Penn's future bright after big victory over Gracie
By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer
BJ Penn and the state of Hawai'i proved their worth in the world of mixed martial arts on Saturday night.
Before a standing room only crowd of more than 8,000 at the Blaisdell Center Arena, Hilo's Penn defeated Brazil's Rodrigo Gracie by unanimous decision in the main event of Rumble on the Rock 6.
Penn
"I wanted to finish him, but he kept stalling," Penn said. "I expected him to fight a little more. But what ever. A win's a win."
Penn improved to 9-1-1 and solidified his reputation as the "best pound-for-pound" mixed martial arts competitor in the world. He moved up to Gracie's weight class of 185 pounds for the bout.
"I trained so hard for this fight, it didn't make a difference," said Penn, 25.
The biggest difference now could come in Penn's paychecks. Earlier in his career, Penn was ranked No. 1 in the world at 160 pounds and 170 pounds.
"Basically, I can fight anybody now," he said. "I think this shows that I can fight at any weight."
Gracie, 30, lost for the first time in his career to drop to 5-1.
"It was kind of frustrating because he wasn't even moving," Penn said. "It was like he just wanted to stay in one place on the ground."
Penn dominated all three five-minute rounds of the fight. Several times, Gracie dropped deliberately to his back and tried to lure Penn into a grappling match on the ground.
Instead, Penn stood over the supine Gracie and tried to throw in occasional punches. There were no devastating punches or kicks, but Penn clearly scored more points than Gracie in each round.
"I've said before that Hawai'i has some of the best fighters around and I hope this just shows it even more," Penn said.
The Gracie family is internationally famous in the sports of jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts, so the event was hyped as the biggest mixed martial arts card ever staged in Hawai'i.
Jay Dee Penn, BJ's older brother, helped put together Saturday's event with the support of the K-1 organization of Japan.
"The hard-core fans knew how important this was," Jay Dee Penn said. "But I was really glad to see all the mainstream fans of Hawai'i come out to support this. I think it sent a good message to the people in Japan that Hawai'i can have events like this."
Among the celebrities in attendance were rapper Snoop Dogg, actor and former kickboxer Jean Claude Van Damme, former sumo yokozuna Akebono, mixed martial arts legend Royce Gracie and surfing world champ Andy Irons.
OTHER BOUTS—250 pounds: Carter Williams (California) defeated Tom Howard (California) by TKO, 2:18 into the first round. 155: Royler Gracie (Brazil) defeated Kazuyuki Miyata (Japan) by choke submission, 2:46 into the second round. 275: Yoshihiro Nakao (Japan) defeated Wesley "Cabbage" Correira by split decision. 250: Sean O'Hare (California) defeated Shungo Oyama (Japan) by TKO, 31 seconds into the first round. 240: Aitor Canup (North Carolina) defeated Juda Aalona (Hawai'i) by choke submission, 1:20 into the first round. 225: Kristof Midoux (France) defeated Michael Butenbah (Hawai'i) by knockout, 1:54 into the first round. 250: Antoni Hardonk (Holland) defeated Wes Sims (Ohio) by arm-bar submission, 4:23 into first round. 180: Dennis Hallman (Washington) defeated Ross Ebanez (Hawai'i) by choke submission, 1:13 into the first round. 155: Gilbert Melendez (California) defeated Kaynan Kaku (Hawai'i) by TKO, 3:58 into the first round.
Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8101.
