Whenever people hear “ACL surgery” they assume the worst. I know for a long time, an ACL surgery was the end of an athletes career. I have gotten so many emails from people telling me it ended their football, soccer, track and basketball careers. Tomorrow will be 8 weeks since surgery and I am amazed at how much more I am able to do. Rehab has come a long way. (continue reading…)

Lauzon’s Penn pal has fighter ready
By DAN DUGGAN

17 November 2007
Boston Herald

It didn’t take B.J. Penn long to recognize there was something special about
Joe Lauzon. Penn was a coach on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”
reality show earlier this year and he knew after seeing Lauzon in tryouts
that the young fighter had potential.

“I just had a feeling about him,” Penn said. “When they were in the trials
to test who you want to pick, Joe wasn’t going real hard or doing a bunch of
things, but there was just something about him. He had some kind of fire.”

The only reason Penn hesitated to pick Lauzon was because Jens Pulver was
the opposing coach. In Lauzon’s UFC debut last September, the East Bridgewater
native knocked Pulver out and Penn was amused by the thought of watching the
two have to work together.

“I was looking at all of the picks and I was wondering who we were going to
pick. At first, I was like, `We shouldn’t pick Joe; we should put him on
Jens’ team just to mess with Jens’ head.’ But later on I was really glad
that me and Joe got together.”

The partnership was successful, as Lauzon won three fights during the
season, but lost in the semifinals to Manvel Gamburyan. More importantly for his
future, Lauzon forged a bond with Penn, one of the top lightweights in the
UFC.

After the season, Lauzon (14-3) accepted an invitation to join Penn in his
native Hawaii to train. Lauzon, 23, spent two months training with Penn in
preparation for his fight tonight at UFC 78 against Jason Reinhardt (18-0).

Lauzon jumped right into the five-hour, six-days-a-week training sessions,
something that didn’t surprise Penn.

“He was right there; he didn’t wimp out,” Penn said. “That’s one of the
reasons I wanted him to come (to Hawaii). He’s the kind of guy that gives
100 percent. On the show he was the one guy that anything I asked of him, he did
it in a heartbeat.”

Working with Penn was Lauzon’s first opportunity to train exclusively
without having to balance work, school or television, and Penn thinks the focus
solely on fighting will make a difference.

“Without a doubt (people are) going to see a new Joe Lauzon,” Penn
said. “I’m not going to sit here and say it’s because of me. It’s because of him. He
went there and he did the work. I know he definitely improved a lot in that
time.”

Now that the 5-foot-10, 155-pound Lauzon has the skills to match his
determination, Penn thinks he’ll be even tougher to beat.

“His best attribute is his intensity,” Penn said. “I was going to say
explosiveness or his heart, but it’s his intensity. That’s what he brings.
Every time he learns a new technique it’s just icing on the cake. When Joe
wants to turn it on, he can turn it on. That’s what makes him a great
fighter.”

Penn expects Lauzon to prevail over Reinhardt tonight, which would move him
up another notch in the lightweight division. As Lauzon continues to
improve, the possibility of a teacher-student fight could arise. It wouldn’t be
something that either would enjoy, but Penn understands that there could be
a time when the two meet in the Octagon.

“This is the UFC and it could happen,” Penn said. “As far as that, it’s not
even on my mind. Anytime he needs my help, I’ll help him and I know it’s
vice-versa. If it happens, it happens. There’s nothing we can do about it. If it
did ever happen I’d hope it would have to be for some kind of title fight.
I’m not looking forward to anything like that.”

If the two were to fight for the lightweight title down the road, Penn knows
what he’d tell his prized pupil.

“If I was the champion and Joe made it up there one day to fight me, I would
tell him you have to follow your dream,” Penn said. “And his dream is to be
the champ so you have to do what’s right and you have to go get that
championship belt.”

Interim OK with Penn

While Penn spent time training Lauzon, it’s not as if his fighting days are
over. Penn is scheduled to fight Joe Stevenson at UFC 80 on Jan. 19 for the
interim lightweight championship. The division is currently in flux while
current champion Sean Sherk appeals a positive steroid test.

Sherk failed the test following a win at UFC 73 in July and the appeals
process has been a long one, with his latest hearing postponed until Dec. 4.
Sherk isn’t happy about the fight for an interim champion, but Penn is
unfazed.

“I guess Sean Sherk doesn’t like the fact that we’re fighting for the
interim title,” Penn said. “He says it’s a fake title, but I sit here and say his
title is no more real than Marion Jones’ gold medals. Sean has to realize
that if you call this fake, you have to look in the mirror.”

Penn has his sights set on winning the interim title and then fighting
Sherk, assuming he wins his appeal. While Penn wants to win the title, he wished it
didn’t have to come under these circumstances.

“It’s kind of in shambles and it’s kind of sad,” Penn said. “But that’s
where the sport is right now so we’ll see what happens.”

`Ultimate’ reality

The headline bout tonight pits “The Ultimate Fighter 2″ heavyweight winner
Rashad Evans against “The Ultimate Fighter 3″ light heavyweight winner
Michael Bisbing in a light heavyweight matchup.

The event takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey,
marking the first UFC event on the East Coast in more than two years.

Another week on the Big Island and another update. This weekend was a good time. We had great training all week and then Friday came and it was time to take it a little bit easier. I went and saw Ratatouille with Timmy and his girlfriend. For those of you that haven’t seen it, you should skip it. I blame Greg for making the mistake of going to see it, because he said it was pretty good. We SHOULD have seen Transformers again. Never make that mistake again. Moment of weakness on trying something new…

After the movie, I went out with Hoyt to the Palms and met up with Junior, Larry, Regan and some others. I put out my hand to shake Regans hand he armdragged me across the table and tried to wrist lock me. And people think I’m not training out here. Hanging with the Penns… you are always training. It ended up being an early night because we had training in the morning.

After training we went to a party on the beach and then to a bachelor party for JD, BJ’s brother . That was a good time, and then we went out after to Palms and Detour. Got my ass handed to me in pool a few times and called it a night.

On Sunday we went to Ka Lae and then Mahana Beach. Ka Lae is also known as South Point and is the southern most point on the Big Island and is also the furthest point South you can go in the United States.

We jumped from some ledges into the water, which was the saltiest I have ever been in. I didn’t get water in my mouth and I could still taste the salt. There was also a hole that you could jump down into and land inside a cave.

The water was like a toilet because as the tide went in and out the water level would change. Every 5 or 10 seconds, the water level would change by about 10 feet or so. I skipped out on Jumping into the hole because after everyone heard about jumping from the bridges a couple weeks ago, I promised I would stop doing “stupid stuff” until after my fight. Normally Tony is trying to get me to do things, but even he said something along the lines of “Yah, better to wait… could make a mistake and get really F’ed up on that one”. If Tony is telling me its a good idea to not do it, I’m gonna listen.

After South Point, we went to the Mahana Beach, which is the “Green Sand Beach”. We had to walk about 2 miles to get to the beach but it was a pretty good walk along the water.

The sand at Mahana Beach is green because there is a large deposit of Olivine. I took a few pictures and in some you can see how its green, but in others it looks like normal sand. I think my camera thought the color balance was off and made the pictures less green. You get the idea though.

We don’t just train for the ring, cage or street… we train for the beach! So never wanting to miss a chance to train, Brian and I had the first “Green Beach Takedown Tournament” hosted, reffed and video taped by Tony DeSouza.

Not happy about how the first tournament ended… an immediate rematch was granted.

Shameless Plug, hah.

And last, but certainly not least… the Pats whooped the Cowboys. Great weekend overall.