UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn is taking poetry written by UFC lightweight fighter Nik Lentz as fighting words.
Penn, the retired former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion from Hilo, used social media to call out Lentz, who has a mixed martial arts record of 28-7-2, inviting the poet-fighter known as “The Carny” to a showdown at UFC 197.
“This is a formal challenge for Nik Lentz to meet me in the Octagon March 5 in Las Vegas,” Penn wrote Wednesday on Instagram. “Nik you wrote a silly poem about me making fun of me, you said stuff about me and my parents, and you been making a #bringpennback hashtag, I ask you today to be a man and back up everything you said, talk the talk walk the walk, Uncle BJ is mad already.”
The 31-year-old Penn (16-10-2) is apparently angry enough to resume training. He’s in Albuquerque, N.M., at the legendary Jackson Wink MMA gym, the home of stripped UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones, generally considered the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist today, and Holly Holm, who recently claimed the UFC women’s bantamweight belt in spectacular fashion, knocking out previously unbeaten champion Ronda Rousey with a first-round head kick.
Penn also appeared on Wednesday night’s edition of “UFC Tonight” on Fox Sports network. He said he would like to fight Lentz at 145 pounds, a weight Penn fought at only once — his final fight, a third-round TKO loss to Frankie Edgar in July 2014.
“At 145, let’s do this,” Penn said. “That was my last fight. I had a bad showing. I’m ready for something like this. I haven’t been in a gym for two years. I’ll come back for the grudge match, then we’ll see.”
Lentz, a former University of Minnesota wrestler, issued his response to Penn’s challenge Wednesday night with a lengthy missive on the website MMAFighting.com.
He described Penn’s Instagram post as a “poorly worded, utterly predictable, message.”
He also said he would “consider” Penn’s challenge to fight, but added he would do so on his own terms, not Penn’s.
“I’m never competing at 145 ever again. Neither should you,” Lentz wrote, and said 155 pounds is better for him and Penn, performance- and health-wise.
Lentz also said he wouldn’t fight in March.
“You are retired, and have no schedule,” he wrote.
“I am an active fighter, on the (UFC) roster, with a schedule and training platform that is not beholden to your desires, grudges, or need for narcissistic supply.”
Lentz was caught in the crossfire of a public feud between Penn and his former nutritionist, Mike Dolce, who helped Penn cut weight to 145 for his last fight against Edgar.
Dolce also helped Lentz make the 145-pound featherweight limit.
Penn called out Lentz in a television appearance this past fall, apparently unaware Lentz was no longer working with Dolce.
Lentz said Penn still owes Dolce $22,000, and said if he and Penn fight, Penn would have to agree to donating $22,000 of his purse in Dolce’s name to the Hawaii Dog Foundation, a no-kill volunteer dog-rescue group.
The 31-year-old Lentz responded by writing at least two poems blasting Penn. One, which Lentz read on fighter-turned-commentator Chael Sonnen’s podcast in October, called Penn a “fat old dummy” and told him to “go spend your mommy’s money.”
Another, written in December prior to Lentz’s split-decision victory against Danny Castillo, said Castillo “ain’t a bloated coward like B.J. Penn.”
Penn, who went 1-5-1 in his last seven fights — including three losses to Edgar — retired after the final Edgar loss and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame on July 11, 2015.
The sports website Bleacher Report asked readers in an informal online poll, “Do you want to see BJ Penn fight again?” Out of about 3,200 respondents
Thursday afternoon, 55.4 percent said yes, 35.6 percent said no, while 9 percent didn’t know.
Efforts to contact Penn and Lentz were unsuccessful, and a phone message to Penn’s brother, Jaydee, who manages Penn as a fighter, wasn’t returned by press
time.
A UFC spokesman replied to an email inquiring if fight negotiations are underway or if the UFC is interested in Penn and Lentz locking horns inside the Octagon with, “There is nothing to report right now.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett
@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
