Would BJ Penn moving to 170 be good for the UFC, Penn?

Penn recently stated on his personal website that he has been in talks with UFC brass about a move up to the welterweight division.

“Dana has expressed some things to me that he would want to see this year, maybe me in the welterweight division.”  ”We will see. I have got a tough fight with Frankie Edgar coming up. [And] there is always good lightweight talent. There is a bunch of welterweight contenders up there. I guess I would just have to say, I don’t have my mind set on anything yet… I don’t want to jump the gun and give away all Dana’s plans!”

As with everything, this is just about tradeoffs, but is this is a good move?  Let’s take a look at what each interested party stands to gain, and what they stand to lose.

BJ Penn

It seems to me that this move makes the least amount of sense for Penn.  BJ is the former welterweight champion, having beaten Matt Hughes six years ago and shortly thereafter having his title stripped after leaving the organization.  Now, if he hadn’t upset Hughes I would say fighting for the title at 170 would be more of a motivation, but since it’s already on his resume it doesn’t seem to be worth the risk.  Since the Hughes fight in 2004, Penn has gone 0-3 in the UFC’s welterweight division losing twice to Georges St. Pierre and once to Hughes.  With such a dodgy record at 170 and with GSP likely not going anywhere anytime soon, I can’t see BJ becoming any more than a sort of gate keeper of the division.  Sort of a Rich Franklin type character who, while good, never seemed to be able to reach the pinnacle of the weight class.  Penn would also be fighting much bigger opponents, guys who are cutting a tremendous amount of weight more than most fighters at 155.  With so many of the division’s top fighters (GSP, Alves, ect) walking around at over 200lbs, I don’t think Penn would be able to keep up.  BJ also loses his lightweight title in the move north; something the man has dedicated his life to achieving.  Wouldn’t it be hard giving up something you worked so hard for only to watch someone you’ve probably already beaten, or worse haven’t, be crowned the new champ?  Who knows?  Aside from the loss of the strap goes the money.  The loss of income from routinely defending a title could weigh heavily on the decision but I think the UFC would be smart enough to account for that by giving him a new contract.

UFC

Well, the UFC seems to be interested in the move so they must perceive the potential benefits to outweigh costs.  They currently have what many believe is the greatest lightweight of all time so why would they want to change that?  The “cleaning out the division” explanation has been thrown out there alot but is that any excuse to move a fighter out of their best suited (and dominant) weight class?  People pay good money to see Penn fight, preferably defending a title.  Would the income gained from having him possibly as a co-main event or main card regular at 170 make up the difference of revenue lost from people not tuning in to see some lesser 155er defend his title?  The move doesn’t make much sense to me.  If you want to challenge him, sign better talent, it’s out there.  Don’t change something that isn’t broken.  If people enjoy the product you sell to them is it really worth the risk of changing it to make it possibly better?  Ask the guy who came up with “New Coke” back in the 80’s.  In my opinion this is a bad move by the UFC.  They gain a new ripple at 170 at the loss of a wave at 155.