Amadi's Take
AMADI: The myth of "motivation" throughout B.J. Penn's career
Nov 23, 2010 - 4:59:35 PM AMADI: The myth of "motivation" throughout B.J. Penn's career

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

B.J. Penn’s 21 second assassination of Matt Hughes at UFC 123 was certainly an impressive sight to behold. Personally, I was shocked not only by the knockout, but by the fact that those of us watching the broadcast on television had escaped a B.J. Penn fight without hearing about his motivation. Unfortunately, UFC commentator Joe Rogan simply decided to save that little delight for the post-fight wrap up where he proclaimed “B.J. Penn is all about motivation.” I'd always found discussion of B.J. Penn's motivation upsetting on a couple of levels, until I realized that this is to be expected following every Penn victory. Evidently, "motivation" in the case of "The Prodigy" is simply code for him having clear stylistic advantages over his opponent.

First and foremost, this narrative in which B.J. Penn's emotions are ruled by the moon and the tide is irresponsible storytelling. It's easy to come to the conclusion that when someone succeeds that they're a world-beater and that when they come up short, they're simply unmotivated. The problem is that no one ever digs deeper into why Penn is able to perform in such a vicious and aggressive manner against fighters like Diego Sanchez and Matt Hughes, but seemingly wilts under the type of attack that fighters like Georges St. Pierre and Frank Edgar offer.

B.J. Penn's inconsistent performances all come down to style matchups. B.J. Penn possesses a slick boxing game, excellent takedown defense, and a world class Brazilian jiu-jitsu game. However, this doesn't mean that there aren’t fighters capable of out striking him, putting him on his back, and out grappling him. Against progressing, but still undeveloped strikers like Matt Hughes and Diego Sanchez, Penn was able to land hard power shots that landed flush and hurt his opponents early. However, against Edgar and St. Pierre, both fighters were nowhere to be found when those punches were thrown. They were able to land shots of their own, score takedowns, frustrate B.J., and soundly defeat him.

The idea that B.J. Penn is the only fighter in all of MMA who lives and breathes on a type of "motivation" that he can only hold for one or two fights at a time is more than a tad insulting to his opponents, and to B.J. Penn himself. Penn simply doesn't need the plethora of excuses that are invariably made for him after a tough loss. He is one of the rare fighters in combat sports that truly dare to be great. He has traversed four shark infested weight classes in search of the very best competition in the world, and captured two world titles along the way. The fact that he comes up short on occasion isn't anything to be ashamed of, and in reality, is just further evidence that Penn constantly tests himself against the absolute best fighters in the world.

What good does Penn's legacy of challenging the greatest of his era serve if whenever he comes up short, the focus turns to motivation rather than technique? Perhaps this line of thinking had more weight when it was common to see Penn gas out by the third round, but the idea simply doesn't hold if Penn is able to keep up cardio-wise, but still comes up short. However, it's probably much more exciting for people to discuss random spurts of motivation and pre-fight twitches than it is to come to grips with the fact that when an opponent is dynamic enough to strike with him, take him down, and fatigue him with top control, B.J. Penn becomes beatable just like everyone else.