"It used to be that he would just lay around after each fight until he was ready to come back again and train for the next one and we told him, ‘come on, it’s time to get serious,’ and I didn’t like that," Valentino told InsideFighting.

In his past two fights, however, Penn has looked as sharp as ever. He appears to have a renewed focus and a new motivation to maximize his enormous potential.

"He’s down to 160 already," said Valentino. “I’ve been with BJ all these years, we’ve won a few titles but I’ve never seen motivated like this before. Two weeks after the Stevenson fight he was back in the gym training full time again. He’s on track. It took a few years for him to get mature but he‘s there. He is training like a mad man and is really hungry to fight. There is no f_king way he will give up or be looking for an out during the fight. BJ is going to make a mark."