BJ Penn faces Dennis Siver at UFC 199

MANILA, Philippines – BJ Penn’s comeback bout has now a date and venue as he is slated to square off with German featherweight Dennis Siver on the undercard of the UFC 199 pay-per-view event on June 4 (June 5 in PH).

The world’s premier mixed martial arts organization cleared Penn to compete after his return to the Octagon was delayed due to recent allegations of sexual assault and drug use by his former employee.

“We have taken a look at the available facts, which aren’t too substantial, and there are two stories of what happened. To date, there has no action at all taken by any law enforcement agency. We decided to allow BJ 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,” UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein said in an interview with Yahoo Sports. 

Penn (16-10-2) announced his decision to come out of retirement this past January after briefly calling it a career when he suffered a brutal third-round stoppage loss to Frankie Edgar in July 2014.

The 37-year-old native of Hilo, Hawaii is currently on a 3-fight losing skid and has not won a single match since he knocked out Matt Hughes in just 21 seconds in November 2010. 

Penn, who remains as one of the only two fighters in UFC history to win world titles in multiple weight classes, was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in July 2015 for his stellar stint in the lower weight classes.

In the other corner, Siver (22-11, 1 NC) has not fought since 2015 when he tasted two-straight setbacks, succumbing to a second-round technical knockout defeat to Conor McGregor in January of that year before being outpointed Tatsuya Kawajiri via unanimous decision 5 months later. 

UFC 199, which takes place at The Forum in Los Angeles, California, features two championship clashes as co-headlining main events. 

Newly-minted UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold locks horns with former division kingpin Chris Weidman in a rematch, while bantamweight titleholder Dominick Cruz faces longtime rival Urijah Faber for the third time. – Rappler.com