In a recent interview, current UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn talks to Fighters Club TV about possibly returning to the welterweight division for the big New Year’s show:

Right now we’re trying to set up a welterweight fight with me and maybe the winner of (Jon) Fitch and (Georges) St. Pierre, maybe at the News Year’s show end of December, early January. We’ll see what those guys are doing, how banged up they are.

Penn has made no secret of his desire to move back to 170 lbs, going as far as saying as much after his last bout. The former welterweight champ walked away from his belt in 2004 after a shocking victory over Matt Hughes for the title. He returned in 2006 to the division, dropping consecutive fights to then-champ Hughes and current titleholder St. Pierre. Penn proceeded to cut down to lightweight before his stint on “The Ultimate Fighter 5″, culminating in a rematch with Jens Pulver. Since returning to lightweight Penn has transformed into a juggernaut, decimating both Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk on his way to division gold.

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MMA Weekly is reporting that the UFC gathered a total of $3.7 million at the live gate last night for UFC 84: “Ill Will”.  UFC President Dana White reported the figure at the post-event press conference at The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.  The event was headlined by a UFC Lightweight Title fight featuring former champ Sean Sherk against the current strap holder B.J. Penn.

Though Zuffa’s most recent efforts for UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ pulled together a live gate total of $5 million, the $3.7 for last night’s event makes it the fourth highest grossing MMA event in Nevada’s history.  Live attendance for the event totaled out at 14,773 for the night.

Keep checking back for more UFC 84 post-event news! 

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! is indicating that UFC president Dana White isn’t ruling out lightweight champion B.J. Penn’s proposal to move back up to welterweight in order to engage Georges St. Pierre in a rematch:

White has long discouraged Penn from jumping divisions and urged him to clean out the lightweights before thinking of a return to welterweight.

And while White wouldn’t mind seeing Penn make one last defense against the winner of the planned Aug. 9 bout between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta, he conceded at Saturday’s postfight news conference it may be time for Penn-St. Pierre II.

“I think there’s one more interesting fight for him (at lightweight), but it isn’t something I wouldn’t talk to him about,” White said of a potential fight with St. Pierre.

I think the UFC is in a position with Penn where they can do no wrong with him. If he stays at 155 lbs. and faces the winner of the UFC 87 lightweight bout between Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian, then that’s a good thing. And if he moves up to welterweight to fight St. Pierre again, I don’t think that’s a bad idea either.

Click here for more 5 Oz. of Pain UFC 84-related content.

Click here for more 5 Oz. of Pain UFC 84-related content.

Here’s a nice little sampler for UFC 84: Ill Will on May 24th with some hype for the main three fights: BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk, Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, and Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva. If you’re not at least pumped for Penn vs. Sherk, then I don’t know if you’re a fan of mixed martial arts.

HT: Bloody Elbow

Normally when I write these prediction-essays, I don’t bother to do so unless I’m feeling a certain way about a fight that I know a lot of people feel differently about. Otherwise, what’s the point of going to such great lengths to outline a prediction that the vast majority supports?

For the main event of UFC 84 on May 24, going with the headline “Why B.J. Penn will beat Sean Sherk” is just too obvious. Sure, Sherk is a legit fighter and has a chance to win. It’s just that going into the fight, I haven’t spoken to too many people who believe that will actually be the case.

As such, I’ve decided to go out on a limb and make things interesting by not only predicting that Penn will beat Sherk, but that he will do it in a dominant fashion that will be reminiscent of how he beat Jens Pulver and Joe Stevenson. Meaning, B.J. not only wins, but he wins big.

The more and more I analyze this fight, I just don’t see many ways for Sherk to win. For me, I see only two areas for Penn that are of concern. The first area is quite obvious, which is Penn’s cardio. However, since dropping to ‘55, Penn hasn’t rested on his laurels and his god given fighting skills. He’s spent more time in the gym because he knows he can’t take as many liberties when he has 15 additional pounds to cut.

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Both UFC 84 main event participants have passed pre-fight drug testing, according to a new report by MSNBC’s David Avila.

UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn and former champion Sean Sherk were both tested in their respective home states by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the report indicates. Keith Kizer, the executive director of NSAC informed Avila that both fighters have passed their random screenings.

“It was good news. No positive tests,” Kizer is quoted as saying in the article. “There’s been nothing since mid-December. Hopefully that will continue.”

