Name: JRE MMA Show #123 with BJ Penn
Uploaded: 2022-04-27T00:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #123 with BJ Penn' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'JRE MMA Show #123 with BJ Penn' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-27. Transcript available.

JRE MMA Show #123 with BJ Penn

Ladies and gentlemen, the future governor of Hawaii, BJ Penn!
What's going on, Joel?
What's happening, brother? Good to see you.
Good to see you, man.
You're dedicated to this, man.
Yes.
I need a shirt.
You got it.
I need one.
We got him here.
I need to wear a pen for governor.
Thank you.
If I wear it in Hawaii, will I get mugged?
Will they attack me and duct tape me and throw me in the back of a police van?
They'll cheer you on, and then you got to tell them, are you guys registered?
How is it going?
First of all, what made you decide?
It was the COVID lockdowns, right, that made you decide?
You know what?
That's the, you know, people ask me, they go, would you be running for office
if this pandemic
didn't happen?
And I tell them all the same thing.
I say, this is the straw that broke the camel's back.
I've always noticed the problems here with the economy, how anti-business they
are, how we've
all, since I was in high school, we've always been in last place, our education,
you know?
So, yeah.
When you say anti-business, like how are they anti-business?
What do they do?
As far as with the regulations, it takes so long.
You know, you go to the planning department, and they hold you up for another
eight months,
and it's just, you know, the taxes