The announcement B.J. Penn will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame shocked no one, especially Penn himself.

The former lightweight and welterweight champion will go into the “Modern Era” wing of the UFC’s revamped hall of fame next week during “International Fight Week.” The ceremony takes place on the main stage of the UFC Fan Expo at 11 a.m. PT on July 11. UFC 189 takes place later that evening at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Penn (16-10-2 MMA, 12-9-2 UFC) said UFC President Dana White informed him of the induction. While they both had several periods in which they didn’t see eye-to-eye, White has long maintained that Penn had a hall of fame-worthy career.

“Dana called me and let me know,” Penn told MMAjunkie. “They didn’t tell me about that whole thing they were showing on FOX (during a UFC 187 broadcast) and all that – the whole video they had. They didn’t tell me about that. They know I have a big mouth. They just put it out there, and everybody was telling me congrats.

“Just as exciting as that was – not that I didn’t think I should have been in the hall of fame – but everybody was so positive, just kind of congratulating me on my career. It was a nice way to go out because I’m a controversial fighter at times. But there was no controversy, period.”

The excitement over his induction has generated a lot of excitement in Penn’s native Hawaii. When asked how the hall of fame compares to winning UFC gold, Penn said that it almost feels like this is the bigger deal to people he runs into during his days.

“It seems – how everybody was treating me after they brought it out it was on the news in Hawaii – they were treating me better than when I won the title,” Penn said. “It’s like, ‘Man, this is bigger than the championship.’ It felt like I was the champion again. I was walking around with everyone coming up to me left and right. It was a great honor, and it goes to show that the hall of fame is becoming more serious and the UFC is taking it more seriously, I think.”

The 36-year-old retired following a lopsided loss to Frankie Edgar at The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale in 2014. Despite a decorated career and being a trailblazer for MMA’s lighter weight classes, Penn left the sport winless in his final four fights. However, he said he he’s had very little trouble adjusting to the retired life.

“At first I thought I was going to have a hard time, that I was going to want to fight and all that,” Penn said. “But I’m fine. Everything’s good and I just am – I just have been in the gym my whole life. I still go to the gym and try to do some cardio for my health and stuff like that. I’ve been in the gym my whole life, so it’s kind of good to catch up on other things, other stuff that I want to do and take my time without rushing. I was always in training camp or rushing to do something because I have to get in training camp soon again. Within that time I was training every day anyway. So it’s nice. It’s nice.”

For more on UFC 189 and International Fight Week, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.