No matter how many times we say it, it appears that fewer and fewer MMA fighters are willing to abide by our ban on unretirement. The latest fighter on that list: BJ Penn.
Yes, after hinting at a union with Greg Jackson and calling out Nik Lentz last week, Penn officially announced his second unretirement on today’s MMA Hour, stating “I’m coming back for honor. I’m coming back to do this, give everything I got.”
No matter how many times we say it, it appears that fewer and fewer MMA fighters are willing to abide by our ban on unretirement. The latest fighter on that list: BJ Penn.
Yes, after hinting at a union with Greg Jackson and calling out Nik Lentz last week, Penn officially announced his second unretirement on today’s MMA Hour, stating “I’m coming back for honor. I’m coming back to do this, give everything I got.”
Clearly looking to rebound from his uncharacteristically poor, career-ending performance against Frankie Edgar in July of 2014, Penn stated a desire to prove himself as an elite member of his new home, the 145 pound division, as the main reasoning for his comeback.
“I want to go get that 145-pound belt. That’s definitely a huge motivation for me,” said Penn. “I believe with Greg Jackson’s help, I can get that done. And I believe that I will be able to walk away as the only man with three titles in three weight divisions.”
A lofty aspiration to say the least, especially at 37 years old. That being said, it’s hard to argue against seeing the potential return of Motivated Penn™, which is what he appears to be. Motivated, I mean. He used that exact word right there, and is apparently placing a “pull the plug” clause into his contract with Greg Jackson to let us know how super serious he is this time around.
And I told Jackson that if I can’t do this, you let me know. You come straight to me, Greg. You see me sparring one day, you look at me and say ‘this guy don’t got it anymore,’ pull the plug right now. I got a wonderful life back in Hawaii. I love my life. But I love fighting more.
And he’s very confident that we can get something done. With somebody like that, who has so many champions himself and who has does as well as he has in this sport, when he tells me that: ‘I know you can go out and I know you can beat all these guys,’ it gives me a lot of confidence.
You know, perhaps it’s fitting that, on the very day that Penn submitted Joe Stevenson to become the UFC lightweight champion back in 2008, he begins the journey that could possibly end in him securing the featherweight title. But even as a huge fan of the guy, I simply can’t overlook the odds stacked against him here. You know, odds like:
1) Penn is 1-6-1 in his last 8 fights
2) Penn has not picked up a win since 2010 — a 13-second KO of the similarly over-the-hill Matt Hughes
3) Penn is 37 years old
4) Physically, Penn looked the worst he ever had in his featherweight debut
5) You know who the current #1 contender at featherweight is? Frankie Edgar
While both Penn and Greg Jackson are capable of doing some amazing things, I’d just hate to see the former wind up like he did after his last fight — head clasped firmly in his hands, choking back tears and openly regretting ever coming back to the sport. That was a goddamn tough moment to sit through, you guys, and I can only imagine what it was like for Penn and his family. But as is so often the case with the warriors that this sport chews up and spits out, fighting is all that Penn seems to know, and if those around him can’t stop him from competing, how can we possibly expect to?
Last week legendary former UFC lightweight and former UFC welterweight champion BJ “The Prodigy” Penn took to his official twitter account, hinting at a potential return to action and indicating that he would be training with highly touted coach Greg Jackson. Appearing on today’s (January 19, 2016) edition of the MMA Hour, the 37 year
Last week legendary former UFC lightweight and former UFC welterweight champion BJ “The Prodigy” Penn took to his official twitter account, hinting at a potential return to action and indicating that he would be training with highly touted coach Greg Jackson.
Appearing on today’s (January 19, 2016) edition of the MMA Hour, the 37 year old confirmed his comeback, noting that he has his eyes on the featherweight title:
“That’s who I am, Ariel,” Penn told host Ariel Helwani. “That’s who I am. That’s what I do.
“I want to go get that 145-pound belt. That’s definitely a huge motivation for me. I believe with Greg Jackson’s help, I can get that done. And I believe that I will be able to walk away as the only man with three titles in three weight divisions.”
Although it would be incredibly difficult given the current state of his career, Penn would indeed make history if he were able to capture 145-pound gold.
