The legendary Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight, Georges St. Pierre, is already making plans for his much-awaited comeback into mixed martial arts, and one of the opponents that are lining up to fight the Canadian former champion is long-time rival, BJ Penn.
Upon making the announcement that he would soon come back to the UFC, there have been numerous fighters that have called out Georges St. Pierre, including the current welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley, top contender Nick Diaz, and St. Pierre's former nemesis, "The Prodigy," BJ Penn.
Penn took to Twitter to call out his former rival, whom he fought twice for the welterweight belt, back in 2006, and again in 2009. St. Pierre won the first fight via split decision, and again won the rematch by TKO for the welterweight title. Since then, St. Pierre continued his reign as the UFC's welterweight champion until his retirement, while Penn went on to fight back in the Lightweight division, where he also became champion again.
St. Pierre, in a phone interview with MMA Fighting, spoke about a possible fight with BJ Penn. The former long-time champ said that a third fight with Penn would be an unnecessary risk for his legacy, adding that Penn is a very dangerous opponent, and that a loss to him would taint his decorated career. St. Pierre says that he easily won the previous fights because Penn didn't prepare as hard as he should have.
Instead, St. Pierre would rather fight his other former rival, Nick Diaz. St. Pierre still believes that Diaz is still a top contender in the welterweight division, and did not beat him in the way he would have wanted in their last bout.
BJ Penn, is looking for his first win since 2010 in a match against Ricardo Llamas in the main event for UFC's return to the Philippines in UFC Fight Night Manila 2. Meanwhile, there are rumors that St. Pierre will make his anticipated return to UFC 206 in his home country of Canada.
