BJ Penn
BJ Penn

Via the official UFC Twitter account:

The 19th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” will air in January 2014 and the coaches will be two former UFC lightweight champions in Frankie Edgar (16-4-1) and BJ Penn (16-9-2). The two fighters will complete their trilogy in April 2014, but the third fight will happen as featherweights. This will mark the first time that BJ Penn has fought as a featherweight in the UFC. It will also mark the Penn has been in action since getting defeated by Rory MacDonald in December 2012.

The two fighters first met at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi where Edgar defeated Penn via controversial unanimous decision to win the UFC lightweight title for the first time. The two met in an immediate rematch at UFC 118 due to the controversy and Penn’s dominant reign as lightweight champion at the time. However, Edgar won the rematch via unanimous decision in convincing fashion.

Edgar went on to defend the title twice against Gray Maynard, with the first ending in a draw, but Edgar knocking Maynard out in the third bout(Maynard had defeated Edgar prior to Edgar becoming champion). Edgar then lost the title to Ben Henderson in much the same fashion that Penn lost the title to Edgar. Edgar also lost the immediate rematch and then dropped down to the UFC featherweight division to take a shot at UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Edgar lost that bout via unanimous decision at UFC 156, but finally ended his three fight losing skid with a “Fight of the Night” performance against Charles Oliveira at UFC 162.

This will be Edgar’s first appearance on TUF, whereas Penn was a coach opposite former UFC champion Jens Pulver on TUF 5 which aired in April 2007.

Stay tuned to ProMMAnow.com for more TUF 19 news and coverage.

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