Shoulder Injury Forces Penn from UFC 132

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One week after Jon Fitch dropped out of their scheduled UFC 132 rematch due to injury, B.J. Penn on Friday announced that he has also canceled his travel plans.

Speaking in a video on BJPenn.com entitled “Why I opted to pull out of UFC 132,” Penn explained that he suffered a serious shoulder injury prior to his meeting with Fitch at UFC 127.

“Of course, pushing my shoulder really hard during the Jon Fitch fight hurt my shoulder more,” said Penn. “I came back and tried to train, but every time I would train hard, it would just be really inflamed. I couldn’t even move it. Did an MRI, [but] I wanna keep some of that information confidential.”

“I need about six to eight weeks to take it easy on my shoulder, let it rest,” Penn explained. “If Jon Fitch is ready, we can do it soon, or I’ll take a new opponent.”

As a result of the injury, Penn will no longer compete on July 2 at UFC 132, which goes down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a bantamweight title bout between champion Dominick Cruz and the only man to ever beat him, Urijah Faber.

A former two-division UFC champion, Penn fought Fitch to a three-round majority draw on Feb. 27. The 32-year-old “Prodigy” recently made the move back to 170 pounds after ruling the UFC lightweight ranks for two years. After suffering back-to-back defeats to current champion Frankie Edgar, Penn knocked out old rival Matt Hughes in the Hawaiian’s November return to welterweight.