BJ “The Prodigy” Penn is scheduled to make his return to the Octagon at UFC 199 against Dennis Siver on June 4 at The Forum in Los Angeles.
The former UFC champion and UFC Hall of Fame legend recently stated that he is coming back for his second fight in the featherweight division for the ultimate goal of winning the 145-pound belt, which will make him the only fighter in UFC history to win championship titles in three different weight classes.
While on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday, Penn talked about his fight with Siver and what the future holds for him in the UFC.
“Dana offered me the fight,” Penn said. “We didn’t know who we were fighting, what was going on. I talked to Greg, Greg made a list of people he wanted us to fight first being that we been gone for two years. When Dana gave me the fight, I told Greg because me and Dana have known each other for so long, we kind of just put together the fight ourselves talking story and stuff.”
Penn said that when he told Jackson that he and Dana had talked about a fight with Siver and that it would be a great action packed fight for the fans, Jackson was content with the opponent as Siver was one of the featherweight fighters they were eyeing for Penn’s return.
Penn said that with Greg Jackson behind him, he will fight anyone but is putting Jackson in control of his fight decisions. When Helwani asked Penn how many wins he thinks it will take to get to a title shot, ultimately it will be Jackson to make the call for when he is ready.
“I think I’m going to let Greg decide,” Penn said. “The public and the public opinion and everything, we might wipe out two guys and they’ll be like ‘come on fight the best guy!’ I think I’m gonna sit back and tell Greg, ‘What do you think? When is the time?’ ”
Fans of “The Prodigy” are undoubtedly waiting to see what kind of performance Penn puts on with working with the team at JacksonWink MMA academy and will see it all unfold on June 4 at UFC 199.
[ooyala code=”B5ZzZtMjE6Otrbfws43SsDU4V8nAMdrB” player_id=”b8fa6431adff441580c2e2bf5e6bd724″ width=”1280″ height=”720″ auto=”true” autoplay=”true”]