UFC 84 is scheduled to take place on May 24 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. In addition to the lightweight title bout involving Penn and Sherk, light heavyweight bouts between Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida and Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva are scheduled to take place.

For a guy that claims to loathe the tournament system, Dana White and the UFC put on an awesome facsimile of one last Wednesday during UFC Fight Night 13. Of the 12 fights scheduled, lightweight bouts rolled two-thirds deep and included arguably five of the top 10 fighters in the stacked division. The man second in line for a title shot, Kenny Florian, headlined yet another Fight Night, making it two of the last three. The UFC, almost begging to validate his place in line in the court of public opinion, finally got its wish and may have settled a lot more of the picture in the process.

Rankings are a difficult and much-contested black art, especially after the top five in most UFC weight divisions. Personal opinions (of the fans and of the men in charge), the pitfalls of MMAth and the incessant yammering from the business aspect of fighting are constant hurdles in sorting out the names on paper. It also doesn’t help that the man who holds the keys, UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, is as accessible and easy to read as a treatise on Indian tax law written in Sanskrit.

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MMAWeekly posted an exclusive interview with newly-crowned UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn.

The interview covers a multitude of topics, including Penn’s training, work ethic, steroids in MMA, former lightweight champ Sean Sherk and more. When asked about his recent war of words with Sherk, Penn stated:

“For me, honestly, it’s not personal at all,” he stated. “The man was cheating. I called him a cheater; then he got all personal. So I think all the personal stuff is on him. He said this is the first time a fight’s personal and this and that and whatever. I couldn’t care less. I’m just going to go kick his ass.”

“How can you sit around saying you’re the champ, say the other guy’s the fake champ, and you got busted for [steroids]? We knew he was doing ’roids the whole time, and all this stuff, and about it’s nothing personal, he went and made it all personal. I was calling a spade, a spade.”

Penn and Sherk are set to square off in May at UFC 84 where we will see this war of words come to a head. Many people have criticized BJ Penn’s training and work ethic in previous fights. However, Sherk has been known for his remarkable ability to maintain a high pace of action. This will certainly prove as a formidable test for Penn in that respect.

When: May 24, ‘08
Where: Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand
Watch: PPV

Main Event is the Lightweight Title grudge match between Interim champ BJ Penn and suspended champ Sean Sherk.

Here’s the latest on the UFC 84 event:

Main Card
• B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk (UFC Lightweight Title)
• Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine
• Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida
• Antonio Mendes vs. Thiago Silva
• Goran Reljic vs. Wilson Gouveia

Prelim Card

• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
• Dong-Hyun Kim vs. Jason Tan
• Shane Carwin vs. Christian Wellisch
• Ivan Salaverry vs. Rousimar Palhares
• Jeremy Stephens vs. Terry Etim
• John Koppenhaver vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

Fight card subject to change; bouts will be added as we confirm them.

Check out more UFC 84 content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

As if it wasn’t obvious after the UFC handed former lightweight champion Sean Sherk a microphone during Saturday night’s main event between B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson, UFC president Dana White confirmed in a press conference after the event that Penn’s first defense will be against Sherk during a card in May.

As of now, the card is expected to be UFC 85 on May 24 in Las Vegas with a light heavyweight match between Tito Ortiz and Lyoto Machida also possible.

Penn won the lightweight title last night for the first time in his career after two previous unsuccessful when he submitted Stevenson with a rear naked choke at 4:02 of round 2. The win made his just the second fight in UFC history to hold titles in two different weight classes, as Penn is the promotion’s former welterweight champion.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

Images courtesy of fightreport.net - CLICK HERE for full KO animation

MMAjunkie.com is reporting that B.J. Penn, Wilson Gouveia, Paul Taylor, and Paul Kelly all received a $35,000 bonus on top of their earnings for the UFC 80: “Rapid Fire” event.

These bonuses were $20,000 less than the more recent UFC events. No reason has been given yet as to why that is.

It was reported on the broadcast that B.J. Penn received “Submission of the Night” honors for his Rear-Naked Choke victory to secure the UFC lightweight championship against a bloody Joe Stevenson. The submission came toward the end of two rounds of complete domination by Penn. The beginning of the end of Stevenson was when Penn scored an elbow on Joe that brutally cut his forehead and caused him to bleed profusely all over the Octagon. There was in interesting interaction between Penn and Sean Sherk during the post-fight interviews when B.J. started out saying, “Sean Sherk, you’re dead!”

