B.J. Penn is the current UFC lightweight champion and is regarded as one of the top five pound for pound fighters in the world. In 1997, after training for less than a year, Penn entered his first BJJ tournament in Bakersfield, California where he not only took first in his weight class, but also won the open weight division as well. A couple years later Penn became the first non-Brazilian fighter in history to win the World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship (Mundial) in the black belt category. Since then, Penn has fought a who's who of MMA fighters, holding notable wins over Matt Hughes, Takanori Gomi, Jens Pulver, Renzo Gracie, Matt Serra, Sean Sherk, Joe Stevenson, Caol Uno and Din Thomas.
