There were times during BJ Penn’s UFC Hall of Fame career that fighting seemed to come easy for him in the octagon.
It’s grappling with the comeback that has been the hard part.
The Hilo mixed martial artist’s return took another step back, according to MMAjunkie.com, which reported Tuesday that Penn had to withdraw from his Oct. 15 fight after suffering an undisclosed injury during training.
The Tribune-Herald could not confirm the report, which sighted an unnamed source.
Penn was to have fought Ricardo Lamas in the UFC Fight Night 97 headliner in Manila, Philippines.
Instead, the 37-year-old Penn, a former UFC champion in two different divisions, has been in the news a lot lately for reasons other than takedowns and tapouts.
Last seen in the octagon in July 2014 in a loss to Frankie Edgar, Penn’s return has been stalled by a sexual assault investigation and an anti-doping violation. Penn was to have fought, first Denis Siver and then Cole Miller, at UFC 199 in June, but that fight was scrapped after usage of banned IV was disclosed, and Penn later accepted a six-month suspension.
In September, the Tribune-Herald reported that a foreclosure lawsuit had been filed against a company co-owned by Penn.
Penn was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in July of 2015, but he announced his intentions of a comeback in January, telling “The MMA Hour” host Ariel Helwani: “That’s who I am. That’s what I do, and 100 percent I will be fighting in the UFC in 2016. This is my last resort, and I’m going to give it everything I got.
He’ll apparently have to give even more now.