BJ Penn out of UFC Fight Night 97

Photo Credit: MMAweekly.com

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

BJ Penn is out of his main event fight next weekend.

Penn was scheduled to face Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night 97 in Manila, Philippines but has been reportedly forced to withdraw due to an undisclosed injury. MMAJunkie.com announced the news Tuesday evening. An official announcement has yet to be made from the UFC themselves.

This would have been Penn’s first fight since he faced Frankie Edgar in a featherweight bout in their Ultimate Fighter finale in June of 2014. Penn was scheduled to make his comeback at UFC 199 against Cole Miller but was pulled from the card in May due to an USADA violation due to out-of-competition IV usage. After serving his suspension (retroactive to March 25th when he used the IV), Penn was cleared to enter the octagon as of September 25th.

With a little over a week till the UFC Fight Pass card goes live on October 15th, it is highly questionable whether the promotion will be able to find a replacement for Lamas.