Gather Around Kids for B.J. Penn's Storytime

B.J. Penn has a new book, which he has been promoting by north-southing Fox News morning anchors.

The passage that is getting a lot of attention involves Penn's decision to leave the UFC and head to Japan and Dana White's reaction.

K-1 was offering me $187,500 per fight - five times what the UFC was offering - and I was still willing to stay with them for one-third of that amount. This was when the relationship took a turn for the worse, and my view of White changed drastically. From that point on, I knew when it came to money, we couldn't trust him to treat us right. Did I like him at the dinner table? Sure. But at the negotiating table? Not at all. The pressure to perform and safeguard other people's money had changed him, even though he was constantly bragging to anyone willing to listen about how 'big this thing was going to be.' Things between us would never be the same.

When it was finally official I was going to fight in Japan, White called me up and told me his true feelings. 'You motherfucker! You're fucking done! You'll never fight in the UFC again! You're finished. You're scorched earth, motherfucker. Scorched earth. Don't call me crying saying you want to come back because you're fucking done!' And on and on and on, like a true professional - even going so far as to tell me I would never see my face again in a UFC video, promotion, or anything else. He also planned on removing my fight with Hughes from the UFC 46 DVD so no one would even know who I was. 'It doesn't have to be this way,' I told him. 'You know it wouldn't take that much to make this work.' But he just kept yelling.

Obviously, this is B.J. recollection of events and there are other sides to the story, but the language subscribed to White is certainly believable.

MMA Eruption also has a review of Penn's new book, which, if you believe the gentlemen of Fightlinker, spells certain doom for a fighter.

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