UFC Manila: BJ Penn Injured, Out of Main Event

UFC Manila needs a new main event just under two weeks away from its occurrence with BJ Penn pulling out of the fight due to injury.

MMA Junkie first reported the injury to the UFC legend.

This was BJ Penn’s second attempt at a second comeback to mixed martial arts, and it has failed again. The first effort was set to happen at UFC 199 against Dennis Siver (later Cole Miller due to injury), but Penn was forced off the card by USADA for IV usage.

Some would say this is a fortunate turn of events for Penn. After his comeback fight against Frankie Edgar, which could only be described as confusing and strange, very few fans were clamoring for more of the Hawaiian in the Octagon.

He was set to fight one of the most talented featherweights in the world in Ricardo Lamas, who is ranked fifth by Cage Pages in the weight class. After sensibly being matched up with Dennis Siver for the first potential comeback, a top five featherweight was not an understandable matchup at all, especially as a headliner.

Nevertheless, Penn is one of the greatest lightweights of all time and will be remembered for his fearlessness (which was being demonstrated when he took this fight against Lamas). His dominance of the lightweight division from 2007 to 2009 will go down in history for including three incredible title defenses. Penn’s name is also one of two to show up when looking up fighters to ever hold UFC titles in two divisions, Randy Couture being the other.

Now the question for the promotion is: Who will headline this Fight Pass card? It’s certainly not stacked (a 2-4 fighter is on the main card!), so unless the promotion can find a replacement for Penn, this might go down as one of the worst cards on paper ever.

An intriguing matchup between fan favorite Derrick Lewis and Marcin Tybura is the co-main event. Lewis certainly has star power, but Tybura is not the opponent that would warrant a headlining slot as talented as he is.

Want your voice heard? Join the Cage Pages team!

For some reason, top flyweight contenders Ali Bagautinov and Kyoji Horiguchi are on the prelims. Due to their rankings (Horiguchi third, and Bagautinov sixth according to Cage Pages), it would seem that this fight would make sense to headline as the most important fight on the card. However, the UFC rarely promotes flyweights and typically designates top matchups to the prelims.

So now this card is left without a main event just 11 days away. Stay tuned for more updates to the card taking place from the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Philippines, on October 15.