BJ Penn may miss the glory of being champion and the status it elevated him to, but he has no interest in putting his body through grueling training camps to achieve that longing anymore.
The former two-division champion did not appear interested in a return to professional fightin, mainly because of the pre-fight responsibility of preparing one’s body for the actual showdown. While he was happy to reap the rewards of the fight, he had no interested in sowing the seeds ahead of time.
“You know what I don’t miss?” Penn told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I don’t miss a three-month training camp. I don’t miss fight week. But I do miss being the baddest man on the planet.”
Penn, who is scheduled to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame next week, marvels at fighters his age and older who still go out and perform remarkably in the Octagon.
“It does blow me away, though, when I see Werdum just got the belt at 37 and then you see Mark Hunt still fighting at 40,” Penn said. “All these different things. It is amazing. I don’t know. They’re out there, they’re doing it. It ain’t the technique, it ain’t the speed, it ain’t the power. It’s who wants it the most. Over time, maybe as you start getting into it, the people start coming along that love it more than you do.”
In the end, the ‘Prodigy’ is proud that he was able to step aside and remain at peace with himself, even though he relishes the feeling of being the baddest man on the planet. In the end, he simply knows that his body no longer want to work for it.
“I’ve got no desire to jump into training camp and try to go out there.”
Transcription taken from MMAFIghting.com.
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