Losing his last three bouts to date, the former two division world champion retired after coming out on the short end of a one sided beating against Frankie Edgar in 2014. Apparently not quite ready to call it quits just yet, “The Prodigy” knows this is his last chance, but with Jackson in his corner he seems confident in his future:
“I’ve been kind of thinking about it for a while. But, this is my last resort, and I’m going to give it everything I got,” Penn said.
“I made sure to tell Greg, I let him know the other day that if I can’t do this, Greg, in any way, shape, or form, you feel that B.J. doesn’t belong in the ring, please let me know. Please let me know. And he’s very confident that we can get something done. With somebody like that, who has so many champions himself and who has does as well as he has in this sport, when he tells me that: ‘I know you can go out and I know you can beat all these guys,’ it gives me a lot of confidence.”
Having not won a single bout since 2010, Penn wants to assure himself that he won’t return in the form he had been fighting in near the tail end of his run, but at the end of the day, he’s eager to challenge himself against the best fighters in the world:
“I don’t want to be a shell of my former self,” Penn said. “And I told Jackson that if I can’t do this, you let me know. You come straight to me, Greg. You see me sparring one day, you look at me and say ‘this guy don’t got it anymore,’ pull the plug right now. I got a wonderful life back in Hawaii. I love my life. But I love fighting more.
“I realize what I’m up against. I’ll go out right now and give all my respect to these guys. These guys are animals. These guys are the best athletes in the world, and I want to go and take my place among them.”
Although the cards seemed to be stacked against him, Penn is a special type of athlete, and Jackson is notorious for reviving the careers of those who have seemed to be passed by.
As for what the future holds, UFC President Dana White also confirmed the news, but has nothing planned as of now:
“(It’s) true,” White wrote via text message when contacted by MMAjunkie. “But I don’t know when or who he will fight.”
Who would you like to see “The Prodigy” return against?
UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division champion BJ Penn officially announced his return to the Octagon on Tuesday.
Per an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (via MMAFighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti), the 37-year-old plans to take another …
UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division champion BJ Penn officially announced his return to the Octagon on Tuesday.
Per an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani (via MMAFighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti), the 37-year-old plans to take another shot at the 145-pound title belt and will work with trainer Greg Jackson.
Penn’s last outing in the Octagon was a disappointing loss against Frankie Edgar. His last win came in 2010, when he knocked out Matt Hughes.
One of the strangest, most random feuds between UFC fighters over the last year has been BJ Penn’s beef with Nik Lentz. After months of fighting words, however, both men are now looking for an actual fight.
After being called out through an Instagram o…
One of the strangest, most random feuds between UFC fighters over the last year has been BJ Penn’s beef with NikLentz. After months of fighting words, however, both men are now looking for an actual fight.
After being called out through an Instagram on Wednesday, Lentz is now campaigning for a bout with Penn at UFC 197…sort of. In a lengthy response to Penn, which was first broken by MMAFighting.com (Warning, NSFW language in this and every link hereafter) via Chuck Mindenhall, The Carny put forward a list of demands to Penn.
“I received your poorly-worded, utterly predictable, message,” he said. “In spite of its clumsy structure, awful spelling…I’m considering your request.” Lentz then sets some parameters for the bout.
First and foremost, he states he will not be able to fight at UFC 197 and predicts that Penn will not be able to either, regardless of what Penn’s “yes men” are telling him. He also says he will not be able to compete at 145 pounds and instead demands the fight take place at lightweight.
If this seems strange and sudden to anyone…well, it should. The Penn vs. Lentz rivalry dates to September, when Lentz was caught in the middle of a beef between Penn and nutritionist Mike Dolce. Penn ripped into Dolce for downplaying his own role in Penn’s camp ahead of his third bout with Frankie Edgar and for criticizing Penn’s training regimen.
He would go on to call out one of Dolce‘s past pupils, Lentz (while promising to beat him up after). Lentz took exception and fired back through poetry (no, really).
Things have been relatively quiet since but regained steam recently when Penn posted a photo of himself next to famed MMA coach Greg Jackson on Instagram with the words “we coming” alongside tags to the UFC and the company’s president, Dana White. That was followed by a definitive call-out from Penn a short time later.
