UFC 127: BJ Penn Prepares for Fitch By Bringing in Matt Hughes

In less than two weeks, BJ Penn will meet Jon Fitch inside the Octagon in what will be one of the biggest fights of his long MMA career. Fitch is widely considered the No. 2 welterweight in the world and so a victory for BJ would put him very close to rematch with George St-Pierre.
What a lot of people are wondering going into this fight is how BJ Penn is preparing for Jon Fitch. After Penn's second loss to Frankie Edgar, it became apparent that BJ wasn't surrounding himself with the right kind of people to prepare for his fights. Penn was clearly losing the fight and the best advice his corner had to offer in between rounds was "Smash him, BJ." Penn relied far too much on his own natural talent going into that fight and didn't work enough on actual strategy.
Going into his fight with Fitch, it looks as if Penn has learned from his mistakes. BJ brought in welterweight legend Matt Hughes to help him prepare.
While Hughes isn't exactly relevant at welterweight these days, his style is very similar to Fitch's. Both men have decent hands, but do not possess devastating knockout power. Both are excellent wrestlers and rely heavily on their grappling ability to win fights.
Fitch and Hughes do have some differences, however. Hughes has the better submission game and so Penn will likely be ready for any submission Fitch will go for, although Penn's submission defense wasn't really in question to begin with.
Another huge difference is that Hughes is on his way out of the UFC and Fitch is in the prime of his career. Based on that, BJ should expect that Fitch will be stronger than Hughes and will probably have better cardio too.
Although Hughes may not be an exact copy of Fitch, he is definitely one of the best people Penn could have brought in to mimic Fitch's style, as well as help him develop his game plan.
It's great to see that Penn is working hard and developing an intelligent strategy for this fight, rather than relying on his natural ability. But will the hard work pay off? Watch UFC 127 on Feb. 26 to find out.