• UFC 112

BJ Penn hints at weight move

ESPN staff
April 6, 2010
BJ Penn will be looking to repeat the dominance he showed against Diego Sanchez © UFC
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UFC 112 comes to Abu Dhabi on April 10 and it's live on ESPNUK. Subscription details can be found here.

BJ Penn has suggested he is ready to turn his back on the lightweight division in favour of a switch to 170 pounds.

Penn has been the dominant force in lightweight and is the overwhelming favourite to extend his winning streak to six against Frank Edgar at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

There had been talk that Penn was ready to take on "The Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi, but he was defeated on his UFC bow by Kenny Florian and that has reportedly prompted Penn to consider a shift in division to welterweight.

"If everything goes well on April 10, I definitely would consider moving up to 170," Penn told MMA Weekly. "Not that I'm - not that it's 100 per cent guaranteed.

"If I do make that move I'm going to move slow. I'm not going to try to rush anything. Maybe I would think about it more as testing the waters. I'd talk to Dana and see if he would want me to vacate the belt, but maybe try do something like Anderson [Silva] is doing, test the waters, see how everything is going and see how everything plays out.

"I try to just be true to myself and what my own personal goals are. And if I feel in my life that I want to try to take a fight at 170 pounds, I've got to stay true to myself and to my motivation."

Penn has held the title at 170, but has not fought at that weight since his defeat to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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