10 UFC Fighters Dana White Fell Out Of Love With

In the conversation of greatest ever fighters, BJ Penn is right in the mix. Often viewed as being the man responsible for making the lower weight divisions of interest to the mainstream public, Penn is a legend, an icon, and fully deserving of his status as a UFC Hall of Famer.

Much like every other fighter on this list, The Prodigy is yet another to have fallen out of favour with Dana White.

Having made his UFC bow in 2001 at UFC 31, Penn had a standout few years that culminated in him getting the unanimous decision W over Matt Hughes to become the UFC Welterweight Champion at January 2004’s UFC 46. And it was after this fight that things went south between Penn and Dana White.

To be fair to Dana on this one, the reason why he turned on BJ was because the fighter walked out on the UFC in order to seek out bigger paydays elsewhere. The UFC was left with no choice but to strip Penn of the title, and Dana White made several angry “you’ll never fight in the UFC again” phone calls.

Ever the businessman, Dana and the UFC would come to an agreement for BJ Penn to return to the organisation in 2006, and all was seemingly well between White and Penn so long as BJ was winning. Given that Penn has only won one of his last 11 UFC fights though, it’s easy to see why Dana has again lost interest in the fighter.

These days, sadly BJ Penn is more likely to be found getting into bar fights in Hawaii rather than lining up a return to the Octagon.