Jay Dee b.j. Penn - Why I Fight: The Belt Is Just an Accessory

The First Part

What I Learned

Unexpected Changes

Ralph and Dave

New Beginnings

Unfinished Business

Moving Forward

Entering the Octagon

Three-Fight Deal

Up, Then Down

Just Scrap

Title Defense

Full Circle

Opportunity Awaits

The Real Champ

On an Island

More Than Words

T HINKING BACK TEN YEARS AGO, if someone told me I was going to write a book about myself, I could think of a handful of people who would read it, and all of them would probably have the name Penn. In fact, I dont even really know if they would read it, let alone a lot of people I dont know! I would bet my mom would, but I am not sure how much I would wager. Even recently, when I was first approached about writing a book, it was not something I was overly excited about. A TV show? Yeah, sure, thats easy. They just point the camera at you, then you kind of do your thing, whatever that thing is. A magazine article? That can be done in one day, maybe with a flight. A book written by someone else, about me, taking guesses about who I am? That would probably leave me with another fight on my hands. A book about fighting? Easy. But to write a book about me, by me, to talk about my life? I have to be honest and say I was not that excited.

Then I sat back and realized that if only one person I do not know actually picks this book up and decides to read it, that is such a huge compliment, I cannot even explain. So while I write this book, assuming people are going to read it, if only one person I do not know chooses to, that makes me really happy. I want to say thank you to that person, and any person who has taken enough interest in me to allow me to have the time in my life to actually do this. Even if you decide to read it because you do not like me, you too have taken enough interest in me, which has given me so much in return.

I never ever thought I would be in this position in my life, and here I am. I am responsible for things, and to other people, and to places I never even considered, or ever thought about. For a kid from Hawaii, all of what has happened to me means a lot more than you could possibly realize.

M Y NAME IS J AY D EE P ENN, but most people know me by my family-given nickname of BJ, or BJ Penn. It stands for Baby Jay, as in Baby Jay Dee Penn. The reason they call me BJ instead of, say, Junior, Trey, the second, or the third is that there are more Jay Dee Penns than just me. Theres my father, and a brother, another brother, and now a nephewwho all have the same given legal name: Jay Dee. It might get confusing to some, but its pretty straightforward for those who know us.

Some people say having so many Jay Dees in a family could possibly take away from our individual identities. I disagree. In fact, I look at it from the opposite view, in that having the same name, or just being a Penn, means we all have something we must strive to uphold. For one of us to tarnish or trash the name would make us all look bad. In a family like mine, thats a risky thing, tarnishing the name. But if you did this, whether by mistake or intention, the first people to help and support you would be those whose name you tarnished. It binds us together, and in a way that ensures each of us that the other will work hard to do great things, not just for themselves, but on behalf of everyone in our family. For what happens to one Penn happens to us all, and while it may not be perfect for everyone in the world, its what makes us who we are.

This is true whether the name is Jay Dee Penn or something else Penn. In total, my parents ended up having six children, five of them boys. I have other siblings, like my little brother Reagan, who is littler only in age. My three oldest half siblings are my brother Kalani from my moms first marriage, and my brother Jay and sister, Christina, from my dads first marriage. At the end of the day, we all tend to look after each other simultaneously. My parents have given us the ability to be on our own, think on our own, act on our own, but also made us responsible to everyone else.

Ultimately I am just one of many Jay Dee Penns. Its the name BJ Penn that has come to represent everything about the world I was born into and the choices I have made.

I WAS BORN IN H ONOLULU, O AHU, Hawaii, on December 13, 1978, to my parents, Jay Dee Penn and Loraine Shin, who to this day remain together nearly every waking minute. According to my parents, I was not a difficult baby once I entered the world. Getting there was slightly more of a problem, at least it was for my mom. While eight pounds and two ounces does not compare with my nephew LJ, who came in at nearly ten pounds, my birth was difficult for my mother. As the doctors and my mom were bringing me into the world, my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, choking me. My mom had to stop pushing so the doctors could make sure I arrived healthy. Once she started pushing again and they finally got me out, my face was all bruised up. From the beginning, I guess I was making my mom nervous with my chokes, bumps, and bruises.

My parents met when they were both pretty young, but by the standards of their time, I guess it was normal. My mother was twenty-two, of Korean and Hawaiian descent, and was born and raised in Hawaii. My father, twenty-three, of Irish roots. He was a guy from Kansas who had left home at a young age, only to join the military and eventually find himself in Hawaii. Not exactly two people from the same place, but in many ways of the same mind, which was what mattered most.

Oddly enough, what brought my dad to Hawaii was not the military, but a visit to a friend of his who was living there. His buddy told him how beautiful it was, and that he had to come see it for himself, but by the time my father arrived, his friend was nowhere to be found. I guess in a time of no cell phones, and when youre a few thousands miles from the mainland, if someone doesnt show up where theyre supposed to be, you just have to make do. And my father definitely did that. He ended up living on the beach in Waianae and hitchhiking to town to find work. As one of the few haoles living on the beach in Waianae, he encountered racism from the locals and had many fistfights during those early days.

My dad was always one to make do with what he was given. He had a very difficult childhood, and most everything he did as a youth, he did alone. Throughout my life he has been very reluctant to discuss his upbringing, and given the way he is, Ive always known it best not to dig for answers. What I do know is that he grew up without the type of love and support he has given us, and for much of his life he was left to take care of himself. At the age of thirteen, Pop, as we call him, was already working hard. He sold newspapers to people in Kansas, made candles to be sold on holidays like Christmas, cleaned peoples yards, and worked as a laborer on farms in the Midwest. Eventually the military helped him see the world a bit more than he had the means to do.

My mother also worked very hardonly instead of Kansas, she was on the island of Oahu. Her family owned one of the first businesses to sell fresh flower leis on the Royal Hawaiian Hotel grounds. Leis, you may or may not know, are fresh flowers strung together like long necklaces that people wear around their necks when they are welcomed to Hawaii, and since the early 1900s my mothers family sold themfrom her grandma to her mother all the way down to her and her six sisters. To this day, one of her family members operates the lei stand my mother worked at for many years.