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“If I could get anything else going in life than just a fist fight, it would be nice.”
UFC legend BJ Penn is finding it difficult to retire and committ to a life beyond MMA.
Although ‘The Prodigy’ knows his top prizefighting days are behind him, the 41-year-old is noncommittal on retirement because MMA is the only thing he has going on in his life right now, per a recent Instagram live session with coach Jason Parillo.
“It takes a lot of work. It takes too much,” Penn said. “Too much f*cking work. At this age, it just takes too much f*cking work. You never know what’s going to happen, but it takes so much work.
“If I can get anything else going it would be nice,” Penn said. “If I could get anything else going in life than just a fist fight, it would be nice. But it’s so fun and I love the process and all those things about it. Then you get in the gym and start doing good with active fighters and next thing you know you’re trying to fight and biting off more than you can chew. You might be, you might not be. But the process itself it’s a lot to just do a camp or whatever.”
“I guess when you have something to prove that’s when you can fight the best,” Penn said. “It’s like, ‘Hey man, you already proved yourself.’ It’s not about proving myself, I just really like doing this. But you can’t go out and keep getting hurt. That just don’t make sense to anybody.” (Transcribed by MMA Junkie).
Penn hasn’t fought since his decision loss to Clay Guida at UFC 237. The Hawaiian is 0-7 in his last seven fights and hasn’t won a fight since his first-round knockout of Matt Hughes in 2010. Despite his less-than-stellar record (16-14-2), Penn is still considered one of the best fighters of all time, having won belts in two separate weight classes and becoming the first ever UFC lightweight and welterweight champion. The UFC Hall of Famer holds notable wins over the likes of Matt Hughes, Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, Matt Serra, Sean Sherk and Takanori Gomi.