With nearly a month to go until ‘UFC Fight Night: Manila’, where #4 ranked featherweight Ricardo Lamas, and UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn will have their highly anticipated featherweight showdown, the pair had their first staredown for the fight.

The fight is a pivotal one for both men. Earlier this year, Penn formally ended his retirement, and expressed his intentions to make a run at the featherweight championship with the help of JacksonWink MMA coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. After a brief suspension for using an IV in training camp, the UFC booked Penn to fight former featherweight title challenger Ricardo ‘The Bully’ Lamas.

Lamas is fresh off a unanimous decision loss to Max Holloway in what many consider to be one of the most thrilling fights of the year. Prior to that, Lamas picked up a unanimous decision win over Diego Sanchez, putting him back in the win column after a 1st round KO at the hands of Chad Mendes.

With Lamas ranked at #4 in a very stacked featherweight division with no clear-cut #1 contender, a win over Penn, an MMA legend, would certainly put ‘The Bully’ right back in title contention.

On the other hand, Penn, who is coming out of retirement in hopes of capturing the UFC featherweight championship, could very well find himself at the top of the featherweight division with a win over Lamas.