old foe Matt Hughes in preparation for Jon Fitch at UFC 127

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

B.J. Penn returns to the cage this Saturday just three months after decimating longtime foe Matt Hughes at UFC 123 last November. Taking on Jon Fitch in the main event of UFC 127 in Australia, Penn is readying for an overwhelming wrestler in Fitch, and in prepping for this fight he called on the man he has faced in the cage on three separate occasions.

"I was talking to Matt [Hughes'] boxing trainer, Matt Pena back and forth, and he was kind of talking to me about Fitch and what he likes to do. I guess he's kind of just studied Fitch over the years," Penn said in a media conference call last week. "After a while, I said, ‘You know what? Why don't you give me Matt's number? I think it'd be a good idea to have Matt come down and train with me.'

"[So] he gave me Matt's number. I texted Matt a few times, and I didn’t know what kind of response I was going to get, but a few texts later, Matt ended up saying, 'You know what? I'm in. I'm going to go make sure, I'll fit you in my schedule.' He sent me down his name and his daughter's name, and they came down to train."

Hughes talked about the experience late last week on his personal site, and spoke kindly of Penn and his time in Hawaii.

"B.J. Penn had texted me a couple of weeks ago to see if I had some time to come out and train and get him ready for Fitch," Hughes wrote. "After that initial call I checked my schedule, said I could come and had him send me Fitch's last five fights. B.J. gave me first class accommodations all the way through."

"I think we got some good training in, I'd love to sit here and tell you what we worked on, but I just can’t. What I can tell you to do is go to BJPenn.com and there are several videos of us on there. I think most of them will have my little Hanna in there as well. It was a great experience for me, first off I got to train with B.J.; I think we would both say that we're a lot alike. And number two, I got to spend some quality time with my daughter."

For Penn, working with Hughes helped him gain confidence in his abilities at 170 lbs. After fighting Hughes three times over several years, he got to find out just where they stood in the gym when they worked together in Hawaii.

"I had a great time training with Matt. It really upped my confidence," Penn said. "When you fight someone, you really don't know how strong you really are against them. Me and Matt had great workouts, him trying to push me on the fence, him trying to take me down."

“I definitely think that was the best training partner I could've had for the fight. I know he isn't exactly like Fitch as far as height and boxing and kickboxing goes, but on the one area where Fitch definitely pushes all his opponents, his grinding them out and pushing them on the fence and taking them down, Matt really pushed me in those areas. So I gained a lot of confidence working out with Matt."

That confidence will be in play in Sydney, Australia on Sunday afternoon local time as the pay-per-view event beams back to the U.S. live on Saturday night, and Penn hopes to pick up his biggest win at welterweight since defeating Hughes in their first bout to capture the title in 2004.

Penick's Analysis: Penn and Hughes training together is a really cool end to their rivalry. They were both very respectful of each other heading into the third fight, and it was a completely different tone than either of their first two meetings. Now that the rubber match was stamped out in decisive fashion by Penn, the two of them have found a common ground and were able to work together for at least a short amount of time. And they both seemed to have a good time doing so; I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they worked together again at some point this year to help each other out for future fights as well.

[B.J. Penn art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]