BJ “The Prodigy” Penn

BJ Penn made jiu-jitsu history at the 2000 Worlds, at Tijuca Tênis Clube in Rio de Janeiro. Fighting for Nova União, he beat Fredson Alves in the semifinal and Edson Diniz in the featherweight final to become the first American to win the black belt world title. A year earlier, still a brown belt, he had taken bronze at lightweight.

Born in Kailua, Hawaii, in 1978, he started training in California with Ralph Gracie and later moved to Rio to train with André Pederneiras at Nova União. He earned his black belt in about three years, one of the fastest paths in the sport’s history, which earned him the nickname The Prodigy. “Jiu-jitsu changed my whole life,” he told GRACIEMAG in 2018.

In MMA he took jiu-jitsu to the top of the UFC. In 2004 he submitted Matt Hughes with a rear-naked choke to win the welterweight belt. In 2008 he won the lightweight title by submitting Joe Stevenson and defended it against Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez before losing it to Frankie Edgar in 2010. He also faced and beat Renzo Gracie in 2005. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2015.

In 2016 he was suspended for six months by USADA for an intravenous infusion above the permitted volume without an exemption, which he had declared himself. His last fight was in 2019, at UFC 237.