This is the kind of thing I’d usually chalk up to pre-fight hype, but Sherk is a guy who always seems to have a legit chip on his shoulder:

“BJ has a lot of natural ability, but so do I. I’ve got just as much natural talent as he does, the only difference is I got the mental ability and the heart. Come fight night, you’ll see that. I’m going to make him quit. I’m going to come at him hard and after that first round he is going to realize that after that first round, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll get right up in his face and I’m going to fight. Mentally, I think he’s got some quit in him. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in the past. If you push him, he’ll quit.

This is going to be an excellent fight. I’m a big BJ Penn fan and clearly he’s the better rounded fighter than Sherk. Then again, so was Hermes Franca and he might as well have not bothered showing up. Sherk is a monster on the ground and is insanely strong for the weight (hence the nickname “Muscle Shark”). Still, with all due respect to Franca–Penn’s in a different league. Penn has a big edge in the standup game as he’s trained extensively in boxing (why all MMA fighters don’t is beyond me but that’s a different story). Sherk had no trouble with Franca, who like Penn is a BJJ specialist. Penn’s submissions are a lot better and he’s so damn flexible he can work them from angles and positions that a lot of MMA fighters can’t. Franca appeared to “gas” early in the fight and just didn’t have the energy to work anything past round 2. Sherk essentially lives in the gym and is a conditioning freak so you’re not going to “tire him out” but Penn should at least be able to keep up with him.

Penn’s fought a much higher level of competition and a more varied one stylistically. Penn’s impressive wins are over Takanori Gomi, Jens Pulver, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and Caol Uno when he was a top notch fighter. Sherk’s not been a pro fighter as long but already has some impressive wins over Franca, tough Kenny Florian and Nick “Shaggy” Diaz who was a hell of a tough fighter until smoking pot became a bigger priority in his life. Sherk also has two wins over judo badass Karo Parysian that came early in the career of both–Parysian has become a much better rounded fighter since then, adding a solid standup game to his sick judo skills–but even then his foundation in traditional martial arts made him a very tough matchup. Beating him twice at any point in his career is pretty damn impressive, factoring in his ground fighting ability as a judoka even more so.

Both Sherk and Penn have only lost to the best of the best: Sherk’s two losses are to GSP (he moved down to lightweight after this loss) and Matt Hughes. Penn’s losses are to an equally impressive level of opposition–his only stoppage loss came to Matt Hughes and he lost a unanimous decision to Lyoto Machida on a K-1 Heroes show. For those of you familiar with boxing, Machida is something of an MMA version of Winky Wright. His southpaw stance gives a lot of fighters trouble, as does his unorthodox fighting style heavily influenced my his mastery of Shotokan Karate. Penn’s other two losses were via split decision to GSP and Jens Pulver when “Little Evil” was the most feared lightweight in the sport. He also has a draw with Caol Uno on his resume.

There’s the old saying–which happens to be a true one–that “styles make fights” and this contrast in styles, while intriguing, could play out in a boring fight. I doubt it though–both guys are fiery competitors and have a legit dislike for each other. This has the potential for being a “fight of the year” candidate and should at very least be an entertaining and competitive fight.

Sean Sherk claims BJ Penn a quitter @ Inside the Octagon MMA blog