For waking up the sleeping giant. Without Jens, Penn wouldn't have gone on to win the LW belt.
Quote:
Hall: You've fought several top fighters: B.J. Penn, Takanori Gomi, Hayato Sakurai. Who's the best?
Pulver: Oh, B.J.'s the best. People asked me before the rematch, and I told them straight up: I'm going to get the best B.J. Penn. No ands, ifs or buts about it. I'm going to get the one that's trained. I'm going to get the one that's trying to get back in the saddle, the one that's aggressive and will get after it. I definitely woke a sleeping giant with that show. The B.J. Penn that I fought, that's definitely the best fighter I've ever fought -- hands down.
When people see him fight again, they're going to see it again. He's redirected in the aspect that he knows he's a great fighter and now he's training like one again. That's what it takes. He woke me up too. It takes that rivalry. That rivalry brought me back. That rivalry I know was what brought him back -- he told me. I'll be silently cheering him on -- and I mean silently. I'll be rooting for him because I definitely think there's a lot more to B.J. Penn that you haven't seen.
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