Jessica Penne Explains Injury That Scratched Her From UFC on ESPN 1

Jessica Penne spoke with reporters about the injury that caused her to be pulled at the last minute from her fight with Jodie Esquibel at UFC on ESPN 1. Highlights are below per MMAjunkie:

On the injury she suffered during a pre-fight workout: “I felt good and I went for a takedown with my judo coach. And I messed up. I pushed off my right leg and my ankle dislocated. And I popped it back in and tried to walk it off, but the pain and the swelling just kept escalating, so we had to call the UFC doctor.”

On a possible rebooking against Esquibel: “I know that she trained just as hard as I did and I’m sure she’s just as upset about it as I am, so I would love to reschedule it and rebook it if she would do that.”

On missing weight: “I haven’t missed weight in 13 years and I had a couple year layoff and thought my body would just bounce right back into it. I did everything that I was supposed to do and I was under the guidance of the P.I. and my body just wouldn’t let it go. And my health comes first, so they decided to call it to not do any further damage…Honestly, during my time off, I had to work a lot. I had to hustle. So it’s not like I was training every day. I thought my body would do what it knows to do, but it didn’t this time. I did everything that I could possibly do to make it so, but it just wasn’t happening.”

On keeping a healthy mindset about it: “Everything happens for a reason. I know there’s always a positive you can find out of a bad situation, so I just have to keep my head up. I’ve dealt with worse, what’s one more thing…I’m going to look at this as a positive and just say this was a practice run. And just use it and gain the momentum from it and the experience from it and just move forward. It’s all I can do.”