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B.J. Penn will make his return to the Octagon — for better or worse – later this year to face Nik Lentz in Lightweight action. To hear Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White tell it, it will be “The Prodigy’s” final fight for the promotion win, lose or draw.
But if you think the matchup against Lentz is just a random one, it isn’t. According to “The Carny,” he and Penn have had beef for some time now, as Nik says the former 155-pound champion likes to terrorize him and his wife on social media.
“Every couple of months he would send me direct messages (on Instagram) to threaten me and my family. All kinds of stuff, the guy is a whack job. He has been allowed to be this bad person his entire life because he was good at something,” explained nik during a recent interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
“That’s just how it is in America. If you are good at fighting, if you’re good at sports, can catch a ball you can be as much of a dirt bag as you want.”
“So he comes to my Instagram all of the time and when I don’t respond to him he goes on my wife’s Instagram to tell her to tell me to respond to him. It’s ridiculous.”
It wasn’t all bad between Nik and Penn, as Lentz says their relationship started when B.J. and his team flew him out to Hawaii to help him train for a fight. Once there, Lentz said he walked into an environment he didn’t agree with, saying he could spot a drug addict when he sees one, and Penn fit the mold and also didn’t train as hard as he expected.
Still, Lentz agreed to stay a few days to train, and ultimately left back home with only part of the money that was agreed upon on for his services. Shortly thereafter is when Nik said Penn started challenging him to a fight.
“Every time we were going to fight in the past, he would never sign the contract. He would just talk. I guess now he finally came down from a (cocaine) binge and decide it was time to accept it,” he added.
Despite Penn’s best days obviously being behind him, Lentz says he will not overlook Penn and vows to take it to him from the jump.
“I still have to go out there and beat him up. And I am going to. I am not going to overlook this thing. I am going to win this fight. I am ten times better than BJ Penn. I am going to win, but I am going to be ready. He is going to face the best Nik Lentz there has ever been.”
While Penn has long been known as one of the best to ever compete in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), Lentz says B.J.’s issues outside of the cage (such as this one and this one) have been overlooked due to his legacy in the sport. And while many around Penn have never been bold enough to be upfront with him, Lentz says he has never been a “yes man,” and actually confronted Penn about changing his life around.
“I’m the only person who has ever cared about BJ. Everyone else just threw him to the wolves and said ‘He’s such a legend,’ But I am the only person who ever gave him a dose of reality. No, you are not a legend, you are a dirtbag, you are a drug addict, you don’t take care of your family, you don’t take care of your fans and you do nothing good for nobody and you need to get your shit together.”
“But the media and everybody has just dragged him along and gave him this confidence that it doesn’t matter what innocent person he beats up, it doesn’t matter if he goes to the strip club and he is mean to women so they kick him out and he beats up bouncers and his handlers save him. Its ridiculous.”
To hear Lentz tell it, B.J. is spiraling and headed toward a disastrous point in his life if he doesn’t get the help he needs outside of the cage. Inside the Octagon, Penn has lost seven in a row with his last win coming in 2010.
A date and location for the proposed fight has yet-to-be secured.