UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn appeared on Wednesday’s UFC Tonight program on Fox Sports 1, and expressed interest in coming back to fight because of words he’s exchanged with one Mike Dolce.
Penn worked with Dolce – who purports to have the nutritional knowledge to help fighters with their weight and overall health – briefly into his final fight with Frankie Edgar last year, and when that bout went poorly for the former champion things boiled over a bit. It apparently hasn’t stopped, either, and Penn said he’d come out of retirement to prove a point.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing about Mike Dolce,” Penn said. “I’ll put a challenge out right now: You go get Nik Lentz, your boy, bring him down to 145 and I’ll run right through him in one round and then I’ll find you in the back and smash you. If Dolce says I don’t train, let’s do this. I would come out for this. Some things were said, got heated. I worked with him for 20 days and paid him $1000 a day. I’m sick of hearing that.
“[If I came back it would be] at 145 [lbs]. Let’s do this. That was my last fight. I had a bad showing. I’m ready for something like this. I haven’t been in a gym for two years. I’ll come back for the grudge match, then we’ll see.”
Penick’s Analysis: Is anyone actually interested in seeing B.J. Penn fight again? I’m asking this honestly, and please feel free to send in an answer to us on Twitter (@mmatorch) here, because I just don’t know who wants or needs to see that. He got destroyed by Frankie Edgar in his first and only attempt at a featherweight fight. Destroyed. He was beaten up on the feet by Rory MacDonald and Nick Diaz in his two previous fights. His accomplishments in the past don’t mean he has it in him to be competitive right now; maybe he could find success in a single return fight, but it’s been hard enough to watch the last three, and that stretch of three fights already spans four years. It has been almost five years since he last scored a UFC victory. A comeback is simply ill-advised.
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