This Saturday night UFC 137 takes place from the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas,
Nevada with a welterweight main event pitting Nick Diaz against BJ Penn.
Fight Network spoke with Penn just days before the fight and despite a mutual
respect is ready to go to war with the stockton native.
You know what, the truth is it was strange that the fight was being put together but here we are on
fight week and it's time to go you know and and this is a job like any other to do business and
I'm gonna you know I'm I'm in my ring and I'm gonna I'm gonna give it my best shot and whether
it's friend or foe standing across the outside gun I gotta do what I gotta do.
Penn is called Diaz the best boxer in mixed martial arts which is a label that Freddie
Roach has given to Penn and the Hawaiian is ready for the stand-up game of Diaz.
Striking without giving too much of my game plan you know but I'm gonna you know this is
mixed martial arts I'm gonna have to you know I'm gonna have to use every skill I have to walk out of
the octagon with my hand raised so you know we're just gonna have to wait till Saturday night to see
what happens.
One of the key people getting Penn ready for this fight is former rival Matt Hughes who has
shared the octagon with Penn on three occasions and brought Penn out to Hillsboro, Illinois.
Well I always respected Matt over the years you know even while we were having the rivalry and
everything I started talking when we were out in Abu Dhabi when I was fighting Frank
Edgar and he was fighting Kenzo Gracie we started talking more and kind of hanging out
because you know we probably never fight again but after that I was gonna fight John Fitch
and I was thinking about Matt Hughes and I was like man he'd be a perfect guy to use
to train for John Fitch, John Fitch is wrestling and he came down and he trained with me in
Hawaii and then from there I went to Hillsboro I got to train with Matt, Jeremy Horne, Scott
Militich and a Robbie Lawler and no pick their brains about certain stuff they like to do
and he kind of just shared some techniques back and forth.
One of the areas people have looked to exploit with Nic Díaz is his inability to defend against
strong wrestling and that's an area that Penn has focused on.
I think my wrestling is at a pretty high level I might not have all the exact same technique
that a certain people have as far as wrestling goes but you know I think I can get them to
my strong positions and I can work some stuff off that and probably get them to the ground
but I think you know a lot of people that you're thinking Nic Díaz has no kick down defense
in anything you know or anything I think I'm sure he's preparing I'm sure he's ready for that stuff.
Without looking past Díaz Penn is aware of what his ultimate goal is at 170 pounds.
You know if I get a strong performance on Saturday you know one of my driving things in my head
was trying to become a three-time UFC champion if you become a three-time UFC champion I would
have to say that you know you're pretty legit you've done a you've had a decent career.
B.J. Penn steps into the octagon with Nic Díaz this Saturday at UFC 137 kicking off at 9 p.m.
Eastern on pay-per-view.
