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.
First thing’s first. As an MMA fan, I would be remiss if I did not mention tomorrow’s big UFC card that will showcase two of our very own, local, Hawaii boys: Hilo’s BJ Penn and Maui’s Kendall Grove.
Local Boys: Lightweight Champ BJ Penn (left) and Middleweight Contender Kendall Grove (right)
Lightweight champ BJ Penn (remember him?) will be defending his belt against top contender Frankie Edgar, while middleweight standout Kendall Grove will take on wrestler Mark Munoz. See bottom for all the details.
—
A-ight with that outta the way, let’s get today’s Fave Friday show on the road. Now I know the title says “Sports”, but for those of you who aren’t big fans of the stick and ball kine games, feel free to list “Activities” like hiking or swimming, etc. Here’s my list:
Fave Sports to Watch:
* Baseball – Sooooo happy the 2010 season is under way again! Go “pills” right uncle jimmy? 😛 Don’t know what it is, but I could just sit there and watch a whole game without getting bored at all. * MMA – I used to be all crazy widit and watch every second of every event, but now, with limited watching hours in my day, I pretty much just focus on the UFC, WEC and some Strikeforce events with spot watching of the other ones like Bellator. Even then, I fast forward through the boring fights. I really do miss HDNet and their MMA coverage, especially with Dream. BTW, while we’re on the topic of MMA and local boys, don’t forget to support Brad Tavares who is reppin’ Hawaii on this season’s cast of the Ultimate Fighter, Wednesday nights at 7PM on Spike TV (Oceanic Cable 559 or HD 1559). * Basketball – Orlando’s my team, but I’ll watch good matchups sometimes. UH is fun watching live, but it’s been really depressing the last few years. 😦 * Football (I guess) – only to follow my fantasy players. LOL! Live games at UH are fun too, but I like the tailgating more! 😛 * Boxing – used to watch a lot, until MMA came along and killed it! RIP. 😉
Fave Sports/Activities to Do:
* Snowboarding – snowboarding is life. Period. * Jiu Jitsu – don’t get to roll as much as in the past, but the cognitive part of it is soooo interesting to me. * Baseball/Softball – my first sport ever = my first love. * Basketball – played a lot of hoops in high school and college, but kinda slowed down later in life. I should get back into it again. * Swimming – ever since training for the Tinman, I’ve been itching to get back in the water on the regular. Not only is it a good workout, but you get a mean tan to boot.
So what sports or activities do you like to watch/play? Holla!
—
In other sports-related news, what do you think of Nike’s new commercial with Tiger Woods, using his dad’s voice as the narrative?
Tiger Woods’ Nike Commercial
—
UPDATE:
Just got shown the new 3-D Channel on Oceanic Time Warner Cable channel 1217 and, lemme tell ya, it looks pretty mean! If you have a new HD 3-D television set, pop on your 3-D specs, turn them on, and tune to channel 1217 to watch some cool, On Demand content – including coverage of the Masters – in crystal clear 3-D. I sound like an infomercial don’t I? 😛
Masters Content in 3-D from Oceanic Time Warner Cable
—
UFC 112 Details
UFC 112: Invincible is being held on Yas Island all the way in Abu Dhabi so it will actually air live at a strange 7AM hour for us here in Hawaii, on Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s channel 701 or HD 1701. Hurr’s the official poster:
UFC 112 Poster
… and here’s sistah Bel showing some love for our local boy BJ Penn:
Bel Kissing the UFC 112 Poster
If you’re not a fan of waking up early on Saturdays, Oceanic will be re-airing the fight card at 10AM, with an afternoon airing at 4PM (re-aired at 7PM). Just select the time that works best for you. Click here for streaming UFC 112 content or here for ordering information.
K, pau! Sorry. Commercial ova. Have one awesome Friday and weekend gang, and I’ll see you on Monday K!? Shooooots!
Local boy Kendall Grove looked impressive in his decision win over former UFC Middleweight champion Evan Tanner in Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest Finale show. Tanner looked old and defeated while the Maui native was active and aggressive. After the fight, Grove announced that he is opening a gym in Maui with friend (and fighter) Troy “Rude Boy” Mandaloniz. Good to see local boys giving back (following in the footsteps of BJ Penn on the Big Island and Egan Inoue on Oahu).
On the same card, Amir Sadollah did the unthinkable and caught favored CB Dollaway again with an armbar, as Dollaway ridiculously denied tapping. I’m so stoked for Amir! He’s such a humble, grounded (and funny) guy. I hope he does well in his MMA career. Click here for the results of the rest of the card.
Talk to me!
* What’s next for Grove?
* Is Tanner’s career over?
* Think Sadollah has a bright future?
* Post your condolences for Bryan Baptiste and/or George Carlin.
World Wide Ed 