But, regardless if they’d be beaten or not, if you’re going to bury the whole division saying Penn will officially clean it out with one more win and you aren’t keen on him going back to Welterweight, then it’s time to bring in the top 10 ranked fighters of the division. Not co-promote with DREAM, a far-fetched idea, but go out of your way to get them to satisfy Penn since his camp is calling Aoki out. It is that or GSP III for him.

I honestly doubt many of the guys outside of the UFC would be able to deal with Maynard’s size or wrestling. I think of Eddie Alvarez as a Roger Huerta-type fighter and I just don’t see him dealing with Gray unless he’s able to lay some leather on him without getting bullied to the mat time and again.

You might build more excitement with these outside guys, but the result will be Diego-esque. With Gomi on a steady decline, maybe Kawajiri has the jaw to land a lucky bomb on BJ, but I really don’t see anyone else posing even the remotest challenge to him at 155 in the near future.

The idea of the UFC going out of the company to get somebody to challenge BJ Penn is not a good idea. First, they have to be able to build up a fighter first, so an immediate title fight doesn’t work. And as we saw with Cro Cop, that always creates issues. Second, there is nobody outside of the UFC that really poses a risk to Penn. Aoki would get wrecked. Alvarez and Kawajiri are no different the Sanchez, Stevenson, and Sherk.

1) So why did you want Fedor-Lesnar if bringing in an outside fighter for an automatic title shot is a bad thing?

2) There’s nobody in the UFC who poses a threat to him either. And fighting legit top 10 Lightweights, regardless if they get destroyed by him or not, is far more interesting than pretending like Gray Maynard is worthy of fighting Penn. Nobody in the division has that much of a connection with the fans anyway, so it’s not like the fan interest would be that much worse.

He’s busy stalking Kevin Iole

I think that could be a completely valid rematch and closer fight than people are making it out to be…I think GSP goes in the favourite, but he’s going to against everyone at 170lbs. And if I recall the fight correctly, it basically hinged on GSP’s defense of a takedown in one round and then getting his own after that.

And while GSP has improved a lot since then, Kos’ striking has greatly improved and he’s still the strong wrestler he’s always been. I’d rather see that fight than GSP-Hardy, which is a total joke on the level of BJ-Diego in terms of earning the shot AND the total destruction that’s going to follow when they actually do lock up.

About the aversion to weight-class jumping because it causes contenders to be eliminated, 2 points:

1. It doesn\\\’t have to be that way. Smart match-making can avoid eliminating contenders.

For instance, I think Anderson Silva, in between MW title defenses, should maintain his status among the Top 5 LHW. That way, should Machida vacate the throne by losing or moving up to HW, Silva will be ready to jump in.

The way to achieve that balance is to have Silva take on fighters coming off losses to the reigning champion, like Evans after he lost his title. If Rua loses to Machida, Silva vs Rua would be an awesome fight.

2. Sometimes it is desirable to eliminate contenders, or to put it more accurately, it is good to raise the bar and make the prospect of a title shot more distant for certain fighters.

My bias is against rematches in general, and especially when it comes to title shots. At WW for example, I am reluctant to see Koscheck, Alves or Fitch get another shot at GSP. I would rather have them pick each other off until only one remains, assuming no other contenders emerge in the meantime. I feel the same way about Henderson and Marquardt at MW, which is why I strongly supported that match-up.

In sum, I don\\\’t mind Penn eliminating Koscheck from contention (while one of Fitch and Alves eliminates the other, sparing us yet another rematch). The flipside is that, if Koscheck beats Penn, there can be no denying him a title shot, and even rematch-haters like myself will have to accept it.

1. It doesn’t have to be that way. Smart match-making can avoid eliminating contenders.

For instance, I think Anderson Silva, in between MW title defenses, should maintain his status among the Top 5 LHW. That way, should Machida vacate the throne by losing or moving up to HW, Silva will be ready to jump in.

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