Yair Rodriguez vs. BJ Penn headlines UFC Fight Night Phoenix on January 15th UFC officials announced Monday that Hall-of-Famer BJ Penn will battle Yair Rodriguez in the main event of UFC Fight Night Phoenix on January 15th. Penn (16-10-2) hasn’t fought since losing his third straight fight to Frankie Edgar in July 2014. The 37-year-old was slated to return to the Octagon at UFC 197 against Dennis Siver, then Cole Miller at UFC 199 and finally Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night Manilla. However, none of those matchups would materialize. Rodriguez (8-1) heads into this matchup off a decision victory over Alex Caceres and has gone undefeated in the Octagon with a perfect 5-0 record. UFC Fight Night 103 takes place January 15th at the Talking Stick Resort Arena. Rashad Evans not medically cleared to fight, pulled from UFC 206 According to Rashad Evans manager Ali Abdelaziz (per MMAJunkie), the former UFC light heavyweight champion was not cleared to fight next month at UFC 206 against Tim Kennedy in Toronto, Canada. Abdelaziz says the Ontario Athletic Commission followed the ruling by New York State Athletic Commission, which declined to clear Evans earlier this month at UFC 205. In addition, his manager says that Evans will undergo an additional screening with a neurologist and aims to fight in January or February. UFC 206 takes place at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Here’s an updated look at the card… Daniel Cormier (18-1) (c) vs. Anthony Johnson (22-5) – Light heavyweight title Max Holloway (16-3) vs. Anthony Pettis (19-5) Rashad Evans (19-5-1) vs. Tim Kennedy (18-5) Donald Cerrone (31-7) vs. Matt Brown (20-15) Valerie Letourneau (8-5) vs. Viviane Pereira (10-0) Zach Makovsky (19-7) vs. Dustin Ortiz (15-6) John Makdessi (14-5) vs. Lando Vannata (8-1) Olivier Aubin-Mercier (8-2) vs. Drew Dober (17-7) Jason Saggo (12-2) vs. Rustam Khabilov (20-3) Misha Cirkunov (12-2) vs. Nikita Krylov (21-4) Cub Swanson (23-7) vs. Doo ho Choi (15-1) Jordan Mein (29-10) vs. Emil Meek (8-2-1) Mitch Gagnon (12-3) vs. Matthew Lopez (8-1)
