BJ Penn has fallen on tough times both in and out of the cage over the last few years, and now he has a paternity lawsuit to add to his list of troubles. The news was broken by MMA Fighting, who confirmed that the suit was coming from the mother of his most recent child, Camila Amado, who filed it for paternity recognition and alimony purposes. The couple became involved in late 2018 and Amado discovered she was pregnant early on in 2019, a DNA test followed and it was confirmed that Penn was almost certainly the father.
It would be around eight months after Penn’s daughter was born before he announced to the world her arrival, and it has been around five months since then. Amado has gone to the effort of confirming that Penn has been in contact with her at all throughout their daughter’s life and he has promised that he would do right by both her and the baby, called Mahina Amado. The lawsuit filed against BJ Penn was as a result of the child still not bearing his surname despite her turning one year-old around a month ago:
“It’s a very upsetting situation for me, who take care of my daughter by myself. My daughter is growing up and soon she will wanna know who her father is, and he’s a public figure. He’s used my daughter’s image, my image on social media. He put her name there, Mahina Amado Penn, which would be [her full name with] his surname, but he’s none of that.”
BJ Penn is one of the original legends of BJJ in MMA and most grappling fans hold him in high regard for his incredible accomplishments in the early days of the UFC, becoming both Lightweight and Welterweight World Champion. It’s this that makes it so sad to hear about the string of brutal losses, the barfights and brawls in public, and the legal issues that have plagued the end of his career.
