triso -Useless guard. All he ever does is hold on with his version of mission control. No sub attempts, not even punching edgar while holding him.
He had success in taking Edgar down, why not continue that or do it sooner? You know your not as fast on the feet, take it down.
I wouldn't call his guard useless. He didn't take much damage from him and he swept Frankie in the 1st. There was a point where he kept trying desperately to get to his feet and I could not for the life of me figure out why. He was getting beat to the punch standing and was having a very tough time stopping the takedowns. Why not just accept that he's going to put you on your back and try to set up a sub from the bottom. Not that it would have been easy on a guy like Frankie, but at least give it a shot.
While he did take Frankie down a few times he really couldn't hold him down. That was his problem. He had him on his back but was spending a lot of energy trying to control him. At every turn Frankie was trying to get up.
When BJ Penn is on, his style of fighting, hands down, is my favorite to watch. That is why I like him as a fighter. I'm not his friend, and I don't watch MMA to judge character. I watch MMA for MMA. Just scrap.
BJ posses the skillset that I always wanted -- amazing BJJ, and, even if not the best in MMA, great striking and wrestling.
I actually read his book "My MMA" -- I did not just flip through the pics (nuthugger, I know).
He goes into detail about his fighting philosophy. He dislikes guard, respecting top position more for MMA.
Due to this, he praises wrestling and shows his favorite wrestling tecs (making the wrestling vs. BJJ trolling on this thread ironic).
According to him, if he is on his back, his first goal is to get back up. In his book, he shows some standup tecs from guard that I have never seen. I have never seen them because most BJJ schools think sweep or submit, not standup and work striking and wrestling.
I think his mindset with Edgar was get up and hope for a KO or takedown.