BJ Penn Investigated By Police For Alleged Sexual Assault

Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn prepares to return at UFC 199, set to face Dennis Siver on June 4. The pay-per-view card from Inglewood, California will mark the first time Penn has competed since July 2014, after retiring from the sport following a 13-year career. ‘The Prodigy’ didn’t go out on a

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Former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn prepares to return at UFC 199, set to face Dennis Siver on June 4. The pay-per-view card from Inglewood, California will mark the first time Penn has competed since July 2014, after retiring from the sport following a 13-year career. ‘The Prodigy’ didn’t go out on a high not though, as he went without victory since 2010, tasting three straight defeats to Nick Diaz, Rory MacDonald and Frankie Edgar, the latter of which was a particularly brutal TKO that sent him to retirement.

Then came the news he’d be coming back, once again at featherweight (as was his final fight with ‘The Answer’) hoping to regain some of his glory years in the UFC octagon. But there’s a storm brewing, far from the arena of combat, and it involves the girlfriend of a former employee of BJ Penn. At this stage the name of the accused is confirmed by MMAJunkie.com as BJ Penn, but the police cannot publicly state this due to the case being ongoing. Check out the details:

BJ Penn

Penn, she wrote, appeared to be “extremely intoxicated” and said “his words were extremely hard to understand.” She wrote that Penn apologized and said he left her boyfriend in the Hawaiian town of Waipio and asked if he could sleep in her boyfriend’s office.

The alleged victim wrote that she returned to her bedroom and locked her door, but was disturbed several times by Penn, who asked for blankets, a pillow and a glass of water.

Penn came back later to ask for another glass of water, she wrote. When she brought the water to the office, she discovered he was masturbating to one of her modelling photos.

“I said, ‘You can’t do that! You gotta go now! Come on, let’s go!’” she wrote. “I turned around and he wasn’t following me so (I) went back to the office and said, ‘Come on!’

“. . . . He pulled my shorts down and bent me over the dining room chair,” she wrote. “I was so scared. I quickly pulled my shorts back up and proceeded to push him towards (sic) the door.”

The alleged victim later told a Delaware Sheriff’s detective that no sexual penetration took place and said she was unhurt during the incident.

“He was saying things (and) I couldn’t understand most of it but he was apologizing,” she wrote. “I got him out of the door, shut it and locked it. He knocked a few more times but I was in the bedroom with the door locked and ignored him.”

Here’s the UFC statement on this grizzly saga:

“We have taken a look at the available facts, which aren’t too substantial, and there are two stories of what happened. To date, there has (been) no action at all taken by any law enforcement agency. We decided to allow B.J. to fight.

“However, we are going to continue to monitor the situation. If new information, more information, becomes available to us, obviously, we reserve the right to re-evaluate.”

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The Progidy is Back: BJ Penn Booked Against Denis Siver at UFC 199

Like most MMA fans who prefer not to see the legends of the sport continue to fight well past the twilights of their careers, we did not exactly take the news of BJ Penn’s unretirement well. Following his *last* unretirement fight — a one-sided, horrific beatdown to rival Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale — a teary-eyed Penn openly admitted to reporters that he never should have returned to the sport, leading most of us to believe that he had finally learned the lesson that so few fighters do.

But a broken spirit and a declining skill set is nothing that Master Jackson can’t fix, and as such, The Progidy…er…The Prodidy…The Prodigy is back!

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Like most MMA fans who prefer not to see the legends of the sport continue to fight well past the twilights of their careers, we did not exactly take the news of BJ Penn’s unretirement well. Following his *last* unretirement fight — a one-sided, horrific beatdown to rival Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale – a teary-eyed Penn openly admitted to reporters that he never should have returned to the sport, leading most of us to believe that he had finally learned the lesson that so few fighters do.

But a broken spirit and a declining skill set is nothing that Master Jackson can’t fix, and as such, The Progidy…er…The Prodidy…The Prodigy is back!

According to Kevin Iole (via BloodyElbow), Penn has officially been booked to return to the octagon. The former two-division champion will face German kickboxer and spinning sh*t aficionado Dennis Siver at UFC 199, which transpires at The Forum in Inglewood, California on June 4th.

With all do respect to Siver, the matchup is easily the most winnable one Penn has been given in close to 7 years. Seriously, look at the dude’s resume – Penn has fought nothing but killers for something like 11 fights in a row, and even his opponents before that were anything but cans. Having dropped two fights in a row and been sacrificed to Conor McGregor, Cub Swanson, and Donald Cerrone in the recent past, Siver has quickly transitioned from the UFC’s master of the spinning back kick to its go-to fall man, and a loss to Penn may very well see him get his walking papers.

That being said, this is a far more winnable fight for Siver than you might initially expect, based solely on how atrocious Penn looked in his last performance. Could six months at the Jackson-Wink camp really have regenerated the 37-year-old Penn to his former glory? And if it has, how long will it last? It’s hard to say, really, but all I know is that a win against Siver might be the worst thing that could happen to him. Lord knows he’ll be promoted to instant #1 contender status with anything resembling an impressive performance, and the thought of seeing him face whoever emerges from the Edgar-Aldo-McGregor pileup is enough to make you lose your lunch.

