BJ Penn Requires New UFC 199 Opponent After Dennis Siver Pulls Out

It seems that the injury bug has suddenly returned, with news emerging that Dennis Siver is out of his UFC 199 fight with BJ Penn due to an undisclosed ailment.

The fight had only just been confirmed as the featured prelim for UFC 199 in L.A on June 4th, but now the promotion are on the hunt for a new opponent to face Penn on his return to the Octagon.

This is the latest in a series of twists and turns since the 37 year-ol revealed that he was going to return to fighting earlier this year.

Initially he had called out Nik Lentz and the two had traded verbal jabs on social media, but in the end the fact that Lentz appeared to be stalling resulted in ‘The Prodigy’ looking elsewhere for an opponent, with Siver then getting the nod instead.

However, the UFC then postponed the match-up pending an internal investigation into claims that Penn had allegedly sexually assaulted the girlfriend of a former employee at his website, BJPenn.com.

The UFC later cleared Penn to continue to his career after not finding enough evidence to substantiate the allegations against him.

It’ll be interesting to see who the UFC are able to rustle up as an opponent for Penn on three and a half weeks notice. Whoever it is, Penn will be desperate to get back to winning ways as the former lightweight and welterweight champion’s record in recent years makes for grim reading, with just one victory in his last seven Octagon outings.

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.