"I'm gonna get through all of his skills," Penn said during a UFC 94 conference call. "He's tough and he's all these things, but once I get through, he's going to be empty on the inside, and that's how I'm going to finish him."
Of course, there's a history to Penn's argument here. After all, there was a time when even Georges St. Pierre questioned himself. After his first fight against Matt Hughes, a loss, he noted that even though he was fighting reasonably well in the bout, he didn't feel as if he was during the fight. Come to find out that Hughes had been his idol. Unfortunately for St. Pierre, that fact got into his head to the point that he treated him differently. He didn't fight his fight.
St. Pierre lost that head game. He just wasn't the stronger fighter from a mental end at that time, and Penn believes that he will win from that end when these two meet at UFC 94.
"I'm just gonna beat him with my mind and my heart," Penn said.
Of course, St. Pierre hasn't been lacking in confidence for a while now. Along with this, he came back from his loss against Hughes to dominate twice. Though he lost to Matt Serra via TKO at UFC 69, he came back to stop him at UFC 83. "I learned a lot from my losses," he said. "I've been through a lot of stuff. I think these obstacles made me stronger. The fighting is not all about strength and technique, it's about the mental (aspect). The closer the fight will be, the more mental it will be because our training will be done. So it's very important for me, this aspect. I think it's very underrated. The mental aspect is very, very important."
With both fighters believing that mental fortitude will go a long way toward determining the winner here, a battle line has clearly been drawn. Will Penn, who believes that he has put in enough time in training to be the better-conditioned fighter in this championship bout, win if this match becomes a dogfight? Or will St. Pierre, who came out with a victory the last time these two fought in what amounts to his only close fight ever, be the mentally stronger combatant? Both have dealt with their own demons before: Penn with a lack of training (by his own admission), St. Pierre with believing in himself (again, by his own admission). Both seem to have overcome it all.
But only one can win at UFC 94.
"It's going to be very hard," said St. Pierre regarding his upcoming fight. "It's going to cost me a lot of things. But at the end, I'll be the victor, and my goal is to finish him."
When two fighters are close in skill, it usually comes down to heart and the mental aspects of the game. It will be interesting to see which fighter is stronger in these areas at UFC 94.