Dana White Says Hawai‘i MMA Legend BJ Penn “Won’t Fight Again”

After watching two videos of BJ “the Prodigy” Penn getting into brawls outside of Hawaiʻi bars, UFC President Dana White said during an ESPN interview that Penn “won’t fight again” today.

Speaking from Abu Dhabi where UFC 242 is taking place, White went on to say “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.”

Earlier this summer TMZ Sports posted two videos of Penn getting into brawls outside of bars, the first was in June outside of the strip club Femme Nu and the other last month outside Lava Shack on the Big Island.

Yesterday Penn did an interview with the Total Sports Network about his side of the story of the latest brawl, saying that he was trying to calm down an acquaintance and did not want to fight.

During the interview Penn said:

“I’m at a concert going to meet a friend that I’ve known since we were really young kids and I’m over there and an acquaintance of mine, he gets mad about something, you know something was said or it was an old past thing and then he wants to fight about it.”

“I was like, ‘No, no, I don’t want to fight, we’re friends, everything is cool.’ He even walks outside and I’m thinking, this is silly I’m going to go get him, calm him down and get him to come back inside and enjoy the concert, we’ve got some other friends there.”

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

“I walk outside to go give the guy a hug and then he hits me twice and I’m like, ‘No, calm down!’  I try to give him another hug and he hits me a couple more times and he hits me again.”

Penn, 40, is from Kailua on the Big Island. He is one of the most recognizable figures in the sport of mixed-martial arts, having won championships in both the UFC’s lightweight and welterweight divisions. Prior to his career in the UFC Penn was the first American gold-medalist at the World Jujitsu Championships.