For a round or so, it looked like B.J. Penn might finally get out of the loss column. His striking was crisp early in his UFC 237 lightweight bout with Clay Guida, his timing on point.
But Penn (16-14-2 MMA, 12-13-2 UFC), the former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion, wasn’t known for his stamina in his best days, so that’s certainly not the case at age 40.
Guida (35-18 MMA, 15-12 UFC) turned up the heat in the second half of their fight as Penn faded, and that was enough to earn a unanimous decision on scores of 29-28, 29-28, and 29-27.
The lightweight bout was part of the UFC 237 prelims from Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro and aired on ESPN.
With the loss, Penn now has lost a record seven consecutive UFC fights. He is 1-9-1 in his past 11 and has not earned a victory since knocking out Matt Hughes at UFC 123 in 2010.
“He’s been doing this almost 20 years, man,” Guida said. “It’s an honor to compete against someone like that.”
Penn entered UFC 237 under a cloud of domestic abuse allegations and a police investigation, which he refused to address during fight week. But if he was bothered, he didn’t show it in the opening round, utilizing left hands for jabs and uppercuts to keep Guida from doing much of anything.
Guida picked up the pace in the second, though, as he started throwing leg kicks that began to add up and mixing in occasional head kicks. Guida went for takedowns that weren’t quite there, but it was plain to see Penn was fading.
The third round was all Guida as he rocked Penn with aggressive standup for the bulk of the round. It was to Penn’s credit that he didn’t get finished by Guida’s energetic onslaught.
“I didn’t think I was that close to finishing him, and my stubborn wrestling ego wants to get the takedown all the time,” Guida said.
Guida now has won three of his past four fights
Up-to-the-minute UFC 237 results include
- Clay Guida def. B.J. Penn via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-27)
- Luana Carolina def. Priscila Cachoeira via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-27)
- Raoni Barcelos def. Carlos Huachin via TKO (strikes) – Round 2, 4:49
- Viviane Araujo def. Talita Bernardo via knockout (punch) – Round 3, 0:48
For more on UFC 237, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
