When B.J. Penn was preparing for his return fight against rising featherweight Yair Rodriguez, his team had a strong belief in their guy. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer looked for his first win since Nov. 2010.
Instead, “The Prodigy” got smoked. Round one was one-sided in favor of “El Pantera,” and the second round was mercifully stopped 24 seconds in. Penn was simply too slow and couldn’t react to Rodriguez’s offense quick enough to do much.
The official YouTube channel of the UFC uploaded a post-fight interview done with Penn’s coach Jason Parillo. He expressed his sorrow for Penn:
“We’re sad. We obviously have high hopes for B.J. What he’s done in the sport and the type of fighter that he is, they always say there’s one more fight in a great fighter and we felt that it was it. We felt that this kid was beatable. We felt we could beat him and you know, I’d like to think we still can. But we’re always gonna think that about B.J.”
When Penn’s bout with Rodriguez was announced, a lot of fans and analysts were left scratching their heads over the booking. Rodriguez looked prepared for a top 10 ranked opponent, while Penn needed someone to ease his way back to competition. Parillo admitted the match-up was difficult.
“It was a tough fight to come in after a two and a half, almost three-year layoff. You know, you’re fighting a top 10 guy. That’s something B.J. has always done. B.J. never comes off a long layoff, I mean his two-year layoff prior to that was Frankie Edgar the number two guy in the world. Unfortunately B.J. never gets put in there with a guy that, we call it a shake off the rust a little bit or a tuneup fight I guess.”
