Clay Guida is not writing off B.J. Penn just yet, regardless of what the outside world and Penn’s recent win-loss record might say.
At UFC 237, Clay Guida and B.J. Penn will meet in a bout between two long-time veterans of the Octagon. One glaring difference between the current career trajectories of the two mainstays is that while Clay Guida has won two of his last three fights, B.J. Penn has lost six consecutive times, with his last victory coming in 2010. When these numbers were provided to Guida, his reaction was incredulity:
“A close friend of mine who’s a huge fight fan, he’s very knowledgeable about the sport, and I couldn’t believe it when he said that it’s been 2010 since he won a fight,” Guida said in a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “So I mean, it’s kind of hard to believe that. It’s hard to think that a guy who was a former two-time champion at lightweight and welterweight hasn’t won a fight in nine-plus years. It’s pretty incredible.”
Although many people would not consider a victory over B.J. Penn at this stage of Penn’s career meaningful, Clay Guida did not hesitate at the opportunity of sharing the Octagon with the legend and does not feel that it’s his place or anyone else to tell B.J. Penn when it is time to call it quits.
“But getting in the cage with someone like B.J. Penn, it’s an opportunity you can’t turn down. He’s the only one, and his camp and his family are the only ones to say if he should be competing or not. So that’s totally up to him. I’m not in a position to say that. So I’m accepting the fight, and we’re gonna put on a show for the fans.”
Do you agree with Clay Guida? Should it solely be up to B.J. Penn if he continues fighting or not?
