If Josh Koscheck is to be believed then rumors of UFC superstar BJ Penn’s retirement from mixed martial arts have been greatly exaggerated.
“#UFC just offered me to fight BJ Penn…I said YES!!!!! Just waiting on him!!!!!! Let’s scrap bra?” Koscheck announced on Twitter last night.
It’ll be interesting to see if this was a serious offer or if the UFC were just putting out the feelers as they try to figure out a way to coax the Hawaiian star back into the Octagon.
It certainly sounds like a good fight, though I’ll admit to being disappointed that Penn would be heading back to welterweight when it’s fairly apparent at this stage that he performs better at lightweight.
Penn’s career has been in sharp decline over the past couple of years, going just 1-3-1 during that period, though he was facing top competition throughout that period and was never stopped.
Having said that, Koscheck hasn’t looked in top form either lately since being soundly beaten by Georges St.Pierre in 2010.
Since then he has knocked out Matt Hughes (something he has in common with Penn who did the same fairly recently), but only after surprisingly being outstruck by the veteran fighter early in the bout, and has since barely scraped against Mike Pierce by split decision before losing to Johny Hendricks, again by the same margin.
Penn would have a notable striking advantage if this fight were to go ahead, and Koscheck does have a tendancy to enjoy letting his fists fly, but on the other hand if he chooses to use his wrestling he could make life very difficult for ‘The Prodigy’.
