His accomplishments in the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship caught the attention of Dana White and the Ultimate Fighting Championship who convinced him to switch to MMA. While most people need a decade or more to become a black belt, Penn had, with only three years of training, not only received a black belt but defeated people who had been training their entire lives on his way to winning the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. A few weeks later he became the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At that point he moved to Nova União where he was eventually awarded his black belt in 2000 by Andre Pederneiras. In 1997 Penn began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ralph Gracie, eventually earning his purple belt from Gracie. Callos then taught BJ and his brother what he knew. Callos had put up fliers in local gyms looking for people to train with, and BJ's father Jay Dee Penn had rung Callos and said his boys were interested. 2.4.3 UFC 101 and return as Lightweight ChampionĪt the age of seventeen, Penn began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after being introduced to it by his neighbor, Tom Callos.He is currently ranked by Sherdog and MMAWeekly as the #1 Lightweight fighter in the world. He became only the second fighter to win UFC titles in two different weight classes (the other being Randy Couture), after he won the lightweight title at UFC 80, having previously won the UFC's welterweight title from Matt Hughes at UFC 46. Penn is a former UFC Welterweight Champion and was a coach on the The Ultimate Fighter 5 reality show. In 2000, he became the first American-born winner of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in the black-belt category.
Jay Dee Penn (born December 13, 1978), is an American mixed martial artsist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner of Anglo-Irish and Korean decent who is currently the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Champion.
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