Ryan Hall fights UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn at UFC 232 on December 29. He hasn’t fought since 2016. During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, he explained why.
I’d say there was a series of things, said Hall, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. You mentioned that there’s the gym [that I run, Fifty/50 Martial Arts Academy]. There’s other things going in life, I’m trying to work on those as well. After fighting Gray, which I felt very fortunate for that opportunity — that was good, and I felt it was unorthodox but most definitely, by any metric, a dominant performance, similar to the fight against Artem — I was definitely looking forward to the opportunity to facing somebody tougher. But what it’s turned out to be is that a lot of the guys that are a little higher up the chain — and I’m not talking about way, way, way up there where I have no business even asking to compete with them — were very reticent to get into the ring, and that was a problem.
I expressed the interest to the matchmaker in the UFC, who’s never been anything but a gentleman to me, that I wanted to face very difficult and challenging opposition, and he said okay. He said, ‘I’ll let you know when that comes around,’ that a lot of those guys have turned down the fight. So, no, I’ve not been spending my time turning down fights. Not a ton of offers have come in, but the ones that have, I’ve accepted wholeheartedly, and finally we got a good one. In B.J. Penn, you have someone who’s clearly not afraid of anyone. This guy fought up to heavyweight, he fought Lyoto Machida, so I don’t think bravery is an issue in his case, and I will try to match that myself.
“I can understand the risk and reward that may be out of whack fighting certain people, and I think it explains a lot about why certain guys are able to get a lot of opponents and a lot of bigger fights, and other people might have significant challenges. Say, for instance, ‘Wonderboy,’ whether now or on the way up, I can’t imagine people are lining up to fight Stephen just because it’s a tricky and challenging fight and there’s only one Stephen Thompson running around. So it’s not as if, let’s say you’re fighting the wrestle-boxer but you have many like him and you can practice for this guy — but you can’t just go down to the local karate school and find a black belt and say, ‘Oh man, this guy’s going to be a good stand-in for Wonderboy.’
As a result, I think it was probably challenging for him until he managed to get in there against Hendricks and Ellenberger — and then you force the issue because of the successes you’ve had — to get those fights. Again, it’s just the nature of the game.
The last thing I want to do is disrespect anyone or cause people extra trouble. And I understand that they have a position as a promoter, I understand that other fighters have positions as other athletes — I glad that they’re able to turn down fights and that they’re not compelled to do things that they don’t want to do, that this is all at will. At the same time, I understand the frustrating components of that, and I would love to a linear progression for everyone, so it’s easier to say — just let’s say, for instance, if you win the quarterfinal, you go to the semifinal; if you win the semifinal you go to the final, no matter what. I think that would make it a lot easier for everyone else if there was a set structure more in place, but fight sports have never been like that for whatever reason.”
So as far as I’m concerned, I understand that other people have their position, but I have mine, and I feel very, very fortunate for the opponent that I have. And I’m glad that, it took awhile and it took a lot of waiting, but I’ve done my best to make good use of the time, so all things considered, I couldn’t be happier. I have a great fight.
