UFC
B.J. Penn explains why he turned down Strikeforce Title fight with Gilbert Melendez
May 8, 2012 - 7:10:16 PM B.J. Penn explains why he turned down Strikeforce Title fight with Gilbert Melendez

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez returns to action next Saturday night, taking on Josh Thomson for a third time on Showtime. The bout wasn't the first proposed for Melendez on the card, and in fact there were rumors earlier this year that the UFC was looking at bringing in B.J. Penn or Anthony Pettis for the fight.

The rumors regarding Penn were confirmed last week when UFC President Dana White admitted that they had tried to put the fight together, but that Penn had turned it down. Now this week, Penn explained how the conversation came about for that fight, and why he ultimately decided to turn it down.

"[White] offered a fight against Gilbert Melendez in Strikeforce," Penn confirmed in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "We sat down and we thought about it for a little while. We talked back and forth. It was kind of one of those things where I guess at the end of the day we thought about it a thousand different ways and we were like 'Is that downgrading yourself fighting in Strikeforce? If you win the Strikeforce title are people going to say you did it because you couldn't win the UFC title?'"

"At the end of the day, it just didn't make sense to us."

Penn's refusal left Zuffa with few options, and with Thomson coming off a recent win they decided to go with the rubber match for next weekend.

Penick's Analysis: Penn's reasoning was exactly why many didn't believe the rumors when they were making the rounds this year. Dropping to Strikeforce from the UFC would be seen by most as a demotion, so while a fight between Penn and Melendez would have been fantastic, it really made no sense for Penn to agree to it. Thus far he's remained on the sidelines since his loss to Nick Diaz last October, and he's not committed to returning at this point.

[B.J. Penn art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]