Former UFC fighter Casey Kenney will serve six months behind bars in an Arizona county jail.
Kenney, 34, received the sentence Oct. 30 after a plea agreement was reached with prosecutors, according to Maricopa County court records obtained by MMA Junkie. MMA Fighting was first to report the news.
Kenney was charged and pleaded guilty to one charge of felony aggravated assault. He had faced additional assault charges and one disorderly conduct charge, which were dismissed as part of his plea agreement. Initially, Kenny faced a kidnapping charge as well.
He will remain on probation for three years and complete both a substance abuse treatment program and a domestic violence offender treatment program. A stay-away order was also issued for Kenney to stay away from the victim. Kenney was also ordered to abstain from alcohol possession and consumption.
The incident that led to Kenney’s arrest took place July 21 in Phoenix. Police responded to a domestic violence call. Paramedics treated the woman for injuries on scene.
“On July 22, 2024, around 12:15 p.m., officers responded to an unknown [sic] trouble call in the area of [address redacted],” a Phoenix police spokesperson told MMA Junkie in the days after the incident. “Officers located an adult female victim with some visible abrasions reporting a domestic violence assault. The female was treated by paramedics and interviewed by investigators. No contact was made with the suspect at that time.”
A statement of probable cause said Kenney repeatedly struck, slapped, bit, head-butted, and choked a woman over the course of 13 hours while not allowing her to leave his residence. It also said Kenney threatened the woman and said if anyone showed up for her, he’d kill them.
A woman who identified herself as the alleged victim’s mother had posted updates about the situation on Instagram for weeks prior to Kenney’s arrest.
Once a rising bantamweight contender in the UFC, Kenney competed eight times in the promotion from 2019 to 2021 and appeared on Dana White’s Contender Series twice in 2017. Kenney has not competed since an August 2021 loss to Song Yadong.
Upon news of his arrest, the UFC severed ties with Kenney.
