UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s “The Hot List” this afternnon and announced that BJ Penn would be fighting the winner of the Sean Sherk vs Hermes Franca fight which will take place July 7 at UFC 73.
Seems kind of surprising to me considering that BJ seemed like he wanted to return to the welterweight division and fight Matt Hughes again after his loss at UFC 63. But then again, BJ has stated before that he would like to make a run at collecting as many UFC title belts as he can, so why not start with the Lightweight division and work his way up.
Personally, I don’t like the fact that BJ Penn gets all these title shots instantly in each weight division. Granted, I do agree that BJ is probably at the top of the UFC lightweight and welterweight divisions, but I don’t think he should get granted that title shot just because he returned to the division and beat Jens Pulver. If you remember, I was pretty upset that BJ Penn was the replacement to fight Matt Hughes at UFC 63 after Georges St. Pierre had to pull out with an injury. If BJ had won at UFC 63, he would have been the welterweight title holder after losing his previous fight at welterweight to GSP. Now he drops down to 155 for what he said was just one fight against Jens, and he is going to fight for the title.
What happens if BJ wins the belt from Sherk or Franca. BJ has already said he doesn’t think he wants to stay at lightweight so is he just going to vacate the belt and the UFC will have to crown an interim champ when BJ moves up to 170?
After saying all that, I still would love to see a Penn vs Sherk matchup.
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(via MMA HQ - Mixed Martial Arts News and Analysis)