Jose Aldo vs. B.J. Penn: A Hypothetical

I just finished watching the PPV from the other night and I'm beyond blown away with Jose Aldo. That guy is a meld of Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. Would have liked to have seen him really try to finish, but he took literally ZERO damage! None! From Urijah ****ing Faber! That's absurd!

So, where is a challenge for this guy? Manny seems to be next in line (at least it makes sense, logically speaking), but that's going to be a long (or short) night for Manny.

Should be move to 155? WEC or UFC? If he moves to the UFC, can you realistically see anyone actually beating him? If so, who and how?

First match that jumped in my mind was Aldo vs. B.J. Penn/Frankie Edgar. (But for the purposes of this thread, we'll single it out to Penn)

Now, I'm not the biggest Penn fan (love him as a fighter, but he's got some personal crap he needs to fix because it is effecting him as a fighter), I'll just get that out there. But, I'm painfully aware of how physically talented he is and what is strengths are and how he uses them to exploit his opponents.

But, if you really think about it, he'd be in some serious, serious trouble against a fighter like Aldo. B.J. is not the best wrestler and not the best at utilizing trips/throws. Aldo was not taken down by either MTB or Faber. Both are absurdly strong for their size and freak wrestlers. (If you've never tried to grapple with a wrestler, it's impossible to convey in words, but putting it lightly, their core body strength seems unhuman.) So, what can B.J. do? He has good boxing, yes. But while it's technically sound, it's also very slow and limited. Aldo is ridiculously fast and utilizes all the striking tools.

I, frankly, can't see a single way that Penn wins this outside of a flash KO.

Thoughts? Opinions?

 

That right there is stupidity at it's finest.

No, he's not significantly larger. Larger? Maybe. Probably. But, what does the fact that he's fought at heavier weights have to do with anything? As of now they're roughly the same size (or Penn slightly larger) (Larger in the upper body).

 

....I give up.

 

You know what they say about assuming...

He would not give an "astronomical size advantage" to the overwhelming majority of fighters who compete at 155. That's just ridiculous. Few, if any, cut more then 15 pounds. Most cut between 5-10 pounds. Aldo could also easily add some weight on. Not significant weight, but some.

He's got a whole lot of personal problems that translate to his inconsistencies in his performances. His biggest problem is the people he surrounds himself with.

If you were someone who has fought/does fight/trains, you wouldn't even have to ask this. It'd be blantantly obvious.

Penn's wrestling isn't the best. Not even close. How many times does he take people down? Sparingly. Not that he doesn't, but it's not often. Reason being...well, reasons is that he likes to box but also because he's not adept at executing takedowns. He knows the mechanics of them and the technique involved, I'm sure, but he is not normed to it like a wrestler like Gray Maynard. Penn is difficult to takedown because of his flexability and his balance. If he was just flexable, he'd still get taken down. If he just had good balance, he'd still get taken down fairly regularly. But, because he's both, it's enormously difficult to do so.

(And for the record, I agree with the "takedowns" Edgar had in that fight. But, one might also consider that he didn't really do it for a takedown per se, but did it to throw B.J. off balance with what to expect. He mixed it up just about as well as I've seen anyone do it.)

Okay, I re-read what I said and I immediately noticed it. I said, "very slow." Which was a mistake on my part. He's not very slow. He's actually relatively fast. However, relative to a fighter such as Jose Aldo, he'd look slow.

Yes, I agree he's got great technical boxing. But, last I checked, we're not in a boxing match. Edgar seemed to hit him plenty. Stop thinking he's super human. He's not. He's far, far from it.

Aldo, while human, is something else. We've seen no weakness in his game whatsoever! None! Urijah Faber is notoriously fast and strong and has fantastic wrestling. In 25 minutes he did not hit Aldo clean one time. Not one clean hit. Not one. And, not once did he get taken down. He seemed to shrug off his takedown attempts with relative ease (prior and after Faber's legs were battered)

What you have with a fighter like Aldo is Anderson Silva reborn. He sees things so well and reacts so fast and his timing, placement, and technique is flawless. (Or near flawless....very, very good to say the least)

You think B.J. with his boxing alone is going to stop that guy? No. Can he flash KO him? Yeah, sure it's possible. But I woudn't bet on it at even 1,000:1.

He's simply too fast, moves too well, and is too technical on the feet for someone as one dimensional (in striking) as Penn (who is good, don't misunderstand me, but it's a horrible style match for him).

And why wouldn't Penn just utilize what some might consider a technical advantage and take the fight to the ground? Well, I've already clearly delineated why he, most likely, wouldn't be able to.

So, logically speaking, looking at it from a purely technical and stylistic point of view, this is a horrible, horrible fight for B.J. Penn. I'd think someone like Edgar has a slightly better chance, but still, not one that I'd bet on either.

Something like that...