Kenny Florian vs B.J. Penn at UFC 101?

When Dana White stated that he wanted to have a "couple" of title fights and another "marquee" match-up at UFC 100, the possibility of B.J. Penn appearing on the card seemed pretty high.

When you started eliminating potential title bouts (Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir is taking place at UFC 98, while Anderson Silva is defending his title at UFC 97), B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre both seemed likely for the UFC 100 card, especially given the fact that Quinton Jackson has been promised the first crack at Rashad Evans' light heavyweight title, should he defeat Keith Jardine at UFC 96. I guess a Jackson/Evans fight at UFC 100 would be possible, but it seems unlikely.

So you were left with two logical title defenses from Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn at UFC 100.

Georges St. Pierre will be defending against Thiago Alves at UFC 100, however the UFC had other plans for B.J. Penn.

According to multiple published reports, Dana White wanted to have the B.J. Penn / Kenny Florian fight as the main event of UFC 99, which is going to be held in Cologne, Germany. Florian was apparently told that this was the working plan, but that B.J. Penn had to agree to the fight first.

However, Penn will NOT be facing off against Florian at UFC 99.

According to a recent article on Sherdog, Penn and his camp informed the UFC that he wants to spend time with his newborn baby daughter. His daughter, Aeva, was born in the months leading up to Penn's fight with St. Pierre, and he didn't spend as much time with her as he would have liked.

Penn's camp did indicate that he would be ready for a fight in "late July or early August".

This would mean that Penn would likely be fighting at UFC 101, as UFC 100 is taking place on July 11th.

Some have said that Penn is passing on the UFC 99 event because it will mean less money in his pocket. Penn is one of the few fighters in the promotion that receives a cut of the PPV revenues of any event that he is involved in, and European UFC events generate significantly less revenue compared to North American events.

Anderson Silva, for instance, had the option of appearing on the recent UFC 95 card in London, England, but passed. He claimed that he wasn't ready for the fight, but many figure that he simply wanted the opportunity to make more money by fighting at UFC 97 (who can blame him).

So, at the end of the day, it now appears as though B.J. Penn will likely be defending his lightweight title against Kenny Florian at UFC 101. Unless, of course, UFC 101 takes place at a European location.