The recent news of BJ Penn training at the JacksonWink MMA academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico has a lot of fans getting excited about what the future could hold for “The Prodigy.”

We got to speak with BJ after his first official day of working with Greg Jackson and the JacksonWink team.

“Ever heard the song ‘cut my life into pieces, this is my last resort,’ BJ said laughing when asked on how he ended up in New Mexico at the JacksonWink MMA Academy. “I needed to be around the top people if I’m going to have any chance at making a run for anything. I’ve watched Greg Jackson for years and his great work with Jones, Holm, Arlovski, Overeem. This is amazing right now. I’ve also had the opportunity to compete against him and I know that he knows my game very well, he knows my strengths and my weaknesses. It’s a great fit.”

Regarding how the first day of training went on Wednesday, Penn said “Greg has me acclimating slowly right now. I been doing private lessons with Greg Jackson and he is setting up the schedule to work with many different martial arts instructors. It really is very exciting. These guys are serious, it’s making me serious.”

While Penn says he has yet to work with the other moving part to the JacksonWink team in Mike Winklejohn, the time will come soon. “I think tomorrow, everybody says he’s the man though!”

Penn also mentioned he only met with Jon Jones and Holly Holm today but is looking forward to putting in serious work with the world class fighters. “We will definitely work a lot. Greg seems to already have me on some periodization plan to ease into his schedule. I’m not really asking Greg too much questions, just letting him run the whole show.”