Sherdog Forum on BJ's Book

Kangpehh**
Banned

Several quotes from Penn's new book: Why I fight?

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Pretty interesting read.

some cliff notes**

Apparently, Dana White wasn't the cunning, savvy, smiley business person he is today, when the UFC was starting out . (according to Penn.)

Penn was approached by Takano (recruiter for K-1) after he beat Hughes for the title, and was offered $187,500 per fight in K-1 Romanex. Despite hearing of this offer, the UFC did very little to renegotiate/match Penn's wage let alone find him his next opponent. Penn wasn't even asking that much, he said if the UFC had offered at least 40K/40K he would have stayed with the UFC and turned down K-1's offer, but with the lack of respect from White (only offering 30/30k), Penn took the better option with K-1 and left the UFC.

Here are some quotes

"The one thing about Fertitta and White early on was that it always seemed like they wanted to pay us more money. White used to say things like, "You guys deserve to get paid a lot more, and why do boxers make so much more money, but you guys dont get paid shit? We're gonna change that." In the beginning you had a feeling these guys were on your side -- at least until you started really negotiating with them and asking for things. I honestly believe they started off with the intention of taking care of the fighters, but in the long run it turned out to just be business for these guys. To them, every fighter is expendable."

"My Father seemed to know better than we did from the get-go. He viewed White as a clueless guy playing a game with other people's money, and he was not even the shadow of the businessman he would eventually be considered."

"At first I was very hesistant, even though the Uno fight had been so short. It is not the length of the fight that matters, it is the training that beats you down, and I was fully not prepared to go right back in the gym and start all over for another eight to nine weeks. But just like White is now, he was the same way then. He called me up and said, "Come on, you gotta do this. You gotta do this! We need you, kid. This is your chance to get the belt." Over and over, he was beating that drum."

LOL and about his encounter with Baroni.

"On this night, I was standing near the hotel bar with Bob Cook, and out of nowhere some guy walks up behind me and bumps into my back, almost shoving me. With no idea who it was, I looked at Cook somewhat confused. He said to me with a half smile, knowing I would respond, that was Phil Baroni.

I asked, "Was that an accident or did he just try punking me?" He could have lied to avoid a problem, but in the typical Cook fashion, still smirking, he responded, "He tried to punk you."

One needs to realize this guy Baroni's nickname was 'The New York BadAss' and he walked around like he was the greatest thing since the wheel. He was one of the up-and-coming fighters out of New York and he really fit the New York mold: stocky, big muscles, Italian, with jet-black hair. Exactly what you expect a guy named Phil Baroni to look like. I was no stranger to having two fights in one night, even though it had been a while. He probably had me by 50 pounds at the time, but it was no concern to me.

I walked back over toward him and bumped into his back. He turned around and I introduced myself, "Hey, I'm BJ Penn."

He just looked at me and started to smile. In less than thirty seconds I had just made my first friend in New York."

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Last edited by Kangpehh**; 04-15-2010 at 05:05 PM.