Dana White: “B.J. Penn Won’t Fight Again”
Dana White and B.J. Penn have a great working relationship. Penn’s contributions to the sport of MMA won’t be forgotten anytime soon either. However, two recent videos surfaced online, showing B.J. involved in a fist fight. While in the first video, he was seen pummeling someone, in the second, Penn was knocked down by the man, before being ushered away.
Penn’s issues outside of the cage aren’t new. Recently, Penn’s estranged girlfriend was granted a restraining order, when she claimed the former champion had physically assaulted her. Back in June, Dana White said Penn would never fight inside the Octagon again. However, just two months later, Dana announced Penn against Nik Lentz on a future card.
The most recent events however have now forced White to once again reconsider his decision.
Talking to ESPN, Dana claimed that it was the end of the line for the Hawaiian.
“He won’t fight again”, White told ESPN (transcript via MMA Fighting). “That’s it. It’s a wrap.”
The UFC President also claimed that the promotion had informed Penn about the decision. B.J., who is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and welterweight champion, hasn’t won a fight in his last seven outings. He has gone 1-9-1 since 2010.
When asked if the street fights that surfaced were the last straw, Dana said, “It’s not even that this was the last straw. I didn’t love him continuing to fight anyway, but we having the relationship that he and I have and he’s getting me on the phone, begging me for another fight, begging me for another opportunity, it’s hard for me to turn him down, but after what I saw on that video, B.J. needs to focus on his personal life and get himself together before he thinks about fighting again.
“Listen, I don’t wanna sit here on TV and pick B.J. apart on his life or whatever. I think that we all know what B.J. Penn needs to do and hopefully B.J. Penn knows what B.J. Penn needs to do. Not gonna sit here like I’m his father or I’m some guy who’s above him and pointing the finger at B.J. and B.J. needs to do this and that. What I saw in that video was sad. I love the kid and I hope he gets his life together.”
B.J. Penn spoke with TSN few days ago, elaborating on what went down. Penn defended himself saying he tried to calm the situation, but that the other gentleman kept trying to pick a fight with him.
“I’m at a concert going to meet a friend of mine that I knew since we were real young kids and I’m over there, and then an acquaintance of mine he gets mad about something”, Penn said. “You know, something was said or what or if it was an old past thing and then he wants to fight about it. I’m like, ‘Naw naw,’ we’ve got a lot of witnesses, everybody can corroborate my story. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want to fight. We’re friends, everything’s cool,’ this and that. He even walks outside and I’m thinking, ‘Aw, this is silly.’ I’m going to go get him, calm him down, come back inside, we’ll come enjoy the concert, we’ve got some other friends there. I walk outside to go give the guy a hug and then he hits me twice. I’m like, ‘No, no, calm down.’ I try to give him another hug and he hits me a couple more times and then he hits me again—I wish they didn’t cut the video in half so whoever put that video up cut it in half, I wish they had the whole thing that showed me trying to hug the guy—finally, my adrenaline kicked up because he was hitting me so much, I’m like, ‘Go ahead, hit me again.’
“But really, I thought the guy would eventually just be like, ‘You know what? Forget it, B.J.,’ give me a hug or whatever, walk away. He hit me and he hit me good. Knocked me down. And then when I got back up he tried it again and then I just had to defend myself. So that’s what you see in the second video.”
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