BJ Penn vs. George St. Pierre: Sports Illustrated Covering Fight

This Saturday will be probably the biggest fight in UFC history as Hilo’s own BJ Penn takes on Canada’s George St. Pierre.

BJ Penn's Academy in Hilo

You know MMA is getting big when Sports Illustrated is covering it.  They just came out with the following article:

“Against St. Pierre, Penn eyes second belt, new chapter in history.”

There are thousands of blogs and articles about this, so I won’t blog to much about it.

I hope BJ kicks his ass!

You can see pictures of BJ’s Gym that I took last week here.

BJ Penn's full scale ring in the basement of his academy

…“What he’s doing for the youth of Hawaii, he’s trying to send them in the right direction,” Valentino said. “What’s he’s done for the people of Hawaii is to give them hope that you can be champion in anything you do.”

During the 1920s, that distinction belonged to a slender Japanese emigrant, Seishiro “Henry” Okazaki. Combining different arts into an effective form of self-defense and fighting, Okazaki met many challengers along the way who aimed to test their style against his: a mixture of boxing, Japanese jujitsu and the ancient Hawaiian art of bone breaking, the Lua.

A hotbed of jujitsu, thanks to a significant number of Japanese workers toiling on the Big Island’s plantations, Hilo was Okazaki’s fighting epicenter. In 1922, he faced the toughest match of his life. British boxer Carl “Kayo” Morris traveled to the islands in search of mixed-discipline bouts. After roughing up several local fighters, Morris came across Okazaki, whom he battered in the first of six three-minute rounds. However, the Japanese fighter survived a broken nose before putting the boxer out with an injured arm. The victory propelled Okazaki into hallowed ground, and helped establish a new style of martial arts, Danzan-Ryu jujitsu… Sports Illustrated