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BJ Penn Reportedly Under Investigation for Alleged Sexual Assault

Police in Hilo, Hawaii, are reportedly investigating BJ Penn for an alleged sexual assault, per MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi.
The alleged victim filed a report in Delaware County, Ohio, on Feb. 16, and authorities in Ohio then forwarded the information…

Police in Hilo, Hawaii, are reportedly investigating BJ Penn for an alleged sexual assault, per MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi.

The alleged victim filed a report in Delaware County, Ohio, on Feb. 16, and authorities in Ohio then forwarded the information to their counterparts in Hawaii, where the alleged sexual assault took place.

In a string of profane tweets (warning: link contains NSFW language) posted to his now-private Twitter account in February, former BJPenn.com writer Pedro Alex Carrasco said Penn sexually assaulted his girlfriend (via Zane Simon of SB Nation’s Bloody Elbow).

Penn refuted the allegations through a representative in a statement on BJPenn.com:

Penn trusted Pedro to run his website for almost a decade and considered him family. He was fired last year for unethical behavior and was provided a severence that ended on February 16, 2016. One day later allegations appeared in a one sided Twitter rant which happen to be many months after the alleged date in question (August of 2015). There are many holes in Pedro’s story. In the almost 15 years that Penn has been a champion fighter there has not ever been any incident or allegation in regards to his conduct with women. He is family man and father of two young daughters with a known long term girlfriend. It is unfortunate that someone that BJ considered family is trying to extort him.

Shortly thereafter, the UFC pushed back Penn’s potential return to the Octagon to determine whether he violated any terms of the company’s fighter-conduct policy.

Last Tuesday, UFC President Dana White confirmed to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole that Penn is set to fight Dennis Siver at UFC 199 on June 4 in Los Angeles. Lawrence Epstein, the UFC’s chief operating officer, specifically addressed Penn’s ongoing legal situation, telling Iole the company could potentially re-evaluate Penn’s status pending further action by a law enforcement agency.

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Jon Jones Comments on Daniel Cormier’s Injury, More

Jon Jones has never been shy about voicing his opinion on Daniel Cormier in the past. On Monday, the former UFC light heavyweight champion went on the record to question whether it was an injury that knocked Cormier out of their scheduled bout at UFC 1…

Jones discussed his doubt about Cormier’s condition on ESPN’s First Take:

FoxSports.com’s Damon Martin shared some of his comments from the interview:

Yeah, I am a little bit [skeptical]. To this day no one’s really positive what his actual injury is. I’ve heard some people say that he’s hurt and not actually injured. Supposedly a doctor told him recently that in four weeks he could be completely healed to fight again. So when you’re healing from something in four weeks time it makes me feel maybe you’re not actually injured, maybe you’re fighting hurt.

Cormier backed out of the fight on April 1, with Martin reporting he suffered a shin injury. Instead, Jones will be facing off with Ovince Saint Preux on Saturday.

Jones and Cormier have one of the most personal feuds in the UFC. In August 2014, Greg Howard shared a clip on Deadspin (note: link contains NSFW language) from a SportsCenter interview involving the two fighters. A hot mic caught the trash talk they exchanged after the interview ended.

“Me and Daniel do not like each other at all,” said Jones, per Martin. “It all boils down to me being alpha male and him thinking that he is. If he wasn’t around, he would be. So there’s some strong competition there.”

Jones and Cormier have fought just once, with the former winning a unanimous decision at UFC 182 in January 2015. Once Cormier is healthy again, the UFC will almost certainly waste little time announcing a second battle between the two.

Should that happen, Cormier will likely use Jones’ words from Monday as motivation to avoid a repeat of their last clash.

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Dana White Comments on Ronda Rousey’s Comeback Fight, Holly Holm

UFC President Dana White confirmed Sunday that Ronda Rousey will have a chance to win back the UFC women’s bantamweight title when she steps into the Octagon again.
White discussed Rousey’s immediate future on ESPN Radio’s Beadle & Shelb…

UFC President Dana White confirmed Sunday that Ronda Rousey will have a chance to win back the UFC women’s bantamweight title when she steps into the Octagon again.

White discussed Rousey’s immediate future on ESPN Radio’s Beadle & Shelburne (via ESPN.com’s Brett Okamoto). He didn’t commit to a date for her next fight but said it will likely happen by the end of the year, adding she’ll get the winner of Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes’ clash at UFC 200 on July 9.

“[Rousey] is definitely part of the discussion [to fight on Nov. 12 in New York], and she will fight whoever has that belt,” White said. “I think Miesha, she’s fighting at [UFC 200], she might fight again before that. She wants to fight. We’ll see what happens. Miesha has been the No. 2 baddest woman in the world for years. For her to stay active right now, makes sense.”

Rousey hasn’t fought since dropping the bantamweight championship to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November. In January, White confirmed she would remain on an extended break from mixed martial arts to complete filming for the Road House remake.

Holm’s defeat to Tate at UFC 196 in March was an indirect consequence of that decision. Her manager, Lenny Fresquez, pushed for Holm to fight another opponent rather than wait for a rematch with Rousey since the timetable for her return remains unknown.

As a result, Holm not only dropped the title, but she also cost herself some money, since the demand for Holm/Rousey 2 will have diminished somewhat.

Although he was highly critical of Fresquez immediately after the fight, White had nothing but positive things to say about Holm in her fight with Tate.

“She hung in there [against Tate],” he said on Beadle and Shelburne. “For people who know a lot about jiu-jitsu, she did everything right to defend that choke. Miesha just wasn’t letting go of that neck, man. [Holm] went out like a gangster.”

Should Rousey be victorious in her return bout, Holm might have to wait even longer for a rematch. A superfight between Rousey and Cristiane Justino, whose UFC debut will come at UFC 198 in May, might be too tantalizing for the company to pass up.

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McGregor vs. Diaz: UFC 196 Odds, Predictions and Pre-Fight Twitter Hype

After beating Jose Aldo to lay sole claim as king of UFC’s featherweight division, Conor McGregor is setting his sights on Nate Diaz. The two will clash Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 196.
McGregor was originally supposed to face lightweight champion Raf…

After beating Jose Aldo to lay sole claim as king of UFC’s featherweight division, Conor McGregor is setting his sights on Nate Diaz. The two will clash Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 196.

McGregor was originally supposed to face lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos; however, a broken foot ruled Dos Anjos out for the pay-per-view. Almost immediately, Diaz was named as a replacement, meaning the fight would be at the welterweight, rather than lightweight, limit.

Despite the fact he’s fighting in a completely new division, McGregor remains the favorite Saturday. According to Odds Shark, the reigning featherweight champion has 5-8 odds to win, while Diaz is a 7-5 underdog. McGregor also has 20-53 odds to win the fight by knockout, per Odds Shark.

No matter what the result, the fight should be extremely entertaining. McGregor is one of UFC’s best showmen, while Diaz made it clear he’s looking to make a statement inside the Octagon.

Here’s some of the pre-fight hype between the two fighters, followed by predictions for how the fight will unfold.

Pre-Fight Hype

Diaz wasted little time throwing his first shot McGregor‘s way:

Making the jump from featherweight to lightweight would’ve been a difficult enough transition for McGregor. He has to jump two weight divisions in order to fight Diaz, and as a result he has been forced to add a significant amount of weight for such a short amount of time.

In an interview on Submission Radio (via Anton Tabuena of SB Nation’s Bloody Elbow), Diaz‘s coach Richard Perez asserted his belief McGregor “has got to be on some kind of steroids.”

During a press conference on Feb. 24, McGregor dismissed similar accusations from Diaz himself. (Warning: Video contains language that is NSFW):

McGregor also shared some short clips of his pre-fight training regimen:

Even with the short turnaround time between the time McGregor vs. Diaz was announced and this Saturday, the hype machine hasn’t lost a single beat. McGregor is guaranteed to grab headlines himself, and the steroid allegations only added another layer of personal animosity between he and Diaz.

Tensions almost boiled over at the pre-fight press conference, per UFC:

Given the amount of bad blood on display, Saturday’s fight won’t be lacking in drama.

Prediction

Not only is McGregor fighting in a weight class 25 pounds higher than what he’s used to, he’s also had only a little over a week to prepare for his opponent. Even the greatest of fighters would struggle when facing those two obstacles.

Then, you throw in the physical and stylistic challenge Diaz poses, and this won’t be an easy fight for McGregor by any stretch.

In addition to his size advantage, Diaz owns a slightly longer reach than McGregor—two inches—per FightMetric. That should allow Diaz to remain a safe distance away yet still be close enough to land the volume of blows to sway the judges his way.

Diaz would be smart to use McGregor‘s aggressive nature to his advantage. The 30-year-old former Ultimate Fighter winner could frustrate his opponent with well-time jabs, and should that frustration get to McGregor, he could leave himself open long enough for Diaz to land a major blow.

While one can see a road to victory for Diaz, this fight is McGregor‘s to lose. He’s the stronger puncher, and his speed and agility will help him avoid Diaz‘s attempts to get the fight down on the mat.

McGregor has called for a first-round knockout.

“End of the first, I feel he will be put away,” he said, per Fox Sports’ Damon Martin. “I respect Nate. Don’t get me wrong. I do respect Nate. There’s a lot of (expletives) in this game and he is not one of them. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a respect there between us but it’s business in there and business is business.”

He predicted as much before his fight with Jose Aldo and duly delivered. A win Saturday won’t come nearly as easy.

Diaz will be behind on the scorecards in the third round, and he’ll start getting a little desperate as a result. That desperation will be his downfall as McGregor sees an opening and ends the fight in the third.

Prediction: McGregor, Round 3 TKO

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BJ Penn’s UFC Comeback Delayed, Expected to Fight at UFC 197

On Monday, former UFC champion BJ Penn’s website announced his return to the Octagon will be delayed (via Nick Baldwin of BloodyElbow.com):

I thought the fight guaranteed was going to happen because the UFC, they set up medicals for me to do. I d…

On Monday, former UFC champion BJ Penn‘s website announced his return to the Octagon will be delayed (via Nick Baldwin of BloodyElbow.com):

I thought the fight guaranteed was going to happen because the UFC, they set up medicals for me to do. I did the medicals and they were sending a film crew down and we were getting all that together and I assumed we were setting up the fight, and that might have been what was happening. But, at the end of the day, Sean Shelby (UFC matchmaker) called me and said it would be more convenient for all of us to move the fight to April 23rd.

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