Following a disappointing loss to Frankie Edgar, BJ Penn spoke to the media about why he got back in the Octagon for another fight saying:

“I’m thinking to myself, why did you step back into that octagon after the beating that Rory MacDonald gave you? The reason is because I really needed to find out.

“If I didn’t make this night happen for myself, I would have always wondered and went back and forth and begged Dana to let me get back in. I guess I just needed some closure.”

“When the blood started going all in my eyes and everything and the fight started getting real tough, I realized it takes a high, high energy level to compete with the top people in the world,” Penn said. “You could have every technique figured out, this and that, your theories ready to go. At the end of the day, the bottom line is you need a high energy level to compete against these guys. They’re very hungry. They want to be the best.

“I can sit here and say 1,000 times that the sport passed me by, but there’s just such quality people in the UFC at the moment.”