BJ Penn's fans are nothing if not loyal, and often blindly so.  While this is true of any contingent of fanatics, the more 'hardcore' nucleus of Penn's following is especially creative and forthcoming in crafting excuses for his every misstep. 

On the forums of the Honolulu Advertiser, I came across this gem:

I am not sure if this is completely factual but I heard that BJ was in the hospital on Wednesday before the fight because he got sick with the flu or somehting. That is why BJ didn't look like his old self. Even during the weigh in, he didn't look like himself. I am not making excuses, but if this is true then it answers a lot of questions. Many of you will ask? why didn't he just cancel the fight if he was sick? Think about it...if you had millions of dollars on the line and thousands of fans that came to see you would you cancel the fight. Either way I am still going to be a BJ Penn fan!

It wasn't long before another fan picked up on the above post and added fuel to the fire with another "I heard..." bit of behind-the-scenes reporting.

I heard he had his stomach pumped at the ER because of food poisoning.

Is it any coincidence, that with the exception of the light heavyweight division, the titleholders in the UFC are all the biggest guys in their respective weight classes? It depresses me a bit, because I like to cheer for the underdog, the smaller guy who has more to overcome in order to win. It’s part of what made Van Damme movies so much more exciting than Seagal movies. Seagal just looked big enough to beat the snot out of opponents, Aikido or not.

GSP is a huge welterweight and he’s the WW champ. Who was the second best WW? Jon Fitch, who is also huge, coming down from light heavyweight. It’s probably no coincidence that he lasted the longest with GSP during GSP’s recent reign of terror. And who’s the second best WW now? Alves, who is also monstrous.

Anderson Silva too, has received some criticism for his size. It makes it harder to cheer for a guy, for me, when that guy is towering over everyone he fights. It’s like cheering for a bully. Along with the WWE stigma that Brock carries with him, his enormousness is part of the reason why people (well, at least I—) regularly root against him.

That’s why I love Fedor. He’s actually SMALL for his weight class, and beats the snot out of everyone anyway. Detractors speak of the supposedly lesser quality of opponents he faces in P4P discussions, but GSP, Silva, even Penn, are regularly beating elite opponents who are smaller than them.

I should probably clarify that I’m a big fan of those three fighters; I’m a proud Canadian, so I get behind GSP at all times (that doesn’t sound good…), but his recent thrashing of Penn got me thinking.