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BJ Penn is a professional Mixed Martial Artist from the United States of America, performing under the banner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC, the premier Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world. He is also an acclaimed Brazilian jiu-jitsu artist and became the first American as well as the first non-Brazilian to become the champion in the World jiu-jitsu Championship in the 76 kg black belt division.

As a Mixed Martial Artist, Penn has fought in several weight divisions during his stint in the UFC, starting from Lightweight, and going up to Welterweight and Middleweight and finishing at Light Heavyweight, a remarkable achievement considering the fact that he has had to put up over 50 lbs to compete at the 205 lbs division, having started his career at the 155 lbs Lightweight division. BJ Penn is also a former holder of both the UFC Lightweight Championship and the UFC Welterweight Championship, therefore, becoming only the second fighter in the history of the promotion to have won two titles in two different weight classes.

However, Penn initially did not want to become a Mixed Martial Artist at all and wanted to pursue a career in martial arts with Brazilian jiu-jitsu his preferred choice. However, his exploits at the World jiu-jitsu Championships caught the eye of several Mixed Martial Arts promotions and he was ultimately signed by the UFC, where he made his debut at UFC 31 in 2001.

Since then, BJ Penn has become one of the greatest Mixed Martial Artists the promotion has seen in its history, holding two titles and going on a long unbeaten run as well as being one of the pioneering fighters to make the lighter weight categories of the UFC a huge hit among the fans and the media as whole too.

Almost two months have passed since former two-division Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC champion BJ Penn lost his match in the promotion to up and coming Welterweight fighter Rory MacDonald. And since suffering that unanimous defeat to the youngster, Dana White, the president of the UFC has urged Penn, who came out of retirement for the fight to retire for good. And although there has been still no decision on the part of Penn, White has maintained his stance and would want him to retire from the sport once and for all.

Speaking to the media assembled in the post match press conference at UFC 156, White stated that he had not had any conversation with Penn for quite some time. And he went on to state that he would like him to retire and move on with his life. He even stated that BJ Penn has a gym and that he won’t get a deal for the likes of Chuck Liddell or even Matt Hughes. However, his gym near his home is doing extremely well and White admitted that he doesn’t think he will have any problems in the future.

He even asked the assembled media and the fans of the UFC to not worry about him, adding that he still has a few bucks on him. For the most part of his career, Penn competed in the UFC as a Lightweight and then as a Welterweight and he has been the champion in both the divisions, becoming the first and only man to do so.

BJ Penn retired from the sport following UFC 137 after losing to Nick Diaz before his return against MacDonald after a 13 month gap. The loss to the young Canadian meant that Penn finished with a record of 1-4 since the turn of 2010.

Taekwondo is a form of martial art which was originated from Korea. It is very popular among the Koreans and since the year 2000 the sport has been included in Olympic also. It is mainly the form of martial art which teaches how to combat in a dual. Not only that but it also plays a very effective role in improving one’s ability for self-defense and meditation. The sport was declared world’s most popular art in terms of its practitioner in 1989.

The Korean word “tae” means “to break with foot”, “kwon” means “to break with hand fist” and “do” means “path”. Thus the meaning of the sport can easily be deduced from its name. Taekwondo has couple of branches, for example, “Traditional” and Sport”.

“Traditional taekwondo” is the typical form of the martial art which was first invented in the 1950s and was practiced in the South Korean Military, schools, and universities. It is quite evident that this was primarily started as a self defense tool. Later it gained so much popularity that it started being practiced as a sport. It is said that the names and representation of the traditional taekwondo patterns are related to Korean history and religious philosophy.

The other branch is “Sport taekwondo”. It is somewhat different from the traditional one as it is mainly being practiced as a sport. That is why it emphasizes on competition and speed. This branch of the sport is itself divided into two categories. One of them has been derived from “Kukkiwon”, i.e., the foundation of sparring system and it is practiced by the practitioners of WTF Taekwondo. It has been included in the Olympic Games and the World Taekwondo Federation governs it. The other branch is governed by the International Taekwon-Do Federation. There are some kind of differences between the two forms of “sport taekwondo” but the training in general teach how to block, kick and punch one’s opponent.

Jon Jones, the Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC Light Heavyweight champion is no longer the only fighter in the Mixed Martial Arts world to be represented by global sports manufacturing giants Nike all over the globe. Anderson Silva, the UFC Middleweight champion has recently renegotiated his contract that will see his deal with Nike go from only being a regional one to a global one, according to the manager of the Brazilian Ed Soares.

