Should BJ move up in weight?

With his recent destruction of Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez, many are now calling for BJ Penn to vacate his lightweight belt and move up in weight. Proponents of this plan cite the lack of competition for BJ at 155lbs and point out that the two most obvious contenders, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, are huge long shots.

While it is true that there seems to be a lack of exciting contenders at lightweight, there are interesting match ups for BJ at 170lbs. For example a fight between BJ and Josh Koscheik could be interesting and a fight with Thiago Alves could pose some problems for the 155 champ. That being said, I firmly believe that BJ should stay at his true weight of 155 lbs.

It is not up to BJ to find worthy opponents. Instead it is the UFC's responsibilities to bring new faces and established veterans into the organizations to challenge BJ. BJ should tell the world, here is the belt..now come and get it. Moving up in weight does nothing to prove who the best 155lber in the world is, instead it just provides new challenges to BJ. Not that BJ avoids new challenges. Remember, he fought Lyoto Machida to a decision at light heavyweight. But it is not BJ responsibility to face bigger guys outside of his natural weight division.

Instead BJ Penn should stay at 155 and dominate until someone shocks the world and beats him or the UFC brings in a fresh face to make some interesting match ups. I truly believe with his skill set that as long as BJ stays committed to fighting, he could rule the division for some time.