The MMA Digest

Photo: UFC.com

BJ Penn, who will be taking on Joe Stevenson for the interim UFC lightweight belt in January, has a rough career plan outlined for himself based on longevity. He told UFC.com, “I don’t want to do the five fights a year thing for three years and then I’m done, like all these fighters have done…I want to do one to two fights a year for the next ten years. I want to keep my name out there for the next ten years.”

Penn expressed similar sentiments earlier in his career. After winning the welterweight belt from Matt Hughes in early 2004, Penn told MMAweekly radio that he was interested in fighting 10 times over the course of a decade. “The way the money is, I don’t want to be fighting 4 or 5 times a year and all this kind of stuff…I want to fight maybe 10 more fights, once a year for the next 10 years”, Penn said on the show in February 2004.