On Friday, we touched on some disturbing allegations raised against former UFC champion and recent comeback kid BJ Penn. The former editor of his mixed martial arts news website accused him of sexually assaulting his girlfriend back in August of last year. A police report was filed and the UFC delayed Penn’s return until an internal investigation could be made. And now Penn has released a statement defending himself (via BJPenn.com):
The allegations that Pedro and his girlfriend are making against BJ Penn simply aren’t true. Penn trusted Pedro to run his website for almost a decade and considered him family. He was fired last year for unethical behavior and was provided a severence that ended on February 16, 2016. One day later allegations appeared in a one sided Twitter rant which happen to be many months after the alleged date in question. (August of 2015).
There are many holes in Pedro’s story. In the almost 15 years that Penn has been a champion fighter there has not ever been any incident or allegation in regards to his conduct with women. He is family man and father of two young daughters with a known long term girlfriend. It is unfortunate that someone that BJ considered family is trying to extort him.
So now we have two sides of the story, but nothing that confirms for certain what the actual truth is. At this point, we’ll leave this story to the authorities investigating and let them determine what went on.
