UFC Fight Rumors: Retired Fighter BJ Penn Calls Out Nik Lentz
BJ Penn is a fighter who does not intend to back down from any fight, even if he's already technically retired. The former UFC lightweight and welterweight titleholder recently announced that he would gladly come out of retirement just to get a piece of Nik Lentz at UFC 197.
The 37-year-old American mixed martial artist made his retirement official in July 2014 in an emotional retirement speech. This was after he was convincingly defeated via TKO by Frankie Edgar. The decision to retire at that point made a lot of sense because the loss to Edgar was his third in as many fights.
But the Hawaiian-born Penn is seemingly coming out of retirement based on an Instagram post where he is seen in a photo inside the Jackson-Wink MMA in Albuquerque, NM. The same post has a caption that challenges Lentz in a UFC fight.
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According to Penn, the decision to challenge Lentz is based on a previous act by the latter, allegedly making fun of the former and his family. But by digging a little deeper, and as with most fights in combat sports, be it boxing, MMA, or wrestling, everything points to acts to build interest and hype for the fight. Who knows, this has been a planned UFC fight after all.
Penn spent majority of his MMA career in the lightweight division, but he has not fought in that division for almost six years now. It is also worthy of mention that he hasn't tasted victory since 2010, bringing his record in his last seven outings at 1-5-1.
The Brazilian jui-jitsu expert has an unimpressive MMA record of 16-10-1, but that alone does not determine his legacy in the Octagon. In fact, he holds several distinctions in the industry such as being only the second fighter in the history of the UFC to win titles in multiple weight classes. He also became popular after going undefeated in the lightweight division for eight consecutive years comprising nine fights.
