As promised, I took the questions you posted on my “Ask a BJ (Penn)” blog with me to Hilo and had BJ answer them for y’all. I’ve finally had the chance to encode it, uploaded it (to YouTube), annotate it, and publish the puppy for you folks so hurr it is. Enjoy!
BJ Penn answers questions from the World Wide Ed Community
[kuya.d]: Try asking BJ how helpful Gary Ohashi has been in his training and recovery?
[B.J. Penn] Ohhh, Gary Ohashi. Gary Ohashi has been very good for me. I see him once or twice a week. Just adjusts me, put everything in the right areas, so my body’s not aching and everything. Thank you Gary. Thanks for helping me out.
[Coconut Willy]: Originally being from Hilo, the feeling is super laid back. I know when I go to visit, I get really lazy. Ask BJ how he keeps up his intensity and motivation.
[B.J. Penn] I get really lazy too actually Coconut Willy. (*laughs*) And it’s pretty tough. Nah, you know, when you got something on your head, or you’re focused or you wanna do something, you going get out there. Plus too, you don’t want to let down all the fans, so that’s motivation. Cause you want the fans to say, you know you want the fans to go out there and after you win, you want them to tell their friends, “You see! I told you so! When I talk you listen! You listen to me when I speak to you!” (*laughs*)
[skycastles]: Boxers or briefs?
[B.J. Penn] Boxers, boxers. Boxers or nothing under surf shorts. Surf shorts: nothing. Everything else, boxers.
[skycastles]: What advice would he give to kids coming up who want to get into MMA?
[B.J. Penn] To the kids, I would just say, you know, just go and have fun. If you like to box, go box. If you like wrestling, go wrestle in school. If you like jiu jitsu, go do it and then just keep just doing the one that you think is fun and get as far as that one first. Whether it’s wrestling, boxing or kickboxing or jiu jitsu or judo or whatever it is, and then after you’re kinda done competing in that, maybe start adding all the other ones in.
[bB]: does he have any aspirations of being a promoter after he retires? maybe something on the lines of a oscar de la hoya.
[B.J. Penn] Maybe I’d want to get involved with the promoter business. But we’ll see how things unfold, and, you know, if the UFC is the only company in the future or… We’ll see, but for sure I could see myself putting on little fights around Hawaii, around the islands, the different islands, just for the locals.
[frankie]: I’d like to know if he’d like to face GSP again (sans the greasing).
[B.J. Penn] Yup, yup. For sure we want to fight GSP again and we want our opportunity for a rematch.
[uncle jimmy]: since his grandma was the original “little lei lady of waikiki” and wound up owning some chunks of waikiki in the process, and his Mom is a serious entrepreneurial player of note on her own.. does he have a similar entrepreneurial gene and how does it reveal itself?
[B.J. Penn] I don’t think my grandma ended up owning any chunks of Waikiki. In fact, I don’t think there’s many Hawaiians who own a bunch of hotels down (in) Waikiki. (*laughs*)
I would love to keep pushing BJPenn.com and training people and I guess, yeah, just push the web site, push the shop on the web site, and see where we can take it and maybe even get into the promoting stuff.
[Center Of Thought]: What does his diet consist of? What does he eat when training?
[B.J. Penn] OK, my diet, if I’m not training, I’ll eat anything, and then if I’m training, I pretty much cut out like breads and pastas. I just eat like the most natural carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, like brown rice, sweet potatoes, oats, you know, poi, like just kinda more natural stuff. And then if I want a cheat meal, then maybe I’ll eat a sandwich or something you know, but I try to just cut all that stuff out. And then lean meat and lots of fruits and vegetables.
[Center Of Thought]: What kine music does tha champ listen to?
[B.J. Penn] Listen to… Growing up I listen to everything, but nowadays I listen to more just local music, Hawaiian music, kinda keeps me relaxed. Not gonna go burn rubber down the road and get in trouble. (*laughs*)
[miLL-viLLe]: I want to know how many more fights BJ has left in him.
[B.J. Penn] Every time somebody asks me how many more fights I have left in me, I can’t really answer that question cause we always just gotta see how my next fight goes. I’m sure after I beat Kenny Florian, I’ll be happy and I’ll say we got 50 fights left, you know what I mean, so we just gotta take it fight by fight.
[mcat]: i’m curious what he does when he’s not training… any other hobbies?
[B.J. Penn] I’m just hanging out. Maybe go surfing a little bit, maybe, you know, just go swimming, have fun, watch TV, work on BJPenn.com, that’s all I do. (*laughs*)
Thank you!
There ya have it! Hope you enjoyed it! Don’t forget to read my full interview with BJ below!
World Wide Ed 