A UFC lightweight fighter thinks he understands the cause of BJ Penn’s erratic social media videos.
Penn has never shied away from sharing outlandish conspiracy theories, but his most recent claims has truly turned heads and sparked widespread concern.
Last week, “The Prodigy” took to Instagram, posting a series of unsettling videos in which he shockingly claimed he no longer recognized his mother, Lorraine Shin. Penn went as far as to allege that she had been murdered and replaced by an imposter.
In one of the videos, Penn unleashed a profanity-filled rant aimed at someone named Paul Abiley. The clip’s caption contained an explosive allegation, claiming that Abiley and Carlos Riveira had conspired with the government to murder his mother and brother.
The footage then cut to BJ Penn’s mother casually cooking in a kitchen and walking a dog, as he continued elaborating on his shocking theory. Amid his ramblings, he also admitted to having thoughts of resorting to physical violence.
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During a recent interview with Home of Fight, Jared Gordon, who has overcome heroin addiction, weighed in on BJ Penn’s bizarre claims.
‘Flash’ asserted that he has insight into the former UFC two-division champion’s past struggles with methamphetamine use and suspects it may once again be fueling his behavior.
What I’ve heard in the past, from rumors and things that I have heard, he had methamphetamine abuse disorder,” Gordon said. “I’m sure he drinks and does other [things], smokes weed probably — he’s in Hawaii — but meth is huge out there, and the way he’s acting — the paranoia, the delusion — it just screams meth. So I had made a comment, ‘sounds like meth,’ and it got a lot of people’s attention.
Gordon also speculated that Penn’s condition might stem from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), attributing it to the extensive head trauma he endured throughout his fighting career.
As we’ve seen in the past with football players and wrestlers, it’s head trauma — ‘CTE’… So can I say it’s CTE? No. But do I think that his history of concussions and brain trauma are also contributing to this? Yes. But drug abuse also plays a major role in extreme paranoia, especially what he was displaying. It just showed that something is seriously off, and it’s probably drug abuse mixed with other mental or physical health issues.
