B.J. Penn, Nik Lentz Agree to Fight

BREAKING: Per @danawhite, BJ Penn will return to the octagon.

He will be facing Nik Lentz, both sides have verbally agreed.

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Date and location TBD.

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) July 26, 2019

B.J. Penn is getting one more fight after all.

On Friday, Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White announced that Penn (16-14-2) is not retiring, and will instead be facing Nik Lentz (30-10-2, 1 NC) at an event to-be-determined. The location and date have not yet been set, but the two have agreed to meet. In June, White said that he would not give Penn another fight, wishing the Hall of Famer would retire and stated definitely, "But I can't do that again. I can't do it again."

Penn has been looking to fight Lentz for years, as the two men have bickered on social media at great length. Lentz even wrote poetry for his prospective opponent in 2015, and read his insulting poem on an episode of Chael Sonnen's "You're Welcome" podcast.

Penn is riding a historic losing streak, having dropped his last seven with a draw against Jon Fitch before the losses began to accumulate. Across that span, the former lightweight champ has suffered defeats at welterweight, lightweight and featherweight. The last time "The Prodigy" won a fight was in 2010 when he knocked out Matt Hughes at UFC 123. In other recent news, Penn has been accused this year of sexual abuse and drug addiction by the mother of his children, and a TMZ video allegedly showed Penn involved in an altercation with the bouncer of a strip club in Hawaii this June.

Lentz has split his last four outings, with wins over Gray Maynard and Scott Holtzman bookended by losses against David Teymur and most recently, Charles Oliveira. According to UFCStats.com, "The Carny" has landed more takedowns than any other active fighter currently on the UFC roster with 68, after scoring two in his unsuccessful effort against Oliveira. That total could be tied if Frankie Edgar scores one takedown against Max Holloway at UFC 240 on Saturday.