BJ Penn Fight News: 'The Prodigy' Admits Being Hurt By Sexual Assault Allegations
Two-division UFC world champion BJ Penn admits that he was emotionally affected by the sexual allegations that were previously thrown his way.
After retiring from professional mixed martial arts competition in 2014, "The Prodigy" announced in February that he was making a return. However, the UFC decided to forego with these plans after Penn was involved in the alleged case thrown by former BJPenn.com writer Pedro Alex Carrasco.
Through a series of tweets, Carrasco detailed how Penn sexually assaulted his girlfriend, and as a result, the UFC decided to postpone Penn's comeback, mainly due to their staunch stance against these violations.
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For his part, Penn denied the allegations, stating how Carrasco is most likely trying to extort money from him.
"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," an excerpt of Penn's statement reads on his official website.
Fortunately for the 37-year old fighter, things turned out for the better, as the allegations "could not be substantiated." According to UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein, while no law enforcement agency has decided to take action against Penn, the company will continue monitoring the said case.
In a report by Kevin Iole for Yahoo! Sports, Penn will now be able to fight, as he is scheduled to face Dennis Siver at UFC 199 on June 4th in Los Angeles.
Penn has kept himself silent regarding the allegations, but during Monday's edtion of MMA Fighting's 'The MMA Hour', he revealed that the situation has greatly affected him, as well.
"That definitely hurt my heart," Penn said. "I've got kids, I've got two baby daughters, and of course something like that is going to hurt your heart. People know who I am and what you see is what you get with me."
