BJ Penn believes if he didn’t run for Governor he still would’ve continued to fight: “The Governor run pulled me out”

BJ Penn knows firsthand how hard it is for fighters to walk away from the sport.

Penn last fought back in May of 2019, where he suffered a decision loss to former Strikeforce title holder Clay Guida.

Although ’The Prodigy’ had announced his retirement from MMA on multiple occasions prior to squaring off with ‘The Carpenter’, he opted to continue fighting in hopes of returning to the form that helped him capture UFC titles in two divisions.

Penn’s decision to continue did not payoff as planned and he admits it was hard to walk away from the sport as that is all he’s known for most of his life.

Now, BJ Penn is adamant that he is retired for good and claims running for Governor of Hawaii allowed him to truly move on from fighting.

BJ Penn says running for Governor allowed him to stop fighting

“You know what, I actually had a hard time letting my identity go and moving on from life without fighting, it was really hard for me,” BJ Penn said on Just Scrap Radio. “But, then I got into the Governor thing and the Governor run pulled me out. It’s hard for a fighter to walk away when that is their whole life. It kind of pulled me out of that and the problem is now that I got pulled out of it, I haven’t worked out as much because it is not my mind…

“It’s hard to find that happy medium. I was with Tito (Oritz) and Rampage and Frank Mir a couple of months ago in Arizona. All they would talk about is their next fight and I looked over and I was like ‘wait you guys are older than me and you guys are talking about your next fight, and I’m like wow.’ I don’t blame them, if I didn’t have this whole journey where I went on this Governor race, I would be right there. I would be like ‘when are you coming to Hawaii, I want to fight.’ I’d be saying the same thing. These new kids come up and they are so good and so strong,” Penn continued.

BJ Penn ended his MMA career with a record of 16-14-2 but is still considered one of the greatest fighters of all time. He is the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion and has also been enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame.