Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn is coming back to the Octagon to face Ryan Hall on Dec. 29. Though he has numerous accomplishments throughout his career, there have been many calls for him to retire over recent years, but Penn has his reasons for returning to the Octagon, including numerous fans that don’t want him to walk away.
Hall won The Ultimate Fighter 22 and is on a six-fight winning streak. Penn likes the match-up and believes selective matchmaking is important at this point in his career.
“Matchmaking at my age now, I’m almost 40 years old, I think matchmaking is important,” he said while training in Brazil. “Maybe I didn’t take these precautions when I was younger, but who cares? Right now I want to figure out what I can do and how I can set myself up for the best success possible.”
The former two-division UFC champion can’t escape people asking him when he’s going to get back in the cage. He now has a date and an opponent.
“Everywhere I go, it doesn’t matter, I don’t’ care what anybody says, everywhere I go, any building I walk into, somebody walks up to me and somebody says, ‘BJ, when are you going to fight again? Please fight again. Please fight again,'” he explained.
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(Video Courtesy of MMAFighting.com)