Wilson Gouveia received “Knockout of the Night” honors for his flash left hook knockout against Jason Lambert. Gouveia spent most of the first round on his back receiving ground and pound strikes to the face. He came out in the second round with a new-found determination and created some distance to score a few solid strikes against “The Punisher” before the KO at 0:37 into the round.

Paul Kelly and Paul Taylor both receive the bonus for “Fight of the Night” as the two British fighters kept a high-pace throughout the entire three rounds, ultimately resulting in a unanimous decision victory for Wolfslair Academy’s Paul Kelly. The two went back and forth in standup and ground battle, but Kelly seemed to continuously get the better of the exchanges in his UFC debut.

There is still plenty of post-UFC 80 to come. Stay close to Five Ounces of Pain for more UFC 80 coverage.

B.J. Penn isn’t one to mince words, and he’s pretty complementary in this video towards Joe Stevenson, so you know he has legitimate respect for him.

Penn does a nice job of breaking down Stevenson’s game in comparison to his.

While I’m not a fan of the way he’s always carried himself, I think it’s safe to label myself a fan of B.J. Penn as a fighter. I consider him to be the second best pure fighter in MMA (right behind Fedor) and I have him ranked a lot higher in my lightweight rankings than most people. But even I have to say that people are not showing Joe Stevenson enough respect heading into their match for the vacant UFC lightweight title on Jan. 19 at UFC 80 in New Castle, England.

Leading the B.J. Penn hype bandwagon is none other than UFC president Dana White. It’s always strange to reach White’s praise of Penn considering the history between Penn and the UFC, but Penn is a UFC fighter and it’s in White’s best interest to promote him.

There’s the following comment made by White in the UK Sun (which I believe was taken from the UFC Countdown show without any attribution whatsoever):

“At 155 lbs. BJ Penn is the most dangerous fighter in the world…there’s no doubt about it,” White is quoted as saying in the Sun. “He’s the scariest fighter in the world at 155 lbs. and 170lbs.”

Best pure fighter in the world at 155 lbs. or 170 lbs.? Perhaps. The most gifted fighter at those weights? Yes. But scariest? I think Georges St. Pierre fans might have something to say about that.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

After recently being stripped on his UFC lightweight title, Sean Sherk shared some sentiments about UFC lightweight contender BJ Penn in an interview with FightHype.com:

“I think BJ Penn is a punk. Who the hell is he? He’s won one fight in a couple of years now and it’s just whatever man. He wants to make all of these rules and regulations, but who the hell is he? I’m the champ in my eyes so I don’t care if he fights me or not, there’s a whole bunch of guys that could fight me right now. It’s his loss, not mine. He needs me more than I need him.”

Penn will be facing fellow 155-pound contender Joe Stevenson at UFC 80 on January 19, 2008 for the lightweight title. UFC President Dana White has already said that the winner of Penn/Stevenson will make his first title defense against Sherk.

Special thanks to MMAMania.com for the heads up.

According to UFC.com, the UFC withdrew recognition of Sean Sherk as the promotion’s lightweight champion after the California State Athletic Commission voted on Dec. 4 to reduce his suspension for testing positive for steroids from 12 months to six as opposed to overturning it completely.

With Sherk stripped of the title, the UFC has announced that B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson will fight each other for the vacant belt on Jan. 19 in New Castle England at UFC 80.

Despite no longer possessing the championship, Sherk still remains in the title mix and is expected to fight the winner of the Penn vs. Stevenson bout.

“I have nothing but respect for Sean Sherk and I believe he’s been honest throughout this whole process,” UFC President Dana White is quoted as saying by UFC.com’s Thomas Gerbasi. “But BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will be fighting for the lightweight title at UFC 80 on January 19th and Sean Sherk will fight the winner for the title.”

By Ben Fowlkes

My brain hurts. It’s tired of trying to sort this mess out, and it’s getting nowhere. But it’s not my brain’s fault. At least, not this time.

If you’re on the UFC’s mailing list, as I am, you received an email alerting you that B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson will be fighting for the “interim” lightweight title at UFC 80 in January. And if you also compulsively follow MMA news, as I do, you know that Dana White has said he will not strip lightweight champion Sean Sherk of his title because of the way the California State Athletic Commission has bungled his appeal of a positive steroid case.

