Last night various outlets reported that BJ Penn (16-10-2) has been left without an opponent for his anticipated return scheduled for UFC 199 this June after Dennis Siver was forced out due to injury.
Now Artem Lobov (11-12-1) has offered to step in against the former two weight UFC champ and has also offered to donate half his purse to charity. The SBG fighter took to Twitter to offer his services.
BJ Penn has only registered one win since 2009 and went on a 1-5-1 run before retiring in June, 2014. Now 'The Prodigy' has changed camps to the renowned Jackson/Wink gym and is looking to get back in there and go out on a high.
Artem is currently 0-2 in the UFC after his entertaining run on TUF and is desperate to get one more chance in the Octagon. It comes as no surprise that he has offered to fight BJ Penn as it seems any time a fighter is left without an opponent 'The Russian Hammer' is straight on Twitter looking to save the day, sometimes despite being in a lower weight class.
The Siver fight was seen by many a tune-up fight. Really just to see what level BJ was at. If he lost then everyone would know that he just hasn't got it anymore but if he won then he would get a step up in competition. There was no point putting him in there against one of the top guys after a two year layoff. This makes me wonder if the UFC would actually go with this as Artem offers a similar scenario and he is arguably more popular than Siver.
