Following yesterday’s news that Dennis Siver had pulled out of his UFC 199 fight with BJ Penn due to an injury, the promotion have now lined up a new opponent for ‘The Prodigy’.
Penn will now face Cole Miller instead, with ‘Magrinho’ stepping in on just over three weeks notice for the bout in L.A on June 4th, which will take place in the featherweight division.
The 6ft 1″ Miller last fought at UFC On FOX 17 in December where he suffered an eye poke that led to his fight with Jim Alers being declared a ‘no contest’.
Prior to that Miller had lost by unanimous decision to the high-flying Max Holloway, which had ended a two-fight winning streak. In total, the 32 year-old has a 3-4 (+1nc) record at 145lbs, while he’d previously had better success at lightweight, going 7-3 in the Octagon.
As for the 37 year-old Penn, he’s been out of action since a very poor performance in his trilogy fight with Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 finale in July of 2014, leaving him with just one victory in his last seven fights.
That had looked like the end of the road for the legendary former lightweight and welterweight champion, but he’s recently rekindled his desire to compete and has moved out of his native Hawaii to train under Greg Jackson in Albuquerque.
Penn Vs Miller is expected to be the featured prelim on the UFC 199 fight card which is headlined by a middleweight title rematch between Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, while bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will meet his rival Urijah Faber for a third time in the co-main event.
