UFC President Dana White spoke with ESPN on a myriad of things, but one of the topics was the potential retirement of BJ Penn from MMA. Penn returned from a year long retirement on Saturday night to face quickly rising contender Rory MacDonald, and got absolutely demolished to lose a one sided unanimous decision. White speaks on Penn’s future in the video below:
“I would love to see BJ Penn retire. I really do love the guy, even all the good the bad the ugly we’ve been through over the past 13 years. I care about him, he’s got money, a family that loves him, he’s got a beautiful wife, he’s got kids, he’s got nothing left to prove man.”
White went on to talk about the future of Rory MacDonald, Alexander Gustafsson, and the UFC lightweight champion Ben Henderson.
Emphasis Mine:
BJ Penn will turn 34 years old on Thursday, and has a career record of (1-4-1) since 2010. In all of his welterweight fights that have gone out of the first round, Penn has a career record of (0-5-1) and basically has become a punching bag after the first round in all six of those fights. I agree that retirement is the best option for Penn. At the beginning of the third round as Penn stared across the cage at Rory MacDonald, you could see a look of defeat in the eyes of Penn almost confirming that his time has come. Some Penn fans think a return to the lightweight division would help get his career back on track. I doubt it. Penn does not have the same speed and reflexes that he once did, nor does he has the cardio to keep up with the Ben Henderson’s of the world. Could he catch lightning in a bottle again and beat someone in the first round? Sure, but his days of winning consistently against good to great competition are over.