B.J. Penn Wants Wild West Justice For Sean Sherk

(Scene from a jiu-jitsu tournament, or an extremely amicable episode of Maury Povich's paternity test show?)

If you love your title fights with a side of acrimony (and who doesn't) then the B.J. Penn-Sean Sherk bout at UFC 84 is definitely for you. It's no secret that these guys don't like each other. Sherk thinks Penn's a quitter. Penn thinks Sherk's a cheater. It's a fun little back and forth.

But in a recent interview with Sirius Radio's "Sports Rage", Penn kicked it up a notch with his anti-Sherk rhetoric. Here are some excerpts from the full broadcast:

" … I know there are a lot of people out there doing steroids, cheating and every time I run into one of them, I'm going to call them on it and then I'm going to beat the shit out of them …

… It's going to be a historic night because all the kids out there will realize that you can do it with just hard work alone …He wants to say he has heart and all this different shit, but you can't confuse steroids with heart.

… What would happen in the old days when you get caught with a couple of aces up your sleeve, they kill the guy right there and that's why I say Sean Sherk is dead…"

Tell me, who's still not excited for this fight? Anyone?

Nothing makes for an intense fight quite like death threats. I was willing to ascribe the first one to Penn being a little pumped up following his victory over Joe Stevenson, but after he repeated it with a calm rationale to explain why he wants to murder Sherk, well that's just plain mean. Also pretty awesome.