Penn responds to UFC video: I was paranoid
Early this week, BJ Penn claimed that the UFC production staff had forced him to make statements regarding UFC 137 opponent Nick…
Early this week, BJ Penn claimed that the UFC production staff had forced him to make statements regarding UFC 137 opponent Nick Diaz that he didn’t want to say.
This was presumably an attempt on BJ’s part to show respect to Diaz, who has expressed enormous admiration for Penn, and who reports had it initially was unwilling to take the fight for that reason
“They forced me to,” said Penn. “You gotta say Nick Diaz’s name now, you gotta say his name.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ They were like, ‘Say you’re going to beat Nick Diaz. Say you’re going to beat Nick Diaz.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to beat Nick Diaz.’
UFC President Dana White was adamant that BJ’s story was &@#*$%!&, and released to Mixed MartialArts.com unedited footage of the interview, which was made available to the public. Penn’s description of the interview was not factually correct.
Now Penn’s camp has responded on the UG.
While the video below does show what appears to be an attempt to get Penn to provide an aggresive sound bite, it is an interview done before the Florian fight, it does not provide evidence for the scene described by Penn, and it concedes there was a “slightly innacurate recount of events.”
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From: Pedro Carrasco
Member Since: 8/6/08
Posts: 665
I have attached a video in response to this entire issue…
If you watch it, it will show the UFC interviewer specifically instigating trash talking from BJ. While BJ’s recent recount may not have been 100% accurate based on what the video released allowed you to see, our video shows them asking for specific items from BJ in hopes to hype the fight.
So forgive us for a slightly innacurate recount of events, but as you can see… We are used to the UFC making requests that instigate a fighter to say things he would not normally say and for that reason BJ is somewhat sensetive to these types of baited interviews now.
That is all –
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BJ Penn is a master of pre fight hype, issuing memorable quotes like “I’m going to try and kill you, Georges, and I’m not joking about that … We’re going to go to the death. I’m not going to stop.”
Thus it was perhaps all the more significant and commendable when he was uncomfortable trash talking fellow BJJ black belt Nick Diaz. However, providing an innacurate accounting of what happens does not appear to serve anyone.
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Now Penn has released a definitive explanation via his website:
“I have no idea how this UFC interviewer situation got this big. I never wanted to attack the UFC, people were calling and telling me Diaz wasn’t going to sign and I got paranoid thinking they were going to use that clip to get him to sign the contract, my bad.
“The real truth is, I’m not focusing on this at all, this is not important, whats important is fighting Nick Diaz at UFC 137. He will be by far the most dangerous opponent I have ever stepped inside the Octagon with.”