BJ Penn’s UFC 152 Return In Question Following Opponent’s Injury

The September 22 return of BJ Penn to the UFC octagon may have to wait, as UFC President Dana White announced Saturday night that Penn’s opponent, Rory MacDonald, will not be able to compete because of an injury.

The announcement was made following the “UFC on FOX 4” show, when White said that MacDonald would not be able to compete on the UFC 152 card because of a cut that the Canadian mixed martial artist suffered over his right eye. MacDonald tweeted a picture of the injury and revealed that it took 38 stitches to close the gash.

The bout between the two came when MacDonald challenged Penn in early June to come out of retirement and face him in the cage. Penn replied on his website, BJPenn.com, saying that he would accept the Canadian fighter’s challenge. Penn, known as “The Prodigy” has retired in October following a damaging loss to Nick Diaz at UFC 137, saying in front of a live pay-per-view audience that he didn’t want his kids to see him look the way he did following that loss.

It is not known whether Penn will have a replacement opponent for the card or have his fight moved, but seeing that he always has something to say and various different platforms to say it, he’s already weighed in on the matter.

On his website, Penn responded by saying “Rory, with all due respect you challenged me to come out of retirement and I accepted. Then, you back out of the fight!”

Penn continued by making it known that he wants the fight to happen as soon as possible. “Now you want to put our fight off for two-more-months, but this fight should happen as soon as the cut heals. 10-weeks from now is plenty of time. Let’s fight on Oct. 13th, that’s more than reasonable,” says Penn.

MacDonald has said that he is willing to fight as early as UFC 154, taking place November 17 in Montreal. It is up to White and the UFC to determine if they want this fight to take place and, if so, when it will happen.