Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion BJ Penn, who also held gold in the welterweight division, was expected to compete in the final fight of his Octagon career in a lightweight battle against Nik Lentz later this year.
Then “The Prodigy” got knocked clean out by some shirtless fat dude in Hawaii (watch the video here), calling into question the state of his mixed martial arts (MMA) tool box, as well as his current health. Perhaps it’s too soon for a UFC comeback in the wake of getting concussed.
“I was told he got knocked out,” former UFC light heavyweight champion, Chuck Liddell, told TMZ. “If he got knocked out, then I think that cancels the fight. I mean, you’ve got to take some time off after that and recover. He’s going to have to at least postpone it for a little bit.”
Liddell knows a thing or two about knockouts, having gone to sleep in his last four fights, including last November’s Tito Ortiz debacle in California. As for Penn, he’s dropped seven straight fights and nine of his last eleven, a far cry from his 6-1-1 start to kick off his UFC career.
Working in his favor is the fact that his Lentz fight did not have a date or venue assigned, so it would not take much for the promotion to delay it until early 2020. Assuming, of course, Penn can keep himself out of trouble between now and then.