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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
B.J. Penn's return to action is still likely to come against Rory MacDonald, despite MacDonald's cut necessitating a delay from the originally planned UFC 152 date, but now it might be coming later than either of them were initially looking for.
When news of MacDonald's injury first hit, Penn hoped the bout would only be delayed to UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro in October. For his part, MacDonald was looking to return by UFC 154 in mid-November.
However, according to Nate Quarry on Thursday's edition of MMA Uncensored on Spike TV, that bout is likely coming even later than that. Citing an "insider source," Quarry reported that the bout is likely to take place at the next UFC on Fox event, which is expected to hit the network on Dec. 8.
The event is still several months away, so an official announcement from the UFC isn't likely for a little while, but it would mark a big fight for the Fox broadcast should it come to fruition.
Penick's Analysis: This could be a main event fight for the Fox broadcast, but I think they'll look to put one more bigger fight on top of this one. Still, it's a great fight to put on free TV, and I think Penn will be more apt to wait out longer to have a bigger platform for the fight, not to mention avoiding the home of Tri-Star in Montreal. So pushing the fight pack a few more weeks than MacDonald's asked for could be an option, but we'll have to see if it pans out, because Penn may not be wanting to wait quite that long.
[B.J. Penn art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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