When it was announced that B.J. Penn, a fighter who’s infamously struggled with conditioning throughout his MMA career, would be making his Featherweight debut in a rubber match against Frankie Edgar, some were skeptical. Some wondered if Penn would be re-hiring conditioning coach Marv Marinovich who helped him get into the best shape of his career for Lightweight title defenses against Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez in 2009.
Looks like B.J. will be going in a different direction, per MMA Fighting:
“BJ Penn is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time,” Dolce said. “He is a legend – a two-division world champion as a 170-pound welterweight and a 155-pound lightweight that has been fighting professionally before most athletes even knew what MMA or the UFC was. It is a great honor to join BJ on his journey back into the Octagon and, in my opinion, to make history as the first ever three-division world champion in our sport.”
“First thing’s first,” Dolce said. “We have a very tough Frankie Edgar standing in our way and in speaking to BJ, that is exactly the way he wants it! I will be flying out to Hilo, Hawaii this week to begin growing my relationship with BJ and offer my skills to his camp.”
Penn and Edgar will be coaching the next season of The Ultimate Fighter before meeting for their third bout in April. Edgar took Penn’s UFC Lightweight title at UFC 112 and beat him in the rematch at UFC 118 in 2010.
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