BJ Penn to end 2½-year layoff with return at UFC Fight Night on Sunday

It’s not a ghost, a hologram or a video game character.

The actual BJ Penn is back, fighting in the main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night from Talking Stick Resort outside Phoenix.

Penn, a 38-year-old from Hawaii whose UFC career dates to 2001 and who stands alongside Conor McGregor and retired Randy Couture as the only UFC fighters to wear two division belts, is ending a 30-month retirement to fight Mexico’s 24-year-old Yair Rodriguez (10-1) in a featherweight bout.

Fox Sports 1 will televise the card beginning at 7 p.m. PST Sunday.

“It’s been awhile. I’m very excited to see what it’s like to get back in the cage,” Penn said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times this week. “I love fighting, I enjoy it and I miss the competition. When I go to the gym, I get good results and there’s no reason for me not to come back.”

Penn’s layoff dates to July 6, 2014, when his loss to former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar by third-round knockout followed defeats against former welterweight title challengers Rory MacDonald and Nick Diaz.

“I’ve heard reporters saying BJ is 1-5-1” in his last seven fights, UFC President Dana White said. “Look at the five guys BJ lost to. All … studs … he ain’t losing to [bad] fighters. He’s losing to Georges St-Pierre, Frankie Edgar and the list goes on, and they didn’t just roll over him.

“So now he wants to go out and test himself and give it another shot. Who knows what he’s got? We’re going to find out. That’s part of the deal, finding out when the fight happens. He’s still BJ Penn.”

Television ratings should be high given the massive audience that will be pointed to the bout during Fox’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys playoff game Sunday afternoon.

The post-NFL Christmas Eve replay showing of Hawaiian Max Holloway’s victory over Anthony Pettis drew 4.7 million viewers, more than NBC’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Penn’s return has been delayed twice previously by a rib injury and a six-month suspension for using a banned IV treatment before his scheduled June 4 fight at the Forum.

He wasn’t driven by sentimental reasons connected to his return. Penn said he was encouraged by how he fought in training, sparring two or three times a week, and by the success of elder statesmen like middleweight champion Michael Bisping and heavyweight title challenger Fabricio Werdum.

“There was a point when I was content” being retired, Penn said. “I thought this was the normal course of life. But then as I sat down and started watching it, all these guys in title fights were my age. So what excuse can I make up for myself for not doing this?”

After participating in eight title fights between 2006 and 2010, Penn said he’s also coming back to provide a lesson to younger fighters.

“I hear guys say, ‘I want the money fight.’ My attitude has always been, ‘Why don’t you make yourself the money fight?’” Penn said. “Don’t sit there and say you want the money. Go win fights yourself, Bozo!”

White said he’s among those intrigued to see what Penn has left in the proverbial tank.

“BJ Penn definitely has a chance in this fight,” White said. “Yair Rodriguez [the UFC’s 10th-ranked featherweight] is young, talented and well-rounded. But he’s going in against a crafty veteran who can punch, and anytime this thing hits the floor, he’s still … BJ Penn, you know what I mean?”

White admits that despite Penn’s name recognition, he needs to “win fights” before he can emerge into title talk.

“I feel I can beat anybody out there my size or skill level. I believe I can be champion. That’s why I’m here,” Penn said, underlining the fact that he has no relationship with Holloway, who will next challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight title and has said he’d long to fight Penn for the belt in Hawaii.

“I have my eye on getting the belt, whoever the champion is when I get there,” Penn said. “Me and Max, we don’t know each other. I live on a different island.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

@latimespugmire