After disposing of Joe Stevenson, and claiming the UFC lightweight title at UFC 80, BJ Penn issued a stern statement to Sean Sherk during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan: "Sean Sherk...you're dead."

That comment didn't sit well with Sherk who immediately left his commentary position to confront BJ in the octagon.

In an interview given to MMAWeekly Sherk discussed his reactions.

"I thought it was a pretty classless thing to do, but what do you do? I guess that's just who BJ is, so I think it will add more to our fight when we fight later on this year." His message to BJ was clear -

"Now its personal"

The 34 year old former UFC lightweight champion admitted to MMAWeekly that he was bothered by BJ's comments. "I was fired up for sure. I mean, I would rather fight any day of the week than sit on the outside and watch, so it was hard enough to watch, and then to be threatened afterward. It wasn't an easy thing to deal with. I was pretty fired up"

In a division that is becoming highly competitive with a surge of incoming new talent, Penn might want to be a little cautious about giving Sherk any extra motivation for their fight. "It definitely plays a big factor in the motivation because I train hard the way it is and I've never really fought someone that I had a personal issue with. Now I've got a personal issue with someone. He's attacking me personally. He's saying stuff about me that isn't true. Yeah it motivates me to train harder. I mean, I can't lose a fight to someone who is talking smack about me. That's just something I can't do, so I'm going to train my ass off and make sure I win this fight."

However, Sherk wastes no time in giving Penn his own motivation for the fight in his assessment of the UFC's 155 pound title. "I still feel like the title still belongs to me. I think if you want to be the champ you've got to beat the champ. It's exciting to get back in there. It's been a long layoff. There's been a lot of stuff that has happened over the last few months. It'll be good to get everything behind me, just get my career back on track and get what I feel is rightfully mine."

Sherk continues to express the weaknesses he saw in BJ's game in the interview, "I see some things in the boxing area that maybe I can exploit. I see some things on the ground that I could exploit. You just train to the best of your potential. You surround yourself with the best trainers and training partners that you can and you prepare yourself for whatever can happen when you're in the cage fighting because anything can happen and the gameplan could change within the blink of an eye."