BJ PENN WILL RETURN TO THE UFC AT 37
By MMAFighting.com
Los Angeles, CA (January 19th, 2016)– BJ Penn is back. The former two-division UFC champion, who last year was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, announced Tuesday on The MMA Hour that he is officially coming out of retirement with famed trainer Greg Jackson in his corner.
“That’s who I am, Ariel,” Penn said to 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.”
Penn (16-10-2) is a legendary fighter who retired for the second time in 2014 after suffering a third loss in as many tries against Frankie Edgar. Penn, 37, never looked like himself in the loss, which marked the first three-fight losing streak of his famed career.
Even though Penn knows that many will doubt his decision, the Hawaiian trailblazer — who last won in 2010, when he knocked out Matt Hughes in just 21 seconds — believes he owes it to himself to give it one more good shot with the right people behind him.
“I’m going through with this,” Penn said. “If I didn’t have somebody like Greg Jackson to come out and talk to me and tell me that I can do this… of course you’re always going to believe that you’re the best, you’re always going to believe that you can be the champ. But once in a while, you do have to step back and get someone else’s outside opinion.
“And somebody like Greg, he tells me something like that? I look at him, and who cares what everybody else is saying around the world? Have they done what Greg Jackson has done? Do they even know the game at all? This is going to be fun.”
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