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Did Rory go easy

2K views 21 replies 19 participants last post by  No_Mercy 
#1 ·
I'm just curious if anyone may have had the same feeling I had towards the end of the fight. Rory was clearly handling Penn, and at times Penn was offering up ZERO offence. Then we repeatedly see Rory clinching Penn and chilling out against the cage.

Personally I was wondering to myself wtf was going on with that. Now obviously this is just a suspicion so don't jump all over me, id just love to know what you guys think?
 
#3 · (Edited)
I'm not sure what it was - Rory being cautious, pacing himself, trying to make BJ absorb as much damage as possible... but it certainly looked like he could have ended it in the 2nd.

The look on BJs face after some of those liver shots in the 2nd was just disgusting, not sure how he didn't drop to the ground, or why Rory didn't pounce on him at that point. He could have swarmed him and finished him no problem I thought.


Probably has more to do with him training with GSP and at Tristar. No reason for Rory to go for broke when he's dominating the fight, and risk getting flash KOed while jumping ontop of BJ.
 
#5 ·
The look on BJs face after some of those liver shots in the 2nd was just disgusting, not sure how he didn't drop to the ground, or why Rory didn't pounce on him at that point. He could have swarmed him and finished him no problem I thought.
Yea its one thing to pace yourself, but BJ was a dead man standing at some points.
 
#6 ·
I think he absolutely could have finished him if he wanted to. Midway through the 2nd after those body shots the fight was over, which, to me, means one of two things.

Rory went easy on him, or, even worse, refused to finish him because in his head he wanted to embarrass Penn as much as possible (I present exhibit A. The Ali shuffle and JJ Jr impressions), or hurt him as much as possible.

It's his eyes, man. His mouth smiles, but those eyes do not.
They're cold and dead.

(okay I may have gone a bit far with that one)
 
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#10 ·
Well in the post fight you could see his right hand was red and swollen, I think he was afraid of breaking it.

Also BJ is a tough out and he was avoiding that counter right.

And finally he was playing with BJ because the God of War does not want the war to end.
 
#11 ·
I don't think he was playing with BJ, he was just a little overly cautious. He knew a Hail Mary shot was the only way he could lose, so he made sure it didn't happen.

I still thought he should have finished BJ, especially the second time he staggered him, with the body shot, BJ was obviously ready to pack it in there.
 
#13 ·
I highly doubt he took it easy. However it certainly did appear so. Right as he had BJ really badly hurt and buckled over and Herb Dean was really close to stopping the fight he seemed to back off. As others mentioned he probably was pacing himself, but I believe most here would agree that was not the time to hold back. One or two more barrages and BJ was going down to get finished by GnP.
 
#14 ·
I think Rory took it easy on Penn. You could see it in the 2nd BJ was pretty much done, and the third Rory just kind of paced himself and never looked to be going for the finish. I don't think Rory wanted to embarrass Penn because if you ask me Penn embarrassed himself. Penn's the kind of guy who buys his own hype, and the games past that point; you need to fight because you want to know whether you're the best or not, and not because you want to prove to people you're still the best. He's gotta re-invent himself, that's it. He was the best because he was unique at one point in his career, he brought things to the table other fighters didn't, but right now he's still the same BJ Penn as before. Look at fighters like Rory, Jones, GSP, everytime they step foot into the ring we see they've changed something about themselves and what they do. That's what BJ needs to do. His problem is all in his head, he thinks he has it all figured out, he needs to just take a step back and re-evaluate the situation, find himself, and re-invent himself.
 
#19 ·
This fight made me dislike Rory because off all the points everyone is bringing up. The great ones always go for the the finish when they see it. There were so many opportunities where Rory could have pounced and ended it but chose not too. I thought he was doing it to play it safe, but if he just wanted to embarrass Bj to a decision, then I dislike him even more.
 
#21 ·
Maybe he was confused, I know I was when BJ was hurt. BJ is known for his ability to take punishment, that was the first time we've ever seen him really rocked. He was obviously being battered by GSP and Diaz but he never had that look on his face like he did against Rory like a light breeze would make him go down.

My first thought was "WTF, is he playing possum?" I honestly thought he might be faking it to draw Rory in and land a big shot. In retrospect that seems silly but live, at the time it was the first thing in my head, maybe it was the first thing in Macdonald's head too.
 
#22 ·
There are cases of fighters going easy on their opponents. Rory did not against BJ. He fought very poised and as he said, "if the knock out was there he'd go for it, but it wasn't."

Matt Hughes vs Royce.
Anderson Silva vs Thales Leites
Vitor Belfort vs Joe Charles (Old training partner and had a gentleman's agreement to grapple. Vitor won by armbar. I watched this fight live on PPV and was like, "this isn't how Vitor fights." But it also showed me that he had a Jiu Jitsu game many years later against the LHW title holder.)

Maybe Jose vs Faber towards the latter round.
 
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