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Former two division UFC champion BJ Penn embodied the spirit of a Hawaiian to his core. His mantra ‘Just Scrap’ was not just that, but a life style.
BJ Penn made his professional mixed martial arts debut in 2001, in the UFC. That is a feat in itself. He won his first three fights by first round knockout or TKO and earned a shot at the UFC lightweight title, a bout he would lose by decision to Jens Pulver.
Penn would go 2-0-1 in his next three UFC fights, then he took left the organization and took one fight for Rumble on The Rock, a fight with Takanori Gomi he won by submission.
Penn then returned right to the UFC, this time as a welterweight and shocked the world defeating Matt Hughes for the UFC welterweight title. Again his relationship with the UFC would fall through and he left the organization as champion.
Penn stayed away from the UFC for the next two years searching out challenges for himself. He fought kickboxing champion Duane Ludwig and Rodrigo Gracie in Hawaii and won those both. Next Penn took on maybe the biggest challenge of his career, a young fighter named Lyoto Machida in the lightheavyweight weight class. Forty pounds above his natural division. Penn would lose a unanimous decision, but proved that he would ‘Just Scrap’ with anyone.
After the loss to Machida, Penn took one more match, a win over Renzo Gracie before returning to the UFC for the rest of his career. Machida went on to become a UFC light heavyweight champion and one of the division’s biggest stars.
After returning to the UFC, Penn would fight Hughes again for the welterweight title, but this time lost to Matt Hughes. He then returned back to the lightweight division and after avenging his loss to Jens Pulver would win the UFC lightweight title for the first time, defeating Joe Stevenson.
Penn successfully defend his title against Sean Sherk before again attempting to win the welterweight title, which he fell short in a fight with Georges St-Pierre.
Apparently Penn couldn’t decide what division he wanted to fight again and moved back to lightweight to win a lightweight title fight against Kenny Florian and defend it against Diego Sanchez before losing two fight in a row to Frankie Edgar.
Penn ended his UFC with a 1-3-1 fight streak and hasn’t fought since July of 2014.