What do you think though, Nation? Is this the best case scenario for Penn, or is he once again sowing the seeds for his own demise?

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BJ Penn Returns To The UFC Octagon This June

After months of speculation, legendary two-class UFC champion BJ Penn will officially return to the Octagon. ‘The Prodigy’ will face off with featherweight Dennis Siver on the main card of June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, UFC President Dana White confirmed to Yahoo! Sports today. Penn was last seen losing his

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After months of speculation, legendary two-class UFC champion BJ Penn will officially return to the Octagon.

‘The Prodigy’ will face off with featherweight Dennis Siver on the main card of June 4’s UFC 199 from The Forum in Inglewood, California, UFC President Dana White confirmed to Yahoo! Sports today.

Penn was last seen losing his third consecutive match to top-ranked featherweight Frankie Edgar at July 2014’s The ultimate Fighter (TUF) 19 Finale, a brutal affair that saw him retire afterwards. Penn has lost three of his last four UFC bouts, with the fourth a draw versus Jon Fitch at 2011’s UFC 125, and five of his last seven.

Before the disappointing downswing, however, Penn cut a swath in MMA history as arguably the most dominant lightweight champion in promotion history, submitting Joe Stevenson for the belt in 2008 before defending it three times against Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, and Diego Sanchez. He also famously won the welterweight title over Matt Hughes in his 170-pound debut at UFC 46, and his UFC 58 decision loss to Georges St. Pierre is still talked about as a robbery.

Penn will return to the UFC as a member of the Hall of Fame, having been inducted into the select group last summer.

Some dire allegations threatened his return to fighting when he was accused of sexually assaulting the girlfriend of a former editor at his website BJPenn.com, but UFC executive Lawrence Epstein said Penn had been cleared of all charges after an investigation:

“We have taken a look at the available facts, which aren’t too substantial, and there are two stories of what happened,” Epstein said. “To date, there has no action at all taken by any law enforcement agency. We decided to allow B.J. to fight. However, we are going to continue to monitor to the situation. If new information, more information, becomes available to us, obviously, we reserve the right to re-evaluate.”

Penn has apparently taken his newfound return seriously, moving his camp to Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA in Albuquerque after the main critique of the ultra-talented superstar was always that he ran his own camp and it allowed him to slack at times.

He’ll return to action against Siver, another falling fighter who has lost three of his previous five fights.

UFC 199 is headlined by the middleweight title rematch between Luke Rockhold and former champion Chris Weidman, and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will finally settle his rivalry with Urijah Faber in the co-main event.

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Report: BJ Penn vs. Dennis Siver Set For UFC 199

Former UFC champion BJ Penn’s Octagon return will come this June, as “The Prodigy” will face Dennis Siver at UFC 199.

The bout was first reported by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.

[embed]https://twitter.com/KevinI/status/719909540557225984[/embed]

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Former UFC champion BJ Penn’s Octagon return will come this June, as “The Prodigy” will face Dennis Siver at UFC 199.

The bout was first reported by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.

Penn (16-10-2) is now 37 years old and has not scored an official UFC win since 2010 when he knocked out Matt Hughes. He has gone 0-5-1 around that victory.

Siver (22-11) will be searching for his first win since a 2014 decision over Charles Rosa following losses last year to current featherweight champion Conor McGregor and Tatsuya Kawajiri.

The UFC 199 card currently features a pair of title fights, as Chris Weidman challenges Luke Rockhold for the middleweight belt and Urijah Faber does the same for bantamweight gold vs. Dominick Cruz.

BJ Penn “Guarantees” He’s Returning At UFC 196: Nik Lentz Out, New Rumored Opponent

With UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor challenging for a second title against UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael dos Anjos and Holly Holm making the first defense of her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship against Miesha Tate, it would seem like…

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With UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor challenging for a second title against UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael dos Anjos and Holly Holm making the first defense of her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship against Miesha Tate, it would seem like UFC 196 couldn’t possibly get any bigger — until now.

On Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight, MMAFighting.com journalist Ariel Helwani reported that UFC Hall Of Famer BJ Penn “guarantees” he will be making his Octagon return at the event scheduled for March 5th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Coincidentally enough, outside of Randy Couture, Penn is the only fighter to ever become a champion in two different UFC weight classes, something McGregor will be attempting — with his own twist (as he won’t be relinquishing the 145-pound title even if he beats Dos Anjos) — in the main event of the very show that “The Prodigy” will be returning on.

While nothing has been announced at this point, the belief is Penn will not be fighting Nik Lentz in his comeback fight despite their vicious back-and-forth insults and challenges, as Lentz overplayed his hand in negotiations for the fight by compiling an unreasonable list of demands that he said must be met before he would accept what would clearly be the highest-profile fight in his MMA career.

With Lentz seemingly out of the running, the talk right now is that Penn will make his UFC fighting return against Dennis Siver. Once again the coincidences between Penn and McGregor are evident, as “The Notorious” Irishman also fought Siver in what was considered a “tune-up” fight before ultimately challenging Chad Mendes for the interim UFC Featherweight Championship due to then-undisputed champion Jose Aldo pulling out of their scheduled title fight. With names like Nik Lentz and Dennis Siver popping up as potential opponents, one would have to consider Penn’s first trip back to the Octagon as a “tune-up” fight as well.

UFC 196: Dos Anjos vs. McGregor is scheduled to take place live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Make sure to visit MMANews.com for the absolute fastest and most-detailed live UFC 196 results coverage on the web!

Fight Night 69 Highlights/Results: Jedrzejczyk Batters Penne, Kawajiri Smothers Siver, “Mr. Finland” Shines Again + More

(Joanna Champion: The simultaneously most adorable and terrifying woman on the planet, next to Alice from Workaholics.)

Jessica Penne is tough as nails, y’all. Unfortunately for her, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has a bowl of nails for breakfast every morning…without any milk. To describe the women’s strawweight champion as “on point” in her main event scrap over the weekend would be borderline disrespectful — Joanna Champy was Chuck Liddell-esque in her tactical destruction of Penne (Joe), putting the TUF 20 alum’s face through the meat grinder over the course of a third round TKO victory.

While it was evident that Penne was outclassed on the feet from the start and unable to get the fight to the mat thereafter, a credit is due to her for taking everything Jedrzejczyk had to offer and not once backing down. We are often quick to praise a fighter’s heart in scenario’s like the one Penne found herself in, but very rarely do we see someone taking a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ like that. It’s not the highest praise, I know, but Penne will be a staple of this division for a while and have plenty more chances to improve and impress.

Check out Champy’s post-fight interview with Dan Hardy above, then join us after the jump for highlights and a complete list of results from Fight Night 69. 

The post Fight Night 69 Highlights/Results: Jedrzejczyk Batters Penne, Kawajiri Smothers Siver, “Mr. Finland” Shines Again + More appeared first on Cagepotato.


(Joanna Champion: The simultaneously most adorable and terrifying woman on the planet, next to Alice from Workaholics.)

Jessica Penne is tough as nails, y’all. Unfortunately for her, Joanna Jedrzejczyk has a bowl of nails for breakfast every morning…without any milk. To describe the women’s strawweight champion as “on point” in her main event scrap over the weekend would be borderline disrespectful — Joanna Champy was Chuck Liddell-esque in her tactical destruction of Penne (Joe), putting the TUF 20 alum’s face through the meat grinder over the course of a third round TKO victory.

While it was evident that Penne was outclassed on the feet from the start and unable to get the fight to the mat thereafter, a credit is due to her for taking everything Jedrzejczyk had to offer and not once backing down. We are often quick to praise a fighter’s heart in scenario’s like the one Penne found herself in, but very rarely do we see someone taking a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ like that. It’s not the highest praise, I know, but Penne will be a staple of this division for a while and have plenty more chances to improve and impress.

Check out Champy’s post-fight interview with Dan Hardy above, then join us after the jump for highlights and a complete list of results from Fight Night 69. 

In the night’s co-main event, my boy Dennis Siver (aka Denny Seeves) was outmuscled by PRIDE vet Tatsuya Kawajiri en route to a unanimous decision loss, marking his 3rd loss in his past 5 fights overall. Despite some success fending off Kawajiri’s grappling-based attacks in the first round, Siver was simply a step behind “Crusher’s” takedown game in the second and third stanzas. It wasn’t a dominant win for Kawajiri by any means, but enough to earn him his second UFC win in 3 outings.

Elsewhere on the card, Makwan “Mr. Finland” Amirkhani continued his dynamic UFC run, submitting Masio Fullen in less than two minutes and dedicating the performance to his mother in an incredibly touching post-fight interview. There’s no denying that the UFC has found an entertaining, charismatic, and perhaps most importantly, talented guy in Amirkhani, so let’s hope they build him up properly.

Since the UFC hasn’t actually made any highlights from Fight Night 69 available online, we’ve had to resort to other means. But at the risk of compromising our journalistic integrity (LOL!), we’ll keep things brief and this article up by paying tribute to the excellent finishing sequence from the Scott Askham vs. Antônio dos Santos undercard fight. Dat uppercut tho…

The full list of results from Fight Night 69 are below.

Main card (UFC Fight Pass at 3 p.m. ET)
Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Jessica Penne via TKO (punches) at 4:22 of R3
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Dennis Siver via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Peter Sobotta def. Steve Kennedy via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:57 of R1
Nick Hein def. Lukasz Sajewski via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Undercard (UFC Fight Pass at 12 p.m. ET)
Makwan Amirkhani def. Masio Fullen via submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:41 of R1
Mairbek Taisumov def. Alan Patrick via TKO (head kick and punches) at 1:30 of R2
Arnold Allen def. Alan Omer via submission (guillotine choke) at 1:41 of R3
Noad Lahat def. Niklas Backstrom via majority decision (28-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Scott Askham def. Antonio dos Santos via TKO (strikes) at 2:52 of R1
Magomed Mustafaev def. Piotr Hallman via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 3:24 of R2
Taylor Lapilus def. Ulka Sasaki via TKO (punches) at 1:26 of R2

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