Sometimes there's those rare days when the news cycle stands still and the MMA world slows to a halt. And yes, yesterday was one of those days.
So instead of babbling on about nothing, let's take a quick look at a subject we only touched on briefly yesterday.
B.J. Penn is 34 years old, a former two-division UFC champion, and a surefire Hall of Famer. Yet Penn holds only one win in his past six fights, and his past two losses have been disturbingly brutal, so really, it was only a matter of time.
"I want BJ Penn to retire," UFC President Dana White declared over the weekend.
"Dude, you've won belts in two different weight classes. You're one of the greatest ever. You became a huge superstar. You have money. You have a beautiful family. But it's hard, man. It's hard to walk out of that. That arena's packed, everybody's screaming your name, you're making tons of money. It's hard to walk away from that -- really hard to walk away from that."
White made his feelings known about Penn less than an hour after another of the UFC's old mainstays, Forrest Griffin, announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.
Griffin's exit was a bit surprising, but the TUF 1 winner carried with him 12 hard years of injuries, wars, and overall punishment, and had been knocked out five different times over the course of his career, the last few of which were quite violent.
Penn, on the other hand, has yet to be truly knocked out once over the course of his 12-year career. Though according to White, that might not necessarily be a good thing.
"B.J. is too tough for his own good," White explained. "B.J. might not be knocked out, but the shots B.J. took would've knocked out a normal human being. He's had his head bounced off the canvas like a basketball by Matt Hughes, by Georges St-Pierre and then Rory (MacDonald) just did it to him. B.J. Penn has left that octagon looking like a f--king alien. He's too tough for his own good.
"You don't knock out B.J. Penn. B.J. Penn absorbs every amount of punishment you can give him. Doesn't mean he hasn't taken damage. He's taken a lot of damage, and I don't want to see him take anymore."
Penn already retired once, so this talk is far from outlandish. White made it clear the decision to hang up his gloves a second time will be Penn's alone to make, but it's obvious at this point which way the UFC prefers to see this go.