BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar To Coach ‘TUF 19,’ Will Fight At Featherweight In April
BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar have been selected as the coaches for The Ultimate Fighter season 19.
The new season will feature middleweight and light heavyweight fighters. Edgar (16-4-1) and Penn (16-9-2) will face off in a featherweight coaches bout at the end of the season.
Edgar made his featherweight debut at UFC 156 on February 2 at UFC 156, but lost to champion Jose Aldo by unanimous decision. Penn will be making his featherweight debut in the TUF 19 finale.
MMA Fighting‘s Ariel Helwani broke the news on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight.
UFC president Dana White said that the initial plan was to have Edgar coach against Urijah Faber. But Edgar didn’t want to drop down to bantamweight and Faber didn’t want to drop to featherweight. White doesn’t particularly care for catchweight fights, so Penn was brought in instead.
BJ Penn and Frankie Edgar have faced off twice before, with Edgar winning both matches by unanimous decision. The first time the two fought was at UFC 112 on April 10, 2010, which ended with Penn losing his lightweight championship. The second time was four months later on August 28 at UFC 118, where Edgar successfully defended his title for the first time.
Edgar held on to the title until February 26, 2012, when he lost to Benson Henderson by unanimous decision at UFC 144. He tried to win his title back six months later at UFC 150 on August 11, but lost again, this time by split decision. Henderson successfully defended his title twice more against Nate Diaz and Gilbert Melendez before losing the lightweight championship to Anthony Pettis at UFC 164 last month.
Edgar most recently scored a unanimous decision victory against Charles Oliveira at UFC 162 on July 6. The match earned Fight of the Night. Penn’s last fight was a unanimous decision loss to Rory MacDonald at UFC on Fox: Henderson vs. Diaz on December 8.
The Ultimate Fighter season 19 will begin airing in January 2014. While the finale will be held in April, the exact date and location have yet to be determined.
[Pictured: BJ Penn; photo credit: Hunter Bishop/Flickr]