According to Ed Soares, who was speaking to Bloody Elbow, the deal, when first signed between Nike and Silva, started off as Nike Brazil, but now it has gone been made into a deal that will see the American apparel giants use the images of one of the greatest Mixed Martial Artists of all time at all their global stores and sell official Nike merchandise throughout the globe. He went on to add that this new deal with Nike is a testament to the achievements of Anderson Silva, and stated that he doesn’t think and if any Mixed Martial Artist in the world deserved such exposure, it is The Spider.

The Brazilian is considered one of the best athletes in the world at the moment, and the deal between the two perfectly fits the mold. Anderson is definitely stranger to the limelight in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, and according to Dana White, the president of the UFC and many critics, he is arguably the greatest ever pound for pound fighter in the history of the sport.

Anderson Silva has held the UFC Middleweight Championship since 2006 and has been undefeated at the company since his move to the UFC, and it was only fair, according to his Ed Soares that the Spider received the global recognition that his talents and achievements truly deserved.

After beating at UFC 137 BJ Penn was not seen inside the Octagon. Here have to mention that he walked out from the cage with blooded and bruised version. Those strikes led an emotional Penn to tell Joe Rogan after the fight. He said that this is probably the last time he has been seen inside the Octagon. He wants to perform at the top level cause he got a daughter son he does not want to go home looking like this. For a while it seemed as if Penn would stay retired. In May he rejected an offer to face Josh Koescheck. After turning that fight down, it seemed as if Penn would remain retired. To counter Rory’s remark Penn replied he will accept his challenge and just Penn’s retirement ended.

The Mc. Donald vs. Penn’s fight was booked for UFC152. Which will take place on September 22 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The injury to McDonald has left Penn without an opponent for UFC152 but that does not mean that 33 years old BJ Penn has been without suitors.  Siyar Bahadurzada got things rolling by twitting that he would gladly step in to face Penn and donate his purse to charity.

The only reason I want to fight @ bjpenndotcom is to test my will and warrior spirit vs his. I am not fighting for money! I am willing to donate my fight purse to a charity to prove that it is not for financial reasons & will take VADA tests! @ UFC @ danawhite

Sean Sherk, a fighter that we haven’t seen in the Octagon since September 2010, came out of the woodwork to call Penn out. So each and every opponent of BJ Penn wants him at Octagon for getting tough challenge and betterment. Cause Penn has class and spirit inside Octagon.

As he prepares to return to the Octagon of the Ultimate Fighting Championship or the UFC, former Lightweight and Welterweight division champion BJ Penn will be looking to be a fighting machine, in the literal sense of the word. Penn, a former UFC Lightweight and UFC Welterweight Championship holder will be making his return to the ring on the 22^nd of September, 2012 at UFC 152 slated to be held in Toronto, Canada against Rory MacDonald, one of the brightest young prospects in the UFC’s Welterweight division, who has been climbing the ladder very quickly in his very short career with the company.

And Penn will walk into the cage with a point to prove to the youngster, and that is something he has been waiting to do ever since the youngster called him out and challenged him to a match. And accepting the challenge put forward to him by the 22 year old was almost a no-brainer for BJ Penn, who knows that win against MacDonald will not only shut him up, but also go a long way in settling an old feud with the gym that MacDonald hails from.

Speaking to ESPN, Penn stated that MacDonald considers this fight as a dream fight, a stepping stone to bigger things, but one thing that he doesn’t realize is that this fight means a lot bigger fight to him than it does to the youngster. Penn also added that it is his dream to beat him, his trainer Firas Zahabi, his mentor and the current UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre as well as their gym Tri Star in front of everybody in their home nation as well.

And it is for this very reason that BJ Penn opted not to return as a Lightweight, which was where he had been most successful.

The twin worlds of professional wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts were almost up in arms as WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar attended the UFC 146 that took place at Las Vegas over the Memorial day weekend, sparking rumors that Lesnar did not just attend the event, he was actually there to have a meeting with UFC president Dana White over a possible return to the Mixed Martial Arts promotion.

Although that could very well have been the topic of discussion at the meeting, the chances of Lesnar returning to the company are bleak as he has signed a new contract with the WWE just recently for a year and the WWE is busy creating an angle where the former WWE Champion is unhappy with the clauses of the contract and thinking about suing the WWE.

When asked about how the meeting with Brock Lesnar went, Dana White made no hesitation in stating that it was one of the worst meetings that he has ever had with the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and that they had not talked since that day. Many people have already started speculating that the meeting between Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Lesnar was part if the greater scheme of things of the WWE, as they have been playing up the angle of Lesnar being unhappy with his contract and this might just be an opportunity for him to display affection for the UFC in order to garner some love from the WWE.

But it seems to be highly unlikely that White and Fertitta would become a part of a WWE angle without prior knowledge. And if I were a punter, I would surely go against Brock Lesnar returning to the Octagon of the UFC unless White decided to make him the King of the WWE and the UFC.

Dominick Cruz has been known to be quite famous and popular in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has been a regular fighter under the Bantam weight category. Dominick has made his presence felt in the bantam weight division for quite some time now and has been in the top ten ranking for the category when it comes to the pound for pound fighting.

The initial career of Dominick Cruz saw him as a contender in a Rage in a cage match and he did not have quite a lot of luck with it. He managed to put up a good fight, but eventually lost. However this was not enough to make him loose hope and he managed to continuously put up a tough fight.

Dominick Cruz has managed to put up quite a good show and performance over the years and the statistics have gone on to speak volumes for him. He has managed to win all his matches apart from the debut one and this actually shows the amount of effort and determination he has within him for becoming the champion. His wins have been achieved by a submission and knock out as well and he has shown immense skill and tactics to ensure that he is the best in the fighting arena.

There are many who feel that Dominick Cruz has not put in much effort and most of his wins and victories have been because of luck. However there are quite a few who have gone on to take the extra step and commented on a public forum saying that they can beat Dominick any single day. Dominick Cruz, being the defending champion for the bantam weight Championship has thus managed to instill a lot of hatred amongst fellow fighters and this goes to show that these fighters are jealous of his success and growth rate.

There were recent news and updates that Dominick Cruz will be coaching against his rival Urijah at the FX debut. The championship will see fighters from all divisions starting from light weight to welter weight and bantam weight. He needs to be quite focused and needs to concentrate hard to ensure that he manages to make quite an impact in this tournament so that it can be seen by quite a number of fighters who will be attending the show.

BJ Penn and Nick Diaz were very good friends. They were trained together. But the present situation has led certain issues over their friendship. It is quite clear that the friendship between the two wrestlers has turned into enmity. In the October last year Penn entered the ring against Diaz. A great match took place between them. But, Diaz knocked Penn badly inside the ring.

Penn was supposed to be a great wrestler. Previously he has won many titles. During this particular wrestling event BJ Penn showed full respect towards his opponent. But during the match he suffered injuries. He uploaded his pictures in one of the social networking site which clearly showed his injured face. From this it was quite clear that his old friend has knocked him down very badly. After this match Penn decided to retire from the particular sport of wrestling.

At present he is totally out of the wrestling event. Recently he has posted in his social networking profile that he wants to get back to the wrestling ring to get back his glory. He even wants a rematch against Nick Diaz. He claimed that he does not want to retire from the particular sport of wrestling with a loosing streak. He badly wants to get back to the sport. Experts say that BJ Penn has over rated himself which has led to consecutive defeats.

Penn is quite sure about his fitness and he has also recovered from the injury factors. His coach said that he is absolutely to enter the wrestling ring again. Penn needs to gain confidence to fight his opponent which can be done only recalling a new wrestling match against Diaz.

The wrestling authority has looked upon this particular matter but, no official announcement has been made for the rematch. The fan followers of Penn want to see their favorite man back in action.

Strength is what all good fighters should have. The strengths of the fighters can be defined as UFC strength (where UFC is an abbreviated form of the term Ultimate Fighting Championship). The UFC strength can be classified into two categories – physical strength and mental strength. Some fighters say that the most important strength in fighting is physical, but some fighters argue that without mental and emotional strength, fighters would be poor. I agree that a fighter needs each of these strengths.

The mental and emotional strength is as important as the physical strength. Without physical strength, a fighter will neither be able to attack nor defend himself from his opponent. Without the mental and emotional strength, a fighter will not be able to stand against a stronger opponent. So both types of strength are important for a fighter.

Attacking power and defensive power
Defensive power for a fighter is as important as the attacking power. If you want to be a good fighter, then you should be rich in both types of power. Some people say that attack is the best way of defence, but this may not be true for all the situations in the UFC fights. If you are fighting against a stronger opponent who also holds more knowledge than you, then it will not be a good decision to exhaust your energy in the beginning without guessing the possible moves of your opponent.

Energy is lost more in the attacks than the defense. So if the opponent is as strong as you or stronger than you, then do not lose all your energy in the beginning because if you do so, then after a while you’ll need to find a place to hide!