Champions of the Octagon by Fiaz Rafiq

Author:Fiaz Rafiq
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683584438
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

BJ Penn

UFC Lightweight and Welterweight Champion/Hall of Famer

Question: BJ, how did you get involved in martial arts?

BJ Penn: A guy named Tom Callos, who was a martial arts instructor, moved about five houses from my house in Hawaii. And he needed some people to wrestle around with and train jiu-jitsu with. He kept bugging my dad and asking him to send me to train with him, but I didn’t want to go. He kept bothering me, so one day my dad said to me, “Just go down once and you won’t have to go anymore.” So I went down and ended up liking it. Before that I was just doing some boxing for fun with friends and people all around town all the time.

Q: How would you describe your teenage years growing up in Hawaii?

Penn: At that age, I was hanging out with friends and getting into street fights. A local street fighter named Saul, who was fighting all the time, has been an influence to me.

Q: Let’s talk about your competitive career before you pursued the UFC.

Penn: I entered many jiu-jitsu tournaments—including going to Brazil—and I became a world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. When I trained with Tom Callos, he introduced me to Ralph Gracie in California who became my instructor. Then I moved back to Hawaii and started training with a few instructors. Ralph was very good. I trained with a lot of different training partners. I trained with everybody from Frank Shamrock, Randy Couture, the American Kickboxing Academy, and Rigan Machado. It was awesome working with all these people. Training with guys like that really helped me learn fast. You have to see what the best people do.

Q: Can you recall when you first saw the UFC?

Penn: When I first saw the UFC, I was around thirteen or fourteen years old. I thought it was cool. It was like real fights but I wasn’t really that interested in it. I liked to watch Royce Gracie. At the time, it was cool and I wanted Royce to win and would cheer for him, but I was more into boxing at the time. The Gracies definitely revolutionized the martial arts and opened the doors for MMA.

Q: How did you get involved in the UFC?

Penn: I knew Dana White before I got involved in the UFC because I trained with him one time because John Lewis introduced me to him. After that I talked to Dana and asked him if he could get me into the UFC and eventually he got me in.

Q: Do you remember your first fight in the UFC, and how did it feel to be fighting in the Octagon for the first time?

Penn: I fought George Gilbert and I was really pumped up and excited. It was kind of proving to myself that I’m a good fighter and I can fight with people who train for fighting. This was my favorite fight. To me, all my fights represent certain danger, whether it’s against a kick-boxer, wrestler, or a huge person—it’s all equal.

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