DESTINATION: HONOLULU

By Ben Miller

For a week without a live Strikeforce or UFC event, the past week sure was interesting. Whether you like the freaks (Choi), the fights (WEC) or the fireworks (Rampage), it was all there in the offing.

Sadly, those folks without access to HDNet or Versus likely missed the best of it. Though Quinton’s inartful coaching of relative heavyweight novices offers a succulent appetizer for hungry MMA fans, the main course is still elite combat. And between Yokohama and San Antonio, we got another reminder that skill levels rise as weights fall. Bibiano Fernandes and Ben Henderson may have been the only two men to walk away with hardware, but match after match saw levels of skill and quickness that you just don’t see when the big guys lumber on stage.

Still, there was a certain flippancy to the week. Like almost a last hurrah for the silly season of late summer. Part of it is that we know that the bigger stars are set to reappear. Lyoto defends, Tito returns, Fedor launches and, of course, there’s Brock. But another part of it is the absence of B.J. Penn. It’s that I watched twelve fights between men weighting 155 pounds or less and the head-and-shoulders king of that genre was nowhere to be seen.

For the author, it was in some ways depressing. You see, I love seeing big fights. I like watching stars blossom, or personalities clash or legends survive or upsets happen, but that’s not the best part of the sport. The best part of the sport is Fedor vs. Cro Cop, c. 2006. Or Brown vs. Faber, c. 2009. It’s when the unquestioned kings of a given weight class meet up to vie for supremacy. And at this moment, there is no challenger on the horizon for the lone lightweight king.

It takes no great courage to say that B.J. Penn would be an overwhelming favorite if matched up with any contender under contract to Zuffa. What’s more troubling is that the prospective fights don’t even seem that interesting. Sanchez/Penn feels like a massacre. Guida/Penn sees a takedown artist against a guy who’s impossible to take down. Henderson/Penn appeals only to those of us who hobby in contortionism. And Varner/Penn might be subject to a PETA raid should it be promoted.

So what lightweight match could work? The obvious answer is Penn vs. Shinya Aoki. Like in the aforementioned matchups, Penn would be a heavy favorite. But in Aoki, Penn would, for the first time in the 155-pound weight class, see a championship opponent whose Jiu Jitsu skill level approaches – or possibly even exceeds – his own.

There are, of course, reasons beyond competition to make this fight happen, both for B.J. Penn and Dana White. Aoki is popular in Japan, which could allow Penn to graft on and become an eastern sensation as well. White has stated that running a stadium show in Hawaii is a goal, and a popular Japanese fighter in a place heavily traveled by Japanese tourists would allow him an entrée to the Japanese market without the hassle of having to penetrate the politics of promoting on Japanese soil and with the comfort of maintaining high ticket prices even with the larger venue.

It all seems like quite the slam dunk until you run into that little bugaboo that keeps many dream matches from happening: co-promotion. There’s no sign that UFC will consider taking on a partner and, frankly, no short-term business reason for them to change their minds. As much as curmudgeons like yours truly harp on the long-term damage that could be done by their intransigent stance on working with other promoters, the fact is that Zuffa has been wildly successful at building up contracted fighters without having to relinquish even a smidgen of control. That’s a hard cocoon to crawl out of, even if you want to. And we all know that Dana White doesn’t want to.

Still, there has to be some hope. The whole Fedor/M-1 fiasco surely left a sour taste in Dana’s mouth, but maybe FEG is different. Maybe they’ll be willing to sort of take on the role that UFC did when they sent Chuck Liddell to the PRIDE middleweight Grand Prix back in 2003. It may be a long shot, but with a distinct lack of marquee fights possibly looming, Aoki vs. Penn in Honolulu is one fight that could provide something memorable.

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