But if Sherk isn’t being stripped, why is there an interim title at all?

This feels like one of those situations that only gets more confusing as you try to sort it out. I almost understand the reasoning. White seems to feel that Sherk is innocent when it comes to steroid use. From what I’ve heard, the levels of nandrolene detected in Sherk’s system were so low that it’s not unbelievable to think this might be a false positive.

So, okay, I get it. White feels that the CSAC, which has a reputation as the most difficult commission for MMA organizations to deal with, by far, is screwing this thing up. They postponed Sherk’s appeal hearing because they didn’t read all the material submitted by his lawyer, which makes them seem more like the Mayberry Athletic Commission than the California one. White was angered by this, as was Sherk, and understandably so.

That’s why White announced that Sherk (who White says he considers a friend) will not be stripped of his title. Okay. That makes a certain kind of sense. It seems like he might be blowing off the CSAC, and maybe somebody should.

But now I have to ask again. Why is there an interim title?

I understand that Sherk is stilll under suspension pending his appeal, but if the UFC’s position is that Sherk is going to hold onto that belt unless the CSAC can produce photos of a needle going into “The Muscle Shark’s” arm, there shouldn’t be any interim title. It’s meaningless. The winner of the interim title has essentially just earned number one contender status, only he’s got a belt to show for it.

I’m not going to pretend I don’t know why the UFC is doing this. They don’t want the belt to be out of circulation while they wait for this appeal, because a title fight always makes for an instant main event on a pay-per-view card. They already have a heavyweight title with no one to defend it after Randy Couture’s “resignation”, and they’ve kept their welterweight title in reality TV land lo these many months.

But they can’t have it both ways. They can’t refuse to strip the title-holder and also have two other guys fight for his title. That essentially creates two champions in one weight class, which defeats the purpose of having a champion at all.

Do you see now what I’ve been going through? Maybe it’s my fault for even trying to understand this, or for assuming that it’s supposed to make sense. As it is I feel like I’m standing in the mall and looking at one of those magic eye pictures that has an image of a sailboat somewhere in it, only I can’t see it and I just keep staring while old people and children pass by me with pity in their eyes.

Much like those magic eye pictures, this situation will leave me with nothing but a headache and a nagging sense of failure. I just know it. And at the end of the day, we’ll still have two guys walking around claiming to be the UFC lightweight champion.

Ben Fowlkes is the writer of the blog The Fighting Life and the editor of IFL.tv, the official website of the International Fight League.

MMAWeekly.com is on the ball with some new UFC match announcements.

First, UFC 76 will be a full nine-match card after all. Fresh off his IFO win earlier this month, Rich Clementi is back in the UFC and back in action against Anthony Johnson. The two will face off on the UFC 76 undercard on Sept. 22 in Anaheim, Calif.

That’s a pretty damn good last-minute addition match.

It also looks like another match has been added for UFC 78. While not official, it has appeared in the MMAWeekly.com rumors section and that rumors section is pretty damn good. According to the site, David Terrell will finally return to the UFC and will be taking on Ed Herman.

Hey, it’s no main event but it’s pretty damn interesting.

I’m really looking forward to UFC 78 on Nov. 17 in Newark because it’s not all that far from Philly (where I live) and having the UFC back in the Northeast has been a long time coming. The card itself isn’t all that bad, either.

Here’s what we could be looking at:

- Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans (hasn’t been officially announced but a recent newspaper report indicated it’s going down)

- B.J. Penn vs. TBA (my money is on Joe Stevenson for the title)

- Karo Parisyan vs. TBA (could be Hayato Sakurai, could be Hector Lombard, could be someone else)

- Spencer Fisher vs. Frankie Edgar (Dana should give them the match of the night bonus right now)

- David Terrell vs. Ed Herman (rumored)

- Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt (according to Reinhardt)

Tito, B.J. and Karo all on the same card offers a lot of star power to the Philly, New York, and Jersey fanbase. This part of the country loves recognizable stars. If you’re not a known quantity, you might not get much attention. If I go to a concert in Philly everyone marks out for the headliners. But the opening band could be the greatest in the world but if the people don’t know their name, the crowd seems pretty bored.

Hey, what does a guy have to do to get a Big Nog vs. Andrei Arlovski match added to this card?