Frankie Edgar, B.J. Penn to Coach Season 19 of 'TUF' Before Featherweight Showdown

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Two familiar foes will go head-to-head in the next installment of “The Ultimate Fighter,” when B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar compete on the 19th season of the UFC’s long-running reality show.

UFC officials announced the news during Wednesday’s new episode of “UFC Tonight.” Season 19 of “TUF” debuts on Fox Sports 1 in January 2014 and will feature light heavyweights and middleweights. Penn and Edgar will then do battle the following April at 145 pounds, marking “The Prodigy’s” featherweight debut.

Penn and Edgar first met back in April 2010, when Edgar took Penn’s lightweight title in a contentious unanimous decision. A rematch was then booked four months later, which Edgar won decisively at UFC 118.

Following his second victory over the highly-regarded Hawaiian, Edgar defended his belt twice against Gray Maynard before relinquishing the strap to Benson Henderson. The New Jersey native would then come up short in his rematch with “Smooth,” dropping a controversial split decision at UFC 150. “The Answer” then cut to 145 pounds for a hard-fought but ultimately unsuccessful run at Jose Aldo’s title but returned to his winning ways in his last outing, taking a unanimous verdict from Charles Oliveira this past July at UFC 162.

Penn, meanwhile, has competed just twice in the last two years, dropping a unanimous decision to Nick Diaz in October 2011 before suffering the same fate against Rory MacDonald this past December. A former two-division UFC champion, Penn reigned as the promotion’s lightweight king from January 2008 to April 2010, when he was dethroned by Edgar. The 34-year-old owns notable wins over Matt Hughes, Jens Pulver and Takanori Gomi and has finished 13 of his 16 career victims by either knockout or submission.