Where things go from here is anyone’s guess. Penn’s most recent fight, an ill-fated featherweight bout in July 2014, seemed like it would be his last. That said, the UFC would most likely be happy to welcome Penn’s star power back into the fold, if not simply because Bellator is making overtures at every MMA legend that may be interested in a return.
That said, Penn’s calls for a bout at UFC 197 definitely feel a bit overambitious, but a bout closer to summertime, for better or worse, feels like a real possibility. Keep an eye on Bleacher Report to see how this shakes out.
If you though BJ Penn was staying retired, think again. You have to check out Nik Lentz’s reaction to Penn’s statement though, it’s priceless… Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champ BJ Penn recently announced he was training at the famed Jackson’s MMA with fellow ex-champion Jon Jones. He issued a stern challenge to his rival
If you though BJ Penn was staying retired, think again. You have to check out Nik Lentz’s reaction to Penn’s statement though, it’s priceless…
Former UFC welterweight and lightweight champ BJ Penn recently announced he was training at the famed Jackson’s MMA with fellow ex-champion Jon Jones. He issued a stern challenge to his rival Nik Lentz, stating he wanted to fight ‘The Carny’ at UFC 197. It all stemmed from an offensive poem that Lentz wrote about Penn and his family, that got the Hawaiian BJJ ace all riled up, and now looking like he is fully ready to make his comeback to MMA.
BJ Penn and Ronda Rousey during a recent grappling session…
So the news of Penn’s potential comeback hasn’t even began to settle in, and already Lentz has fired back with a wicked comeback, half statement, and half poem. Who’d have known that Nik Lentz was such a poet? This runs a lot deeper than just a little beef before a potential fight though, the situation with famed nutritionist Mike Dolce is embroiled in this whole saga too.
‘The Prodigy’ had hired Mike Dolce to handle his gruesome final weight cut for his trilogy making fight against Frankie Edgar back in 2014. Of course we now know that Penn had no business fighting at featherweight, where Frankie is more of a beast than he was at lightweight in all fairness. As it was, BJ got smashed, but he came out and blasted Dolce in the media after the fight, claiming he hadn’t done his job at all, and refusing to pay the dietary advisor the $22,000 that was owed to him.
So there’s the background of this beef, with the most recent shots coming from BJ Penn during his video with Jon Jones.
Lentz’s hilarious reaction is so long that we dedicated a whole page to it, skip to page 2 to see it…
Despite not scoring a win since 2010, having his soul stolen by Frankie Edgar in his last octagon appearance, and admitting that he “shouldn’t have come back” before emotionally retiring for realsies in the evening’s post-fight press conference, BJ Penn…wants to come back. And not only that, he wants to come back to face Nik Lentz, who has been goading him into a fight on social media for months now, in March. This is sad, we’re all sad for hearing it, so on and so forth…
It all started when Penn snapped the above photo with Greg Jackson, with the caption “We coming!” Jackson later told reporters that he was “very optimistic” about Penn’s future following a meeting with the former two-division champion, who then proceeded to formally challenge Lentz to a fight at UFC 197 on March 5th.
Penn chose an ambitious timetable for his return, to say the very least, and yesterday evening, Lentz responded with what must be the most cold-blooded takedown in the history of combat sports.
Despite not scoring a win since 2010, having his soul stolen by Frankie Edgar in his last octagon appearance, and admitting that he “shouldn’t have come back” before emotionally retiring for realsies in the evening’s post-fight press conference, BJ Penn…wants to come back. And not only that, he wants to come back to face Nik Lentz, who has been goading him into a fight on social media for months now, in March. This is sad, we’re all sad for hearing it, so on and so forth…
It all started when Penn snapped the above photo with Greg Jackson, with the caption “We coming!” Jackson later told reporters that he was “very optimistic” about Penn’s future following a meeting with the former two-division champion, who then proceeded to formally challenge Lentz to a fight at UFC 197 on March 5th.
Penn chose an ambitious timetable for his return, to say the very least, and yesterday evening, Lentz responded with what must be the most cold-blooded takedown in the history of combat sports.
Check it out below, via MMAFighting, then down a shot every time you recoil from the absolute savagery of Lentz’s words. You will be dead within 3 paragraphs.
BJ, I received your poorly-worded, utterly predictable, message. In spite of its clumsy structure, awful spelling, incorrect usage (you state at one point that I wrote a poem about you making fun of yourself), and general air of arrogance, entitled stupidity, I’m considering your request.
There are, of course, some conditions.
– I’m never competing at 145 ever again. Neither should you. I came to this conclusion after doing careful research, and deciding what was right for my long-term health as well as my short-term performance. If you fight at 145, it won’t be long before you’re eating banana mush in a nuthouse. I am accountable to my family, and my future with them. Because you are an impulsive tyrant surrounded by yes-men, you have no ability to make rational, intelligent decisions. So I am making this one for you. If we fight, it would be at 155.
– I’m not fighting in March. Neither are you. You may imagine you are, and the imbeciles you surround yourself with may nod in agreement like the trained dogs they are, but you aren’t fighting in March. You’ve lied to your fans, and let them down over and over, and nobody is clamoring to put the BJ PENN EXCUSE FACTORY back in business. Were I to agree to fight you in March and whup your ass, it would only give you and your lackeys the “BJ didn’t have enough time” bullshit excuse. Additionally, if we do fight, it will be on MY timetable, NOT yours. You are retired, and have no schedule. I am an active fighter, on the roster, with a schedule and training platform that is not beholden to your desires, grudges, or need for narcissistic supply.
– You still owe Mike Dolce $22,000. Knowing him, he is too gracious and dignified a man to revisit the traitorous back-stabbing skullduggery you engaged in with him after the third time Frankie Edgar kicked your ass inside-out. I, however, don’t have the luxury of grace, and dignity is best left out of any exchange that includes you. You will donate $22,000 of your purse to the HAWAII DOG FOUNDATION, a no-kill, all-volunteer rescue organization working hard to rescue and rehabilitate dogs in Hawaii, in Mike Dolce’s name.
Give these conditions some thought. They are non-negotiable. They are rules you WILL abide by, or you can go whistle. I have a contract, and plenty of guys to fight. As a Narcissist, you have nothing but an image. And you NEED attention. You have all the money you could ever spend; but it doesn’t satisfy you. I have what you NEED. I’M in charge. You can do what narcissists usually do when confronted by a higher power; SLINK AWAY. Or you can confront your needs, realize I can fulfill them, and come to terms with me, looming over you, holding the….
WHIP HAND.
I’m ALREADY in charge, you poor, deluded, fool. I did more to motivate you with TWO POEMS than all your yes-men, and titles, and highlights could. Get as angry as you want. Go out behind your huge inherited estate and kick rocks. Go cry to your Mommy. Go shit in your hat and bark at the moon. You want to fight? Then it’s on MY terms. FACE IT.
Now run along, little man. Go find a way to swallow your overarching pride and do it MY way, or scuttle about like a deformed crab at low tide, like a masochist at last call, desperately looking for somebody else to thrash you.
You can go to Greg Jackson’s, you can go to Jermaine Jackson’s, you can listen to Mahalia Jackson, you can resurrect Jackson fuckin’ POLLOCK to paint you a better picture of yourself than the one we all see; but…
You’re an unclaimed, busted-down suitcase on a dusty shelf in an abandoned bus-terminal. Accept my conditions, or rot in obscurity.
Nik Lentz Your BOSS”
With all due respect to Penn, I don’t think there’s a thing he could do to Lentz physically that would match the — and I hate to repeat myself here — absolute savagery of what was just said here. This message is the absolute pinnacle of the pen being mightier than the sword, and though I doubt he’ll take our advice, Penn would be best off to just stay retired.
Then again, Motivated Penn is perhaps the most dominant fighter this planet has ever known, above that of even Sea Level Velasquez, “Look in His Eyes” Chuck, and Full Camp Mendes. By Lentz’s own admission, he has motivated Penn more with a poem (which you can read here) “than all your yes-men, and titles, and highlights could.” So the question now becomes: Is Greg Jackson the man to bring Motivated Penn out from hiding, or is BJ just setting himself up for another tearful goodbye?
One of the strangest, most random feuds between UFC fighters over the last year has been BJ Penn’s beef with 
