When UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn stepped inside the cage in August against number one contender Kenny Florian, he did so under a cloud of suspicion and uncertainty. The former welterweight champion was coming off of the first real beatdown of his career, at the hands of personal nemesis Georges St. Pierre just seven months before, and it was unclear just how much the loss had affected him.
There was talk of retirement after the four rounds of pure punishment Penn endured at the hands of the clearly more dominant St. Pierre. There was the personal embarrassment Penn suffered through after being forced to quit on his stool before the fifth round, and many wondered if the proud champion would just disappear after the lopsided affair.
Even after his lightweight bout with Kenny Florian was announced, the UFC was unsure if Penn would even fight. The promotion was so unsure about Penn's mental status after his loss to St. Pierre that they approached Diego Sanchez about being ready to face Florian in case Penn backed out at the last minute.
Then came the insults. Florian, who had once trained extensively with Penn, began to call out his former teacher. He began to train with Georges St. Pierre and barrage the champion with insults, insinuations and slights seemingly at every opportunity.
To his credit, the usually brash Penn stayed uncharacteristically humble, choosing instead to focus on his fight with Florian rather than the engage in personal exchanges through the media. He hired infamous strength and conditioning coach Marv Marinovich and began to rebuild his damaged psyche with visualization techniques and hard training.
There were many questions surrounding how Penn would perform, or even if he would perform, on August 8 against Kenny Florian -- but Penn himself had no doubt.
"That night everything just came together and it all just started making so much sense to me again," Penn tells the UFC. "You know, this is fun. This is a chance for me to go out there and be a high school kid."
Penn recalls a feeling of supreme confidence right before the fight, and told head trainer Rudy Valentino and boxing coach Jason Parillo that their services wouldn't be needed or required against Florian.
"I remember before we left the house, I looked at Rudy and Pirillo and told them, 'I want you guys to kick back, relax and enjoy the show. You guys don't even have to work tonight.'"
Penn admits to being greatly motivated by Florian's media trash talk and a desire to teach his former student one last lesson.
"I really wanted to pay [Kenny Florian] back for a lot of the stuff," Penn said. "Him trying to make me look bad in the news and try to make me look like a liar; trying to make me look like a fool and all this stuff. I really wanted to pay him back, so that's why I did all the little elbows to him on the ground. I felt like that is what he deserved."
Penn also took a lot of flack for hiring Mariniovich, the father of the NFL's stereotypical cautionary tale, Todd Marinovich, who had no previous experience training MMA fighters. But Penn felt a connection with the highly regarded, but certainly marred, strength and conditioning coach and has stuck with him for his upcoming showdown with newly-minted number one lightweight contender, Diego Sanchez.
"With Marv, I feel I have always had the work...
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