MMA Junkie reports that a restraining order has been issued against B.J. Penn by the mother of his children. Shealen Uaiwa states that she has been verbally abused and “menaced” in front of their children. Uaiwa also claims that the former lightweight champion threatened to kill her family and sexually abused her.
In handwritten court records from Uaiwa obtained by MMA Junkie, she documents several disturbing episodes in which he verbally assaulted her mother and herself. Although there is no claim of physical abuse, there appears to be a history of Penn’s aggressive verbal assaults against her and her family.
The retelling by Uaiwa states that she woke up one night scared “because he [Penn] got cocaine on my oldest daughter.” She indicated that he wanted to commit suicide.
On Thursday Penn issued a statement via his web site:
“BJ is in a highly-contested child custody case involving his two young daughters. The order of protection has made serious allegations against BJ. The allegations are so, misleading, hurtful and false that any further comment by BJ or about BJ would cause more damage to the well-being of his children and potentially further inflame the pending custody proceedings. BJ and his family ask that you respect their privacy at this very difficult time.”
Payout Perspective:
This is a tragic allegation against Penn and his response is less than clear on the situation. While a custody battle is clearly a contentious situation, the allegations seem very specific. One has to wonder about the former champ’s stability. While we cannot conclude Penn has some sort of head trauma causing these actions, we also should not rule it out. Penn has continued to fight despite being past his prime and I’m not sure if he were to stop whether he would know what to do after his MMA career. MMA Payout will keep you posted.
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