I first met Reagan Penn when I flew up to Hilo in May of 2009 to interview his famous brother, beloved MMA legend BJ Penn. We were meeting up at their other brother JD’s house, and Reagan came by on his bicycle after a day at the gym.
Fast forward to today. Bruddah is preparing for one of the biggest weekends of his life when he will be making his professional fighting debut on one of the most anticipated MMA fight cards in recent Hawaii history as Pro Elite (re)debuts on Saturday, September 27th at the Neal Blaisdell Arena with a stacked card featuring former UFC stars Andrei Arlovski, Kendall Grove, Joe Riggs and Drew McFedries. The real story though, at least for true fight fans like myself, is the one surrounding Reagan Penn.
Prior to this, Reagan led a relatively modest but exciting life, supporting his brother BJ as he went on to capture UFC glory by winning both the Welterweight and Lightweight titles. This weekend, when Reagan faces an undefeated Paul Gardiner, he will step out his brother’s shadow to work on creating his own legacy in the fight world.
Check out my quick interview with Reagan Penn on the story behind his name, his ground game, his fight this weekend and what’s in store for his future… WAR Reagan!
Interview with Reagan Penn
Edward Sugimoto) First of all thank you very much taking the time out of your busy schedule. I know you have a fight this weekend right?
Reagan Penn) Yes thank you. Thank you for having me.
Edward Sugimoto) So let me see if I have this straight. You have three older brothers all named “Jay Dee” (Jay, JD, Baby Jay)?
Reagan Penn) Yes.
Edward Sugimoto) And you’re the youngest, the fourth, named Reagan?
Reagan Penn) Yes.
Edward Sugimoto) Where did that name come from? Do you know?
Reagan Penn) Yeah, actually my dad was going to name all his sons (Jay Dee), but my mom grabbed the birth certificate before my dad could, during the pregnancy and she put that name down.
Edward Sugimoto) Was that like one of her favorites?
Reagan Penn) She was actually watching TV during her pregnancy, her labor I mean and there was a football player who kinda scored a winning touchdown named Reagan so that’s how I got my name.
Edward Sugimoto) So everybody knows the story about how your dad’s neighbor Tom Callos and how he introduced you guys to jiu-jitsu. Be honest, who’s the most talented jiu-jitsu practitioner amongst the Penn brothers?
Reagan Penn) *laughs* That’s funny. Everybody asks that question. We’re all good at different positions you know so it’s hard to really say who would be better in really jiu-jitsu but me and my brothers, we all have certain positions that we’re all better at so it’s tough to really say. *laughs*
Edward Sugimoto) So you guys tap each other out regularly then?
Reagan Penn) *laughs* Yeah exactly so it’s back and forth.
Edward Sugimoto) That makes you better too right?
Reagan Penn) *laughs* That’s how you get better for sure.
Edward Sugimoto) So I read somewhere that you helped your family’s business with computer help and you actually started up BJPenn.com and helped out with that. How did you go from that to wanting to fight professionally?
Reagan Penn) In our family, everybody just gotta help out with what is ever going on so mostly we were working on the site BJPenn.com and then slowly we had more people helping us with it and I could train more, so I found myself training a lot more than I was doing my other jobs so I figured, hey, let’s try it out. Getting punched in the head, sparring every day. *laughs*
Edward Sugimoto) So let’s talk about getting punched in the head. You have a fight this Saturday… How did training camp go? Are you all set? Are you nervous? Excited?
Reagan Penn) Yeah, I can definitely feel the nerves now just thinking about how I want to be with my weight, getting in there, and the whole crowd thing. So I wasn’t feeling too nervous a couple days ago, but I’m definitely starting to feel the adrenaline and I’m starting to have dreams about fighting so, it’s definitely coming.
Edward Sugimoto) So there’s a lot of big buzz surrounding you because of your name and because it’s your first debut fight… Are you pretty nervous? Pretty excited? *laughs* I guess we just went over that huh?
Reagan Penn) *laughs* Yeah same thing.
Edward Sugimoto) Do you feel some pressure?
Reagan Penn) I just want to do good you know I don’t want to go in there and choke and panic or whatever can happen in there, you know, that’s the main thing. I just want to go in there and try to stay as calm as I can until I get in there and just show what I got. Whatever happens, I’m gonna try my best.
Edward Sugimoto) So your opponent is undefeated Paul Gardiner. What do you know about him and how’d you prepare?
Reagan Penn) Yeah, my opponent Paul Gardiner, I seen him on YouTube, I seen a few of his fights and I noticed he likes a lot to take the guy down but he can also strike. I seen him knock one of his opponents down so I’m not sure, since I think he has more of a jiu-jitsu base, he might be thinking I might have better jiu-jitsu and he might wanna try to stand with me, maybe just go all out and trade with me, but you never know until you get in there. We’ll just have to see what happens.
Edward Sugimoto) And if he does stand up with you, he’s in trouble right?
Reagan Penn) *laughs* Well we’re ready for everything. I didn’t really know what kind of opponent I had so all my training kinda was just geared for whoever, then just a few weeks ago, they finally got my opponent and I could just watch some tapes, but I didn’t really look at too much of his stuff until maybe the last week ago, two weeks ago, when my training started winding down and I started getting whatever bored, I’ll jump on the Internet. *laughs*
Edward Sugimoto) So after this match, after you win of course, what are your long term plans in fighting if you have any?
Reagan Penn) Yeah I want to try and pursue this sport as far as I can go. Of course, this is my first fight. I gotta see how this one goes. But yeah, I’m definitely planning on fighting right away if all goes well.
Edward Sugimoto) So you know all of us Hawaii folks are backing you, (I love) Just Scrap your shirt, we all have a lot of love and aloha. Do you have anything else to say to your fans out there?
Reagan Penn) Hey you guys. I’m gonna do my best for you guys, and eh, thanks for coming and watching and supporting us cause you’re the guys who make it happen.
As some of you may know, dis buggah was lucky enough to have the unbelievable opportunity to fly to Hilo this past weekend to interview Hawaii’s own, BJ Penn. Using Twitter as our base, here’s a recap of the weekend’s activities. What a BLAST!
2:19 PM May 29th – Hilo here I am! LOL!
Just landed and was picked up at the airport by my buddy Dave. Was enthused to see what was to come.
4:23 PM May 29th – just enjoyed boneless chicken at Blanes with @dave_OI
My co-worker Evan (Hilo native) said we should try the boneless chicken from Blane’s, so when we were looking for a snack to nibble on, that’s what we nibbled on. 😛
7:00 PM May 29th – is waiting for his Mike Piazza from Kilauea Pizza Hut
With all the pizza talk from our Friday blog, Dave and I were itchin’ for a slice (or two). We hit up the local Pizza Hut for a custom pie. Props to bruddah kuya.d for giving me a ring-a-ling and asking if we wanted to come check out an imu (for kulolo) him and his students were building! Next time fo sho!
9:36 PM May 29th – don’t these coqui frogs know that I have an important interview tomorrow morning? *grin*
Didn’t realize how noisy those buggahs were until I heard them for myself. Trying to study/prepare for an important interview with them “coqui-ing” away in the background was quite the challenge. 8)
8:36 AM May 30th – enjoying taro corned beef hash at Kuhio Grill. Mmmmm!
Sorry Ynkau. I nevah try the 1 pound lau lau, but I wasn’t that hungry that morning. Plus, if BJ wanted to roll with me, I wanted to be ready. Ha!
And then…
It was time…
Here are some shots from my camera during the interview.
BJ Penn chillin’
BJ Penn getting into it
Side view of the Champ and I
10:59 AM May 30th – Interview with Time Warner at JD’s house http://sml.vg/z40gzp
This one (and the next one) is actually from @Officialbjpenn‘s Twitter (now @UFCBJPenn @bjpenndotcom). And yep, for those of you who were wondering, that really IS him on Twitter. I saw it with my very own eyes! 8)
11:32 AM May 30th – @Officialbjpenn Mahaloz for the time! That was awesome!
My mahaloz to BJ through Twitsville.
12:34 PM May 30th – respects and admires BJ Penn even more now. What a kool kat!
So true. He’s such a mellow, cool, likeable guy. It’s no surprise that the entire state of Hawaii is so supportive of our MMA hero.
3:18 PM May 30th – just picked up 18 strawberry mochis from Two Ladies Kitchen. Wonder how dese buggahs taste…
Even though it was just an over-nighter, you know you gotsta pick up omiyage. We picked up 18 of these popular strawberry mochis from Two Ladies Kitchen. Holy Toledo. They were HEAVY!
All in all it was an awesome trip! Much love to BJ for the time! Mad props to JD Penn for the hook-ups and the hospitality. Mahaloz to Dave Oi for being my personal chauffeur and cameraman for the weekend! 😉
OK, so I think I did it! After months of persistence, I think I’ve finally secured that interview with BJ Penn! Much love JD! Gonna be flying up to Hilo this weekend, but before I do, I wanted to check in with all y’all MMA fans (or fans in general) to see if you had any questions for the UFC Lightweight Champion of the Woooooorrrrrllllllld! 8)
Post um below and I’ll take the best ones up with me! Wish me luck! 🙂
On a side note, if you have any suggestions for places to grind in Hilo, please post those as well. Shooots!
World Wide Ed 