BJ Penn Officially Announces Retirement At Emotional TUF 19 Post-Fight Press Conference

Former multi-division UFC champion BJ Penn suffered a brutal TKO loss to archrival Frankie Edgar in the main event of tonight’s (July 6, 2014) The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 19 Finale from Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

UFC President Dana White said that Penn would retire with a loss tonight, and indeed “The Prodigy” looked like shell of his former self. Knowing this to be true, the MMA legend admitted that his time in the Octagon was done at the TUF 19 Finale post-fight press conference:

“Yes of course, this is the end. I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why did you step back into the Octagon after the beating Rory MacDonald gave you?’ And, uh, the reason is because I really needed to find out. If I didn’t make this night happen for myself, I would have always wondered, I would have always went back and forth and begged Dana to let me get back in, and I guess I just, I needed some closure.”

Penn noted that he didn’t necessarily come back just to get revenge on Edgar, but just to see if he could make one last run at a new home of 145 pounds:

“I was gonna see how far I could take it. I was gonna see what happened when I stepped n with Frankie, and then I was gonna see where it went from there, if it was a good victory that I could walked away with, or if I was still hungry and wanted to do it again.”

Karyn Bryant asked Penn when he realized that he no longer had what it takes to compete with the best in the world. His response:

“I definitely, when the blood started going all in my eyes and everything and the fight started going real tough, I realized it’s takes a high, high energy level to compete with the best in the world.

You can have every technique figured out, you could have this and that and all your theories ready to go, and at the end of the day, the bottom line is, you need a high energy level to compete with these guys. They’re very hungry; they want to be the best. You know, I could sit here a thousand times and say the sort has passed me by, but there’s just quality people in the UFC at the moment.”

With his legendary career now in the rearview mirror, Penn reflected on his biggest accomplishment in UFC, his two championship belts. He noted that it takes a ton of hunger to hang with the elite fighters fighting in UFC right now:

“My best moment in the UFC, you know I guess now that I look back, I’m going to have to look back at my biggest accomplishment, and it’s the two belts in the two weight classes. And I really wanted to see if I could make it three, but you’re talking about the best in the world.

You look at someone like Frankie Edgar, you think ‘Oh that little guy, this and that,’ but these guys, they want it. They want it, and sitting there you think you’ve figured something out or you got something that you’re gonna surprise somebody with, first thing you gotta do is have more heart than these guys, and that’s what all these people sitting up here right now, they have a lot more.”

So the door is closed on a storied career, and while it was unfortunate to see Penn go out like he did, he’ll go down as one of the best fighters to ever step in a cage. LowKick MMA wishes Penn nothing but the best in his retirement.

Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie for USA TODAY Sports