Hall of Famer B.J. Penn headlines UFC Fight Night 103 in Phoenix vs. Yair Rodriguez

The UFC’s return to Arizona in January for its first event of 2017 has its main event.

UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn (16-10-2 MMA, 12-9-2 UFC) will meet featherweight contender Yair Rodriguez (8-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in the UFC FIght Night 103 headliner. Promotion officials announced the booking today.

UFC Fight Night 103 takes place Jan. 15 at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix. It airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Penn was scheduled to headline UFC Fight Night 97 in October against Ricardo Lamas, butpulled out of the event, citing injury as the culprit. He was attempting a comeback after retirement, which came following a July 2014 TKO loss to Frankie Edgar. That was his third straight setback during a stretch that saw him go 1-5-1 starting when he lost his lightweight title to Edgar in April 2010.

Penn announced in January he planned to return to competition and started training at Jackson-Wink MMA. He was expected to return at UFC 197 in April, but a criminal investigation kept him off that card. He was booked to fight Dennis Siver, who was replaced by Cole Miller, at UFC 199 in June, but was removed after he self-disclosed taking an IV for rehydration out of competition. The use of IVs for rehydration is banned year-round.

Yair Rodriguez

Rodriguez has won six straight fights and has bonuses in three of his past four. At UFC 180, he won “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America” featherweight crown against Leonardo Morales, then took decisions from Charles Rosa and Dan Hooker. In April at UFC 197, he knocked out Andre Fili with a head kick, then took a split call from Alex Caceres in the UFC Fight Night 92 main event, which won “Fight of the Night” honors.

With the addition to the lineup, UFC Fight Night 103 now includes:

• B.J. Penn vs. Yair Rodriguez
• Court McGee vs. Ben Saunders
• Devin Powell vs. Jordan Rinaldi
• Erik Koch vs. Tony Martin
• Cyril Asker vs. Dmitrii Smoliakov
• Damian Grabowski vs. Viktor Pesta
• Joachim Christensen vs. Bojan Mihajlovic

For more on UFC Fight Night 103, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.