In an interesting turn of events, it looks like the friendship between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz is no more.
Penn, who lost a lopsided unanimous decision to Diaz in October, took to his Twitter account on Thursday to call out the former Strikeforce champion. He included a picture taken after the fight of the two welterweights hanging out backstage in the locker room.
Look how much bigger you are in this [picture]…I thought you were gonna scrap from the beginning homie? What was that coward fence holding strategy to tire out the smaller man? Street fighter my ass! I made you fight like glass jaw @jonfitchdotnet poser! I’ll be ready for that weak bs next time we fight
After an injury forced UFC champion Georges St-Pierre out of his scheduled title bout with Diaz at UFC 137, Penn was given an opportunity to step in as a late replacement. Both Diaz and Penn admitted that they weren’t completely comfortable fighting one another, considering they had trained previously over the years.
Penn looked good early out, as he utilized his world class boxing skills to outpoint Diaz on the feet. But it didn’t take long for the tide to turn. Diaz’s peppering strikes and constant aggression soon took a toll on Penn, who quickly began to wilt in the second round.
It was a vintage performance from Diaz, who silenced a plethora of critics that claimed he was overrated and couldn’t cut it in the UFC.
Penn showed tremendous respect for Diaz after the bout and officially announced his retirement from the sport.
The picture above was taken immediately following the event.
Readers should take Penn’s post with a grain of salt. He isn’t the only person with access to his Twitter account, and there has yet to be any official word regarding the legitimacy and reasoning behind his remarks.
(Update)
Apparently, the Twitter post is legit, and Penn is looking to return to the octagon.
Pedro Carrasco, the MMA news director of BJPenn.com, recently responded to the mysterious tweet on the MMA Underground Forum on MixedMartialArts.com.
“There is a reason why he posted it, He is fired up because now that the holidays are over and a lot of his post-fight distractions are behind him he has nothing to do but think about things and he is not happy with the way he performed in his last several fights.
I am not here to make excuses for him, but I am pretty sure people, at least with some sense of intelligence, can identify that the BJ that fought Edgar, Fitch and Diaz was not the same Penn that fought the Diego’s and Florians of the world.
Things changed, but as it sits right now, he is back. That killer mentality and fire is back and it’s been brewing for a while now and today’s tweet is a result of it just boiling over.
Expect more to come from Penn for sure!”
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com