Penn vs Sheilds in Hawaii , then off into the sunset for Mr Penn ....

OK , after reading and evaluating your post , i must go slightly back on what i said initially , maybe it was heat of the moment stuff in seeing my idol beaten down again in a sport we have become so used to seeing this man produce special moments and finish off or dominate top fighters !!!

Ok firstly my take on the fight was as you seen it , 10 - 9 Penn , 10 - 9 Penn , 10 - 8 Fitch scorecard wise , performance wise i thought BJ in the first round was special , and i couldnt quite beleive what i was seeing , as all of us , i was not expecting Penn to a) shoot on Fitch and b) take him down , subsequently as the air in BJ's lungs ran out , Fitch came on strong and dished out a 1 sided beating in the 3rd , which sort of marred the fight for me in that it was obvious Penn was done from the end of the 2nd onwards , the same hall marks where there from Hughes Penn 2 and GSP Penn 2 & Edgar 2 (late on) the flat feet , heavy breathing and almost submitting defeat in every aspect of the sport , which as a huge BJ fan is a really bitter pill to swallow , in essence i think your right when you say no wonder the guy was deflated in the post fight interview after that 5 minute beating .

Ultiimatley what im trying to say is that i dont see Penn as a WW and never have , i dont like him against Alves or Condit , and it would be a very sad sight to see BJ squeeze out a decision against middle of the road WW's like Kampmann , Hardy , Thiago , Swick and such like , who incidentally i may add all of whom may actually beat Penn , i certainly would not have him nailed on against any of the above , his lack of talk of moving back to 55 worries me , it makes me think he cant make the weight anymore , it was very evident that he hadnt got the cut right against Edgar in there 2nd fight and maybe the first , he is 32 and looks comfortable physically fighting @70 , so i think Penn and 55 are done !!

Which sort of leaves Penn in limbo , a fighter like BJ Penn should sit top of or very near the top of the pile in what ever weight class he competes in , quite rightly as you say BJ is probably ranked #2 behind Edgar and above Maynard at LW in the UFC , and if he fought again providing it wasnt against Edgar or Aldo he'd be the favourite against anybody else @155 .

@170 he simply would not , he would be a smaller , older , veteran fighting at a higher weight class because he cannot make his own weight class anymore , and struggling against guys who are not on his level talent wise , it simply would be too painfull for me to watch .

It will be interesting to see what Dana and the UFC come up with for Penn , its a shame Sheilds is tied up , i really like that fight for BJ , i want to finish by saying i really do have a gut feeling that the fire is just not in Penn anymore , the aura has gone , the invincibility factor has dissapeared , he is no longer that technical " prodigy " who rolls over opponents in fights that should of been competetive with spectacular explosions of technical greatness , i was very suprised and dissapointed that the twice BJ did have Fitch's back he couldnt get the finish , it really upset me , i dont know maybe im going a little deep into this but id honestly like to see Penn either back with the Merenovich bros (Strength and Conditioning) and take a couple more fights @55 , or with the right opponents maybe 1 more @70 .