Bas: Penn, Wand should retire to preserve legacies

UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten appeared recently on Submission Radio and argued that BJ Penn and Wanderlei Silva need to retire to preserve their legacy. Silva is 40, and has been fighting hard for over 20 years. He recently lost a decision to Chael Sonnen in Bellator.

“It’s not as pretty anymore as it was,” said Rutten. “You can tell age is catching up. You can see he’s slower, the reflexes are not there like they used to be, and I think as a fighter you don’t want to be remembered like that. I think he was such a powerful fighter, you want to remember him like that. And then if you see him in a fight like this, well, unfortunately people always say you’re only as good as your last few fights because that’s gonna stick in the minds of the people and now he’s tarnishing what he had before. So yeah, I would like it better if these guys would simply stop.

“For me, it was injuries did the trick for me. I truly believe that if I would not have had any injuries I would have kept on fighting as well, because it’s a very hard thing to let go. But once you see yourself back and you see yourself on video, you know you’re slower, it’s not as explosive anymore. And now it can be dangerous against new fighters who are super explosive, who started training when they were ten years old. You know, it’s a scary thing. I would say just stop it and focus on teaching.

While Wand has alternated wins and losses three times since 2010, BJ Penn, 38, as gone 1-7-1 in that period, and is on a five fight losing streak.

“I love BJ,” said Bas. “Always loved BJ, but I don’t want to see him fight like this. I simply don’t. Also, in his last fight he didn’t look good. He needs to understand that the days are gone. Like I said before, for me the injuries took care of the problem, because otherwise I would have probably been in the same boat, I would have tried to keep on going because it’s something that’s so cool. The working out, you know, I miss it. All the stuff I have to do now. In the early days, I just had to wake up, train really hard, go eat, relax, boom, boom, train another time really hard, sometimes maybe a third session and that was it. But it was the best life because you had all your friends there with you, you know, everybody’s cracking jokes, we’re having a great time, when it’s time for training we train really hard. You know, it’s a hard thing to let go. But unfortunately when you look at yourself back like that, I wouldn’t like to see myself fight like that. If I would see that, I would say, you know, I’m not the guy that I used to be. So, it’s simply, it’s time to stop.

“Once you get hooked, it’s the worst thing and the best thing also. If you fight a very first fight and you knock somebody out, that’s it, you’re done, you’re hooked. You literally cannot let it go anymore because it’s a feeling that you cannot pretty much get anywhere else. You know, you can stop somebody with a move that you worked on for like the last 10 weeks. Maybe you submit them or you knock them out, but it’s a combination that you worked really hard for. And then to see it pay off by way of knockout and the people go nuts, it’s an addiction. It’s a very hard thing for a fighter to let go of. That’s why you see a lot of fighters also when they stop fighting, some guys, like I had an alcohol problem, you start looking for these vices because you can’t get it from fighting anymore, you try to get it somewhere else.

Wise words from a brilliant coach.