It’s been awhile since BJ Penn went through a weigh-in, a fact that didn’t escape the UFC Hall of Famer.
It’s been awhile since BJ Penn went through a weigh-in, a fact that didn’t escape the UFC Hall of Famer.
“When did they start doing this?” Penn said with a laugh Saturday morning while tipping the scales in Phoenix.
His long-awaited and much-delayed return to the octagon is officially a go.
Hilo’s Penn (16-10-2) weighed in at a fit and trim 146 pounds, the limit for a featherweight non-title fight, and 24-year-old Yair Rodriguez (9-1) was 145 ahead of the main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 103 at Talking Stick Arena. The main card starts at 5 p.m. and will be televised on FS1.
This will be Penn’s second fight at 145 pounds, having lost a third-round TKO on July 6, 2014, to Frankie Edgar — his last fight. Penn is 1-5-1 in his last seven fights, and his last victory came in a 21-second knockout in 2010 over former UFC welterweight king Matt Hughes in the rubber match of their trilogy.
“A lot of people ask me a lot of things,” Penn said Friday on BJPENN.com. “Why you do this? Why you do that? I don’t know, but I know how to fix it. Easy.”
On Friday, Penn told the media he weighed 149 pounds and was ready to pull off the rest, and Saturday’s trip to the scale was his first time participating in the UFC’s early weigh-ins, which began in 2016 to give fighters more time to rehydrate before fight night.
“It’s definitely been easier,” Penn said. “Now that I’m 38 I prepare more in advance. Before, it was just everything raw and everything last minute. I feel fine.”
Penn is using this fight as a potential steppingstone to earning a third title, but the odds are against him.
Rodriguez is about a 5-1 favorite, and 10 of the 13 fight forecasters at www.bloody elbow.com picked Penn to lose.
“First thing you have to do is drain your bank account and put everything on me,” Penn said.
“I don’t blame them,” he said of the naysayers. “I’ve had some bad fights and I’ve made some mistakes. It’s time to fix what we can.”