Barring injury, BJ Penn’s first bout in almost two years is just a few weeks away.
The long-awaited return of one of the greatest of all time has officially been slated for June 4 in Los Angeles, California.
His opponent? None other than fellow veteran Dennis Siver.
Penn vs. Siver takes place on this summer’s UFC 199 card which is headlined by a rematch for the UFC middleweight title between champion Luke Rockhold and former champion Chris Weidman.
Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ Penn has toyed with the idea of returning to action since the turn of the year and has been training in Albuquerque with Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn.
Penn’s comeback had been delayed pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault by a former employee but without any legal proceedings being undertaken against Penn, the promotion have decided to allow him to take a fight.
“We have taken a look at the available facts, which aren’t too substantial, and there are two stories of what happened,” UFC COO Lawrence Epstein told Yahoo Sports. “To date, there has no action at all taken by any law enforcement agency. We decided to allow B.J. to fight. However, we are going to continue to monitor to the situation. If new information, more information, becomes available to us, obviously, we reserve the right to reevaluate.”
Penn last fought in July, 2014 when he lost via TKO to Frankie Edgar, his third defeat in a trilogy with ‘The Answer,’ while Siver is coming off the back of two defeats, having lost to Tatsuya Kawajiri six months after being stopped by Conor McGregor.
Someone will get back in the win column on June 4 and Penn’s comeback is one of the most eagerly awaited in UFC history.
UFC 199 currently looks like this.
- Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman – for middleweight title
- Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber – for bantamweight championship
- Bobby Green vs. Dustin Poirier
- Evan Dunham vs. Leonardo Santos
- Kevin Casey vs. Elvis Mutapcic
- Luiz Henrique da Silva vs. Jonathan Wilson
- “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim vs. Polo Reyes
- Tom Breese vs. Sean Strickland
- John Makdessi vs. Mehdi Baghdad
- B.J. Penn vs. Dennis Siver
