Nik Lintz is B.J. Penn’s final UFC opponent, and the lightweight fighter is excited to finally punch the former champion in the face.
Lintz and Penn have been feuding for some time on social media, and Lintz told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that Penn has been terrorizing him and his wife in their private messages.
“Every couple of months he would send me direct messages (on Instagram) to threaten me and my family. All kinds of stuff, the guy is a whack job. He has been allowed to be this bad person his entire life because he was good at something,” Lentz explained on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
“That’s just how it is in America. If you are good at fighting, if you’re good at sports, can catch a ball you can be as much of a dirt bag as you want.”
“So, he comes to my Instagram all the time and when I don’t respond to him, he goes on my wife’s Instagram to tell her to tell me to respond to him. It’s ridiculous,” Lintz said of Penn, who has been in various legal troubles this year surrounding allegations of drugs, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual assault.
Lintz said the bad blood began when Lentz was flown out to Hawaii to train with Penn for a fight a few years ago, and that Penn stiffed him on money and that the environment and Penn’s behavior were not positive,
Following the training session, Penn began to call out Lintz for a fight, but until recently, one would never materialize.
“Every time we were going to fight in the past, he would never sign the contract. He would just talk. I guess now he finally came down from a (cocaine) binge and decide it was time to accept it,” he added.
“I still have to go out there and beat him up. And I am going to. I am not going to overlook this thing. I am going to win this fight. I am 10 times better than B.J. Penn. I am going to win, but I am going to be ready. He is going to face the best Nik Lentz there has ever been.”
“I’m the only person who has ever cared about B.J,” Lentz explained. “Everyone else just threw him to the wolves and said, ‘He’s such a legend,’ but I am the only person who ever gave him a dose of reality. No, you are not a legend, you are a dirtbag, you are a drug addict, you don’t take care of your family, you don’t take care of your fans and you do nothing good for nobody and you need to get your shit together.”
“But the media and everybody has just dragged him along and gave him this confidence that it doesn’t matter what innocent person he beats up, it doesn’t matter if he goes to the strip club and he is mean to women, so they kick him out and he beats up bouncers and his handlers save him. It’s ridiculous.”
Transcribed: MMA Mania