B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar to Coach TUF 19, Trilogy to Take Place at Featherweight

The UFC has signed B.J. Penn to a new contract and the former two-division champion’s first fight back will be against former lightweight titleholder Frankie Edgar in a featherweight bout.

Not only will Penn and Edgar fight for a third time, likely in April 2014, the two will coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.

UFC Tonight first reported the development on Wednesday.

“We were putting together The Ultimate Fighter coaches for this season and it was going to be Urijah Faber and Frankie Edgar. Urijah Faber is at 135-pounds. Edgar is at 145. Edgar didn’t want to go to 135 and Urijah Faber wasn’t crazy about going to 145. They were talking about a catchweight fight. I don’t kike catchweight fights,” explained UFC president Dana White.

“This thing was all in limbo and then all of a sudden I get a text from B.J. Penn. B.J. Penn texted me and says, ‘Hey Dana, I want to fight Ben Henderson.’ My question to B.J. is why? You’ve accomplished so much. You’ve won the title two times in two different weight classes.

“He said the reason why is ‘I think if I beat Ben Henderson you’ll give me that fight that I want, which is Frankie Edgar,'” added White.

Edgar and then-champion Penn first fought at UFC 112 in April 2010. Edgar defeated Penn by unanimous decision to capture the UFC lightweight title. The fight was extremely close and an immediate rematch was scheduled for UFC 118 where Edgar defeated Penn again to retain the belt.

“He says, ‘Frankie Edgar, I can beat Frankie Edgar. Those two first fights were B.S. I want that fight again. I want to beat this guy so bad. It’s all I want.’ You know how B.J. is,” said White. “I started thinking. I’m like, that fight is at 145 B.J. He’s a 145-pounder. He goes, ‘I want to move to 145, beat Frankie Edgar, and fight for that title.’

“He wants this thing worse than anything. He believes he can beat Frankie Edgar. He wants to fight at 145-pounds. It’s tough to say no to B.J,” added the UFC president.

The next season of The Ultimate fighter will premier on Fox Sports 1 in January and feature middleweight and light heavyweight contestants.

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