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B.J. Penn Information

     B.J. Penn (a.k.a. The Prodigy) was born on December 12, 1978 in Hilo, Hawaii.  He is considered one of the best mixed martial arts fighters in the world.  Penn has many impressive victories in the UFC, none more impressive than his first round submission of Matt Hughes in 2004.  His recent appearance on the hit reality show The Ultimate Fighter boosted his notoriety and his quick work of Jens Pulver put him on a short list of contenders challenging for title. Other notable victories for Penn include a unanimous decision over Takanori Gomi in 2003, Rodrigo Gracie in 2004 and Renzo Gracie in 2005.  The biggest victory in Penn's career came in 2004 when he moved up a weight class to fight Matt Hughes.  He was a heavy underdog against the five-time defending welterweight champion.  He was able to submit Hughes with just 23 seconds left in the first round by way of rear-naked choke.  Penn would lose a rematch with Hughes in 2006.  Penn controlled the first two rounds of the rematch, but injured himself late in the second round.  In the third, he was visibly having trouble breathing due to the injury and eventually lost by T.K.O. in the third.

     B.J. is also a very accomplished Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner.  He entered his first tournament in 1997 and won both his weight class and the open weight class.  From then on it was a string of victories for Penn, with a gold medal at the Copa Pacific Tournament in 1999.  In 2000 Penn became the first non-Brazilian  to win gold medal in black belt division of the Mundial World Championships held in Brazil.

     Penn absolutely destroyed Joe Stevenson to win the vacant lightweight title on January 19th.  After overcoming many nasty strikes, including an elbow that opened a nasty cut over his eye, as well as numerous submission attempts, Stevenson finally gave up his back and tapped seconds later.  His next fight is scheduled for May 24th against Sean Sherk.  Penn recently said that he intends to win the welterweight and middleweight titles as well and with his skill set and determination there is no reason he can't.

     B.J. Penn also wrote a book titled "MIXED MARTIAL ARTS The Book of Knowledge" and has an line of hats and T-shirts available on his official site.

B.J. Penn

MMA RECORD - 12-4-1