UFC lightweight contender Bobby Green has opened up about one of the most defining moments in his life – when his adopted father, Jacob Behney, voluntarily went to prison to shield him from false charges related to a car purchase scam that went wrong.
In a recent podcast appearance, Green detailed how what started as a simple car purchase turned into a nightmare that nearly derailed his combat career before it began. According to Green, he and his adopted father Jacob went to buy a vehicle from someone who ended up running an elaborate scam on them.
“We went to go buy a car from some guy and he tried to run a scam on us,” Green explained. The scammer convinced Jake to get a cashier’s check, then took both the check and drove off with the car after providing false mileage information. When Jake called about the discrepancy, he returned the vehicle, but the scammer had already disappeared with both the car and the money.”
The situation escalated when Green and Jacob went to retrieve what was rightfully theirs. During the confrontation, Jacob headbutted the scammer, resulting in assault charges and what Green described as prosecutors seeking “like 200 years” in potential sentences. However, Green believes the real target was him – the young Black fighter – rather than his adopted father.
“At the end of the day, they really wanted the black guy, which was me,” Green revealed. Despite having no involvement in the actual altercation, Green was facing potential charges that could have destroyed his budding MMA career.
In an extraordinary act of loyalty and sacrifice, Jacob chose to take full responsibility and went to prison rather than allow the charges to affect Green’s future. This wasn’t just any casual relationship – Jacob had been the father figure Green never had, having grown up in over 50 different foster homes throughout his childhood.
Jacob had discovered Green training at a local gym and immediately saw his potential, becoming not just a coach but a true father figure. “He was the first person that believed in me like that,” Green said.
Jacob would track him down through various neighborhoods, sometimes going house to house to find him and make him train, constantly telling him he had the skills to become a professional fighter.
Jacob had bought Green his first nice car, helped him learn to be a father when Green had his first child at a young age, and provided the guidance that Green had never received growing up without stable parental figures.
“We’ve been through real sh*t together, bro,” Green emphasized. “This ain’t no sugary like, ‘Oh, the white guy, the black guy, the token black guy.’ No. This dude’s been in the trenches with me.”
As Green explained, they were “just cool guys” who didn’t immediately run to law enforcement, thinking they could resolve the matter among themselves. However, the scammer went to police first, painting them as the aggressors despite being the victim of fraud.
Green acknowledges that without Jacob’s sacrifice, his UFC career might never have happened. “I wouldn’t even had a career because of that sh*t,” he admitted.
While Green paints the story of his adopted father taking the fall for him as a selfless act of sacrifice, some details cast doubt on the narrative. Jacob Behney and Bobby Green’s relationship was forged in the gym at Pinnacle MMA during Green’s twenties, long after his turbulent childhood in foster care.
According to sources, Jacob Behney himself has a checkered history that complicates Green’s account. In 2016, he was arrested on suspicion of SA, and two years later, he received a 10-year prison sentence. That conviction was eventually overturned due to a lack of evidence and inconsistencies in testimony, leading to his release.
Therefore, Green’s dramatic story of “taking the fall” might be less about loyalty and sacrifice, and more about reworking a troubled past into a narrative that suits him.
