“The Prodigy” needs help (in more ways than one).
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) two-division champion, BJ Penn, has landed in the headlines for all the wrong reasons (again) this year. From multiple arrests to troubling claims that his very alive family members have been replaced by lookalike imposters, Penn’s struggles have been well-documented.
Now court-ordered to stay away from his mother’s home in Hawaii, where he has resided for years, the former champion has turned to his old bosses for support.
“This message is for Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta — I need your help,” Penn said in a video posted on his Instagram. “I’ve been pushed out. This is the house I grew up in. I’ve lived here my whole life [Penn points to the house]. I fought in the UFC, became a world champion, and all that stuff. And Mark Mastrov’s UFC gyms — I know we do really well to help promote the UFC gym companies.
“I’m kicked out of the house,” Penn continued. “An army moved into all of these houses. I need your help. They’ve got me staying over here in a studio [Penn shows the studio]. If I go anywhere near the house up there to get my dogs or anything else, I’ll be arrested — just think about it. No one’s here to help me. If any of my sponsors out there — I stayed extra long, or I did anything, because if I was going to do a signing, I never left early. I always stayed, even if I had to stay longer.
“They’ve got me staying in this studio right over here,” Penn continued. “They want me to do my laundry at the laundromat. I’m the world champion. I’m the one who went out there and took the punches, took the blows. Here I am, getting pushed out of everything, about to have everything stolen from me. All the money I made from the UFC, UFC gyms, all my sponsors — I invested it all back into my family, into everything. Every dollar I made, I invested back in.
“I’m about to have it all taken from me, and I need your help,” Penn concluded. “Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Pat Tenore [founder of RVCA], come down this time and help, please. That’s it. That’s all I got to say.”
Penn, 46, was released from UFC in 2019 after a crushing seven-fight losing streak that marked the end of his fighting career. Perhaps he’ll catch White — who recently sent financial help to former fighter, Ben Askren — on a generous day.
Only time will tell if Penn’s plea(s) will be answered.
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