In an ideal world, people would think Penn must be a bad apple of a bunch, but it doesn't seem to be liked that. God knows how many people I've talked to that have made a snap judgement on MMA as a sport simply because they've seen Tito or Tank rambling on and biggin themselves up.
Bad apple he's going down??? UFC are not happy about his his contractual obligations. So set him up!! What Ben doesnt set himself up aye right
the cop and penn should settle their feud at a "rumble on the rock" event. i'm picking the cop to win by severe clubbing.
He will get off, and why is everyone assuming he is guilty? As the oficer said, he was blind sided(couldnt see him), plus if he actually hit him what are the chances that he would be able to get up and see who punched him? BJ can just say he was near the cop, but he saw a fight breaking out so he ran to break it up, and the cop tackled him. Of course there may be video tape of it, so if it was him, he might be caught on tape. Anyways it could simply be a case of mistaken identity, the cop tackled someone who was running away, perhaps assuming that the guilty peron would be running? Or perhaps he did hit him, in which case I hope he gets found guilty.
sorry, that's BS. People don't run from the cops after a fight if they didn't know the cops were there. This guy doesn't strike me as a "let's run away from a fight now thast we've won" type of guy.
Because he ran doesn't mean he did or didn't know the person he punched was a cop. There are those who would punch a cop and run and there are those who would punch a cop and then kick him when he was down... there are all kinds. He could have run for any number of reasons... even an MMA guy like him won't fare well v.s. a mob. And since there are far too few facts on the table at this point anything is merely conjecture. Any of you ever been in an all out brawl and hang around to get questioned by the cops? Especially one where a cop got the beat down? Not the wisest thing to do where I grew up. Most likely you'd get clubbed and end up down in county just by fact that you were present. Many PD's will arrest/detain/club first and ask questions later.
Aye, also it was his brothers event(i think), it could be possible he saw a fight starting and went to break it up, there are numerous reasons why he would be running, and as the rule goes Innocent until proven guilty
Looks like he's just pleaded Not Guilty. Whilst he's quite arrogant (or confident in himself), during interviews, he's never come across as the kind of fighter who'd intentionally hit a cop. I'd expect to see that from someone like Baroni before I would BJ Penn. At the end of the day though, we can speculate all we want. The media have ways of twisting things - we just never know!
The cop is almost double Penn's age as well, either he was an athlete as well or had read one Frank Miller comic too many! Seriously, i do find that hard to believe. Maybe it wasn't Penn that hit him, the cop just got hit by someone, got up, and tackled the first guy running (for whatever reason) past him. Finding out that he was a fighter and probably considering him responsible for the whole fray (Penn being the star) wouldn't have helped much either. Or maybe Penn was just totally wasted to the point of not being able to run and punch straight, do pro MMA fighters do that? PS: To be honest my post would have been different if that was, say, Gilbert Yvel . Is BJ Penn a bad boy?
No, Penn isn't a bad boy... he's not behaved like this before, and after all this trouble he's going through with the law, i doubt he will again
Devil's Advocate rtkd, I totally understand your point of view. But just for fun, let's paint the improbable. BJ Penn is out having a good time. All of a sudden, a fight starts. BJ Penn says, "Oh, <bleep>, I'm getting out of this mess!" He turns to run. Even before he starts running, an officer grabs his sleeve from behind or bumps into him. BJ Penn, immediately fearing that he is being assaulted, swings wildly (without looking at his target even) and continues running. The punch grazes the officer's left eye (was it the left eye? sorry, i forgot). The officer gets up, chases after Penn and tackles him down. Now, remember: BJ Penn is not in fight mode. He is in scared mode. I know a guy who's a boxer, a BJJ student, and a judoka. He also works as a bouncer. Whenever he sees a fight happening whenever he's at a club or at a bar and if he's off bouncing duty, his first instinct is to run. Why? Cause you never know what will happen in these fights. Guns? Knives? All legal under streetfighting rules. Now, I'm sure you've been scared before. Whenever you're in scared mode, your first instinct is to run. Often times, your heart is pumping so fast that you can't even think straight. I wouldn't even be surprised if BJ Penn tripped over his own feet while in scared mode. That's just how the body works, unfortunately. Conversly, to this police officer, it might have just been another day at the office. So, it comes at no surprise to me that the officer was able to apprehend BJ Penn with ease. One thing that most people don't realize is that mentality is just as important as skills when it comes to fighting. If Matt Hughes fell into a great depression for some reason (maybe his wife and child both died in a car accident while his farm was burning down), I won't be surprised if I heard that an average 16 year old street thug kicked his butt with his bare hands. Mentality is everything. So, just because BJ Penn can kick ass in the ring doesn't mean that he can kick ass at anytime. Also, if he is the good guy that I have read about, I'm sure that as soon as he learned that it was a police officer who tackled him and not a street thug, he went limb. Just my thoughts
Sorry but that explanation sounds like a really really bad movie. BJ messed up. Plain and simple. The last time you saw a fight happen at a club or bar did you see innocent bystanders running away? Nope. Only the ones who were involved had reason to run. Now he needs to be a man and take the punishment for what he did. Imho.
Dude, did you just gloss over the part where I said my friend, who happens to be a bouncer as well as a judo, boxing, and BJJ practitioner ALWAYS runs from fights whenever he ever sees one about to start? Of course, it's his job to break up fights when he's on duty, but when he's off duty, he's the first one out the door when even a POTENTIAL fight is about to happen. Here's an example. He told me that he was chilling at this one club where there were a lot of whites and hispanics. A white girl was at the club bar, got a drink, turned around and accidentally bumped into a hispanic boy. The hispanic boy got ****ed and dumped the drink on the white girl. A white boy started walking towards the hispanic boy with an angry look on his face. That's when my friend, who's 6' 4", weighing close to 240 of mostly muscles, quickly left his drink and ran out the door. He's an example of a smart guy. Like he told me ... he's sure he can beat anyone in a club in an unarmed combat. But a bullet through the head is a bullet through the head regardless of what rank you are.
No I didn't gloss over that part. It's radically different from what I experienced. I've trained with bouncers. I've been to night clubs where fights break out. People sit there and watch. They don't run if they're not involved. Your example of a gun isn't apt for the situation. People don't run when they think there is a gun or another weapon involved. If they hear a gun go off. Then yeah, you see people run. If someone pulls out a knife and waves it around then yeah people run. I've yet to see people run just because of the possibility of a weapon. Just think about this logically. Which is more likely to have really happened... BJ Penn drinking too much and popping a cop in the face. Or BJ Penn running away... a gung ho cop tackling him... BJ lashing out without looking looking... and it was just his bad luck it was a cop... Way too far fetched. You yourself said it was "improbable." So why are you arguing about it being probable now?
