Many fans may have taken the announcement with a grain of salt, but B.J. Penn will return to the cage.

Two-and-a-half years after his last fight, and six years after his last win, the Hawaiian UFC legend is still planning a comeback. The former two-divisional champion will face talented upstart Yair Rodriguez in the main event of a Fight Night card on Jan. 15 in Phoenix.

And while Penn has been forced to withdrawal from three previously scheduled bouts in 2016, it's the love of the scrap that keeps him coming back for more.

"We want to go get one more belt, but no", Penn joked when asked about his goals in his return to fighting. "I love this, I miss the confrontation. I like to fight, it's not a curse, I enjoy this. It's either this or do something else, and this is my favorite thing."

Although Penn was once the most dominant lightweight fighter on the planet, that version of the Hilo representative hasn't been witnessed in quite some time. Lopsided losses to Rory MacDonald and Nick Diaz stalled any traction he attempted to gain at welterweight, then a third defeat at the hands of Frankie Edgar pushed him into retirement.

The 37-year-old former titleholder decided to end his hiatus earlier this year, but knows he's returning to a different sport.

Things have changed and Penn was introduced to some of these differences when his original comeback fight against Dennis Siver at UFC 199 was scrapped after USADA discovered he had been using IVs in preparation for the bout. Despite his situation, Penn still believes the anti-doping organization ultimately is a good thing for MMA.

"I think the sport changed a lot with USADA coming in", Penn said. "For sure some fighters get affected by USADA. It is a very busy thing to keep in control but it's something that has to be done. So that's what's going on."

A proud Hawaiian now training under Greg Jackson in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one wonders if Penn's late career could've turned out different than it did with five losses in his last seven fights had "The Prodigy" left his comfort zone earlier. That's a question no one will be able to answer, not even Penn himself.

"I don't know if it was the right thing for me to do all these (pauses). I don't know what is right or wrong, but I think right now in my life, the best thing for me to do is to be out of Hawaii because I've got too much stuff I do [there] that keeps me away from fighting. With fighting, you have to be all in, everything has to be about fighting, so yeah, that's the thing.

"Yeah, maybe I could do better [had I gone to Albuquerque earlier in my career] but I like this the way it's supposed to be. I think everything happens for a reason and that's how it was. So, I have no hard feelings."

FloCombat via A.G Fight