Fight Review (BJ Penn vs. Joey Gilbert)

http://www.fightauthority.com/fist-fight.php?fid=294

I had a difficult time finding a fight to review. I thought with the world of YouTube it would be rather easy. Yet, what I seemed to find most was guys in their backyard having a match. One would be using Pabst Blue Ribbon kung fu against someone using the Funnel This Fist Style. Another thing that seemed to pop up a lot was video game type fights were you could see Chuck Norris fight Abe Lincoln or Jesus fight the Burger King. So, I had to go the the reliable which I hoped to avoid....MMA. I'm not an MMA fan. I guess I'm holding on for boxing to get back where it was in the days of Ali, Frazier, Norton, and Foreman. Oh well...at least I have my old VHS tapes to relive those glory days of boxing. I like the stand up stuff. Honestly, I'm just not knowledgeable enough in regards to ground fighting to truly appreciate it. That is something that I plan on addressing in my future training. I just read an article by a gentlemen who has nearly 40 years experience in the martial arts and multiple black belts. He was writing about his new adventure in BJJ. The article was about being a white belt, and the importance of having that same enthusiasm and willingness to learn throughout your life. Often times, that may lead to venturing out in other training areas to add to your base.

I have heard of BJ Penn before. I subscribe to Inside Kung Fu and he's been on the cover before. I've read articles about him in this publication. Therefore, when I looked to review an MMA fight, I chose one of his. I came across his first UFC fight, and I thought it would be interesting to see someone who has become mega famous when they were new to this level of competition.

I have posted the link to the fight above for your convenience. You may want to watch it before my comments to see if I make decent observations, or you may want to wait to after in order to see if you agree with me or not. Your choice.

It seems both fighters use the jab simply to set up a waist grab to take the other to the ground, or to get a grip on the head to use knee strikes. I did not get the feeling that the jabs were meant to actually make contact. They were more of a distraction. I guess we have all have done this in sparring at some point, or maybe I'm the only one. Who knows? After seeing it though, I kind of wonder if I have been wasting my time and energy doing that. I going to make it a goal that every strike should have a purpose and make contact. I'm going to try to move away from the distract techniques in sparring. They guys definitely like their ground game, and maybe that's why their stand up fighting looks quite bad to me. I admired Gilbert as he kept punching hard even as Penn had his head and neck wrapped up. About three minutes in, Penn turned his back on Gilbert and paid for it. He got whacked. Never turn your back on your opponent. Now, I have broken that philosophy with a spinning back kick or back fist, but I looked before I committed...most of the time. Yeah, I'm guilty too. Penn got hit hard, but he did not go down, but he took a wallop. Eventually, Gilbert gets Penn to the ground and just pounds the H...E...double hockey sticks out of him. The ref stops it. Penn seemed to be to set on the ground game. He was unable to match Gilbert on the stand up game, even though Gilbert was not that great at it. Gilbert also seemed better conditioned, which I believe is a huge part of winning a match. He just kept punching whether standing or on the ground. They were hard punches too. It's obvious that Penn learned from this first match. He has gone on to some great things, and I admire him for that. A lot of people in this world would of got discouraged and said the heck with . He didn't, and he had been rewarded with more wins and by becoming a better martial artist.