UFC Fight Night 112: BJ Penn drops his 5th straight

On a weekend where we saw Wanderlei Silva and Fedor Emelianenko get beaten, old school MMA fans were hoping for UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn (16-12-2) to give them something to cheer about on a Sunday night in Oklahoma City. 

‘The Prodigy’ and always dangerous German kickboxer Denis Siver (23-11) played curtain jerker for the main card portion of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 112 card with both fighters looking to get back into the win column. For BJ, it would’ve been the first time in almost 7 years, for Siver it turned out to be the first in just under 3. 

Penn was able to drop Siver in the middle stanza with a left jab, right uppercut combo, but it wouldn’t be enough to stave off the unrelenting offense of Siver. Siver was able to use every tool in his arsenal to keep Penn at bay en route to a 28-28, 29-28, 29-27 majority decision victory. It would be the accumulation of kicks to Penn’s lead leg that would lead to the demise of the former 2-division champion on this night. He merely fought to survive in the final round before the scorecards were read in favor of Siver.

With a record of 0-5-1 since his last victory in 2010, Penn now finds himself in the midst of one of the worst stretches for any fighter in UFC history. The Hall of Famer certainly has nothing left to prove to fight fans as one of the true legends of the sport. It’s just a matter of if he still feels that he has something to prove to himself. Unfortunately, at the age of 38, the BJ Penn we saw today looks like less than a shell of his former self. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of. MMA continues to be the cruelest sport in the world where recapturing a piece of some of that old magic that once was just isn’t very realistic. 

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