Yahoo Sports Dana White says B.J. Penn 'won't fight again' after 2nd Hawaii bar fight
B.J. Penn’s UFC career has seemingly come to an end.
UFC president Dana White told ESPN on Wednesday that after Penn’s second bar fight of the summer and the subsequent videos that surfaced, Penn won’t be fighting again, saying “that’s a wrap” on his time with the UFC and on his final fight with Nik Lentz.
Dana White on the recent videos that surfaced of BJ Penn. pic.twitter.com/Ll35VFuAfG
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) September 5, 2019
“It’s not even that this was the ‘last straw.’ I didn’t love him continuing to fight anyway, but when you have 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, you know, 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.”
Penn, a UFC Hall of Famer, got into a fight outside a bar on Hawaii’s Big Island in late August. Several videos of the fight came to light, which show Penn being knocked down and then punching the head of another person. Penn wasn’t arrested for the fight, but he did confirm it was him in the videos, saying that he had been trying to calm an acquaintance when he was attacked. He told the TSN MMA Podcast that he was just trying to defend himself.
White obviously seems concerned about Penn, but wasn’t broken up about nixing the Penn-Lentz fight. As he said in the video, Penn had to persuade White to schedule one more fight. Penn, 40, has lost his last seven bouts, and is now 16-14-2.
Penn’s fight with Lentz, which was brokered by White under the condition that it be his final fight, never had an announced date or a venue. Lentz, Penn’s former training partner, had recently offered Penn a house and a place to train so their fight wouldn’t be canceled.
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