B.J. Penn was originally scheduled to face Carlos Condit at UFC 137 on Oct. 29, but when Nick Diaz was pulled from the main event against Georges St-Pierre, Condit got the call to fight for the title, leaving Penn temporarily without an opponent. When he heard the news that the Condit fight was off, Penn requested a rematch with Jon Fitch.
“Actually, the whole thing where I found out that Carlos Condit was fighting GSP, I was sitting down eating sushi and Matt Hughes shoots me a text. He‘s like, ’hey, who are you fighting?’ I thought maybe Carlos got hurt and then I heard about the whole thing that happened with Nick Diaz and not showing up for the press conferences and all that stuff,†Penn explained on a media conference call Wednesday.
“Jon Fitch keeps on saying all this stuff that he can beat me easy and all these things, so first thing I do is I call up Dana White. I say, you know what? Perfect, lets fight Jon Fitch. He said he’s ready to go and said he’d love to fight me. Dana said, ’No, he’s injured until December. He can’t fight until December.’ I kept asking, are you sure? Are you sure? And kept bugging Dana about it. Dana said, ‘He’s injured and can’t fight.’â€
Penn and Fitch have a bit of unfinished business. The two fought to a draw at UFC 127 in February, and both would like to continue where they left off.
“I’ll fight Jon Fitch anytime. I’d love to fight him again,†said Penn.
Of course, St-Pierre suffered an injury and was forced out of the UFC 137 main event and Penn now faces Nick Diaz. That fight has been bumped up to headline the Oct. 29 event at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Condit was pulled from the card and will wait for his title shot against St-Pierre when the champion recovers from his injury.
