Don’t Worry, BJ Penn Will Clean Up MMA’s Steroid Problem Himself If He Has To


(Careful, BJ — drinking Sean Sherk’s blood is one of the easiest ways to get a false positive.)

In a Floyd Mayweather-esque bit of gamesmanship, BJ Penn went on twitter yesterday to make a unique “offer” to his next opponent, welterweight prodigy Rory MacDonald:

“VADA anti-doping has offered to sponsor our upcoming fight. I’ve accepted and invite you to help me clean up the sport. VADA results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens. Lets get started asap!!”

You see what he did there? If Rory refuses to undergo VADA’s voluntary PED screenings, well then he’s a doper, and by extension, all the accusations that Penn previously made about MacDonald’s mentor Georges St. Pierre were accurate, and BJ Penn is the last honest man in the sport. (Like the fight itself, this whole VADA business just seems to be a way for Penn to stick it to his old buddy GSP.)


(Careful, BJ — drinking Sean Sherk’s blood is one of the easiest ways to get a false positive.)

In a Floyd Mayweather-esque bit of gamesmanship, BJ Penn went on twitter yesterday to make a unique “offer” to his next opponent, welterweight prodigy Rory MacDonald:

“VADA anti-doping has offered to sponsor our upcoming fight. I’ve accepted and invite you to help me clean up the sport. VADA results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens. Lets get started asap!!”

You see what he did there? If Rory refuses to undergo VADA’s voluntary PED screenings, well then he’s a doper, and by extension, all the accusations that Penn previously made about MacDonald’s mentor Georges St. Pierre were accurate, and BJ Penn is the last honest man in the sport. (Like the fight itself, this whole VADA business just seems to be a way for Penn to stick it to his old buddy GSP.)

And how about this “results will be released after the fight to ensure that the fight happens” business? Translation: “Even if you decide to use steroids during this training camp, nobody has to know until after the fight, and we can both still get paid, so it’s totally cool.” Is that supposed to make us feel better about VADA’s legitimacy, or Penn’s commitment to fair competition? How is this going to “clean up the sport” if the fight could theoretically still proceed with at least one of the fighters using performance enhancing drugs? What’s Penn’s angle here, outside of self-promotion?

Luckily, MacDonald has already responded to this mess: “already worried BJ? honestly i think its a great idea 2, and im ready to do the testing for our fight as well.”

Now, whether or not the UFC will actually allow Penn and MacDonald to go rogue and conduct their own drug testing outside of the athletic commissions is beside the point, I guess. But it’s nice to see MacDonald call Penn’s bluff. Once again, I’m reminded of the eerie prophecy that Penn made at the end of this classic clip. MacDonald is that 12-year-old kid, finally meeting up with the original “Prodigy” at the end of his career. No amount of fight-stipulations in the world are going to prevent the inevitable from happening.

Penn vs. MacDonald is slated to go down at UFC 152, September 22nd at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.