This coming Sunday at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the UFC brings us the finale for season 19 of their TUF event. The card is headlined by the coaches clash between BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar, marking the third time the pair will meet in the octagon. The match sees Edgar a huge favorite at (-750) over Penn, who comes back at (+450).
Edgar famously won the first two contests via unanimous decision, taking and keeping the Lightweight title that was Penn’s last title reign. Each were five round contests, so both men have a solid working knowledge of what the opponent does. After that series of fights, both men have taken drastically different paths.
Penn returned to the welterweight division, where he notched a win over Matt Hughes, had a hard fought draw with Jon Fitch and dropped fights to Nick Diaz and Rory MacDonald. He went 1-2-1 and retired, taking all of 2013 off before signing on as a coach for TUF and a third match with Edgar, this time at 145 lbs.
Throughout what some label a legendary career, Penn has lived with speculation about how he would do at 145 lbs. When he started fighting, it was not a viable division yet, but the question was always there, what would BJ Penn be like in tip top shape, at 145 lbs? He never did it, and now at 35 years old he is going to undertake it for the first time.
Edgar took a different path. He went 1-2-1 himself in Lightweight title bouts, finally giving up the Lightweight division and heading to Featherweight. Edgar is 1-1 as a Featherweight now, and he has faced a very high level of competition since his arrival.
The appearance in a new weight class for Penn and the result of the first two fights are likely responsible for the wide line. Edgar has been sort of a forgotten man, after all in 2010 Dana White was lauding him as the No. 2 or No. 3 fighter on the pound-for-pound lists. Even a season on TV can’t get people interested in him as the TUF 19 season is being lauded as the worst yet, but Edgar has always done his best talking in the ring. When he meets he will have been off a year himself, but his motivation to stay relevant should by higher than Penn’s, as BJ has already ridden off into he sunset several times.
