"I’m sick and tired of hearing about Mike Dolce. I’ll put a challenge out right now: You go get Nik Lentz, your boy, bring him down to 145 and I’ll run right through him in one round and then I’ll find you in the back and smash you. If Dolce says I don’t train, let’s do this. I would come out for this. Some things were said, got heated. I worked with him for 20 days and paid him $1,000 a day. I’m sick of hearing that.... Let’s do this. That was my last fight [145 pounds]. I had a bad showing. I’m ready for something like this. I haven’t been in a gym for two years. I’ll come back for the grudge match, then we’ll see."
Even tough former Lightweight and Welterweight champion, B.J. Penn, retired (again) from mixed martial arts (MMA) following a bloody, lopsided loss to Frankie Edgar at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 19 Finale in July 2014, the 36-year-old claimed last night on "UFC Tonight" that he had at least one more fight left in him:
A grudge match against Nik Lentz, who is apparently the prized pupil on nutritional guru, Mike Dolce.
The relationship between "The Prodigy" and Dolce apparently didn't go too well in preparation for the 145-pound match against Edgar. Dolce claimed Penn "wasn't training," while a starved Penn asserted that the $1,000-per day chef was absent "during the most critical times" before and after the pre-fight weigh-ins.
The always-emotional Penn threatened to break Dolce's glass jaw several months ago and apparently now the proud Hawaiian is prepared to do whatever it takes to settle their score once and for all.
That might be easier said than done: The Hall of Fame inductee has been terrible in his last seven appearances (1-5-1). In fact, he was never the same after Edgar beat him in back-to-back matches to take (and then defend) the 155-pound belt in 2010.
It was a slump so sad that company president Dana White pressured him into retirement because he "looked like an alien." Penn agreed at the time, but the fiery fighter just has an innate itch to scrap that he can't help but scratch ... even if it's in a local pub parking lot.
Neither Dolce, Lentz, White nor UFC have commented on the possible, most recent comeback for Penn, but it's safe to assume it will not be embraced with open arms initially.
Penn has nothing left to prove inside the Octagon. Inside his head, though, it's an entirely different story.