Just when Nick Diaz and Alistair Overeem were stealing all of the headlines, former UFC champion B.J. Penn has now thrown his name into the fray.
The manic Hawaiian was recently re-booked for UFC 137 with a new opponent.
Originally, Penn was to take on Carlos Condit in the co-main event of the evening.
However, due to Diaz’s inability to attend pre-fight press junkets, UFC executives opted to replace the Stockton native with “The Natural Born Killer,” who will now meet welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre for the title.
Penn will now face Diaz as the supporting act for the pay-per-view event, which takes place next month at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The Hilo boy later met with the UFC production crew in his gym in Hawaii in an effort to record brand-new segments for the upcoming Countdown show, which regularly airs on Spike TV just a few days before the PPV event, in a calculated effort to pull in last-minute buys.
Later, Penn accused the party of instigating drama between him and his new opponent, Diaz, in order to stir up some entertaining answers from the filter-less fighter.
UFC president Dana White made it his own personal mission to expose Penn’s embellishing of those claims, releasing an uncut version of the segment in question, exclusively to MixedMartialArts.com.
The video clearly shows a willing participant in Penn engaging in the usual pre-fight banter, with no direct influence and without the organization’s asking the two-time champ to indulge in any un-pleasantries.
“Do you guys need that to make sure (Nick Diaz) signs the contract?” quipped “The Prodigy” during said interview.
The 32-year-old fighter later released a statement on BJPenn.com in regards to the flack he’s picked up from the UFC head honchos, hoping to smooth over the obvious tension built:
“I never wanted to attack the UFC, people were calling and telling me Diaz wasn’t going to sign and I got paranoid thinking they were going to use that clip to get him to sign the contract, my bad.”
Brian Lopez-Benchimol is an MMA Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He may be reached at [email protected].
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