UFC, Dana White And Jason Parillo Could Have Done The Right Thing For B.J. Penn, Instead They Did The Easy Thing

B.J. Penn should not fight Nik Lentz...or anyone for that matter

The two people who could tell B.J. Penn no, refuse to do so.

On Saturday, UFC president Dana White justified booking Penn, who hasn't won a fight since 2010 and is 0-7-1 in his last eight outings, by saying that his upcoming (as yet unscheduled) matchup against Nik Lentz will be Penn's final fight with the UFC.

White has been calling for Penn to retire since 2013. After Penn lost to Clay Guida in May, White said that he couldn't give Penn another fight. Less than two months later, here we are with White matching Penn against Lentz, who is 11-7-0-1 in the UFC since Penn scored his most recent win.

White's reason for booking Penn?

"B.J. is going to do what B.J. wants to do, and I've had a very crazy relationship with him and his family for the last 20 years, and B.J. walked me through a million reasons why he needs this fight and why he has to have it," White said at the post-fight press conference for UFC 240.

"He talked me into it. You guys know me: When I'm in, I'm in, and I'm going to do what I'm going to do."

That's it. That's all it took. Penn called White and complained.

Instead of telling Penn no, White, who loves to portray himself as the UFC's enforcer, capitulated. He then justified his weak decision with the feeble reasoning that this time he really, really means it, the Lentz fight will be Penn's last bout with the UFC.

When pushed, the UFC's angry dad told MMA Junkie's Mike Bohn to mind his own business. Which, yeah, Mike Bohn was minding his business by asking the question, since he is an MMA journalist and a good one at that.

Penn's coach could have also told the ex-champ, thanks, but no thanks, you're on your own with this one. Instead, he too came up with a way to justify the fact that Penn should fight again.

"In all honesty, fighting keeps him in a good place in life all together," Parillo told TSN after UFC 240. "Unfortunately, fighting does eventually have to stop. A guy like B.J., he's never going to stop on his own. It's up to everyone around him to eventually tell him to hang 'em up."

It doesn't take a doctor to see that Penn is not in a good place this year. He's been accused of domestic violence, accused of threatening someone with a machete and most recently he was apparently caught on video in a scrap with a doorman at a strip club.

White and Parillo could offer Penn support on that front. These two important figures could help Penn with whatever he is struggling with in his personal life. Instead, they both decided to enable Penn for a few months, let him train for a fight and then what? What will White and Parillo do after the Lentz fight is over? Shake Penn's hand wish him luck and send him off to Hawaii in the hopes that the Lentz fight fixed all that ailed him? The likelihood of this bout helping Penn in the longterm is more or less zero.

Yet, Parillo, like White, seems happy to continue this farce.

"I'm not in control of B.J.'s life," said Parillo. "If he is fighting and he wants me to support him and he wants me to help him, I'm going to be there for him. So, if the promotion is giving him a fight, no one can really argue, no one can really say anything."

Yes they can say something, yes they have been saying something and yes they should say something. Penn should not be fighting, even if as Parillo said, "he doesn't get knocked out." Which is, of course, nonsensical reasoning for allowing Penn to fight, since no other UFC fighter has absorbed more significant strikes to the head than Penn has.

White and Parillo should have both said they would not help Penn in another fight. They both should have said they would have helped him in any way possible other than fighting, but they didn't.

White, Parillo and the UFC as a whole could have done the right thing. Instead, they did the easy thing.