Dana White Says BJ Penn Won’t Fight in the UFC Again

BJ Penn’s UFC days are officially over, according to Dana White. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto spoke with White before Saturday’s UFC 242 and asked about Penn’s future after he was caught on video in a bar fight in Hawaii last weekend. White, who had previously said Penn’s unbooked fight against Nik Lentz would be his last, answered that the Lentz/Penn fight is off.

“He won’t fight again. That’s it. That’s a wrap,” White said. “…It’s not even that this [the bar fight video] was the last straw. It’s uh — 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, you know, 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, BJ needs to, you know. He focus on his personal life and get himself together before he thinks of fighting again.”

White added that he had already told Penn that the fight with Lentz had been shut down.

Dana White on the recent videos that surfaced of BJ Penn. pic.twitter.com/Ll35VFuAfG

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) September 5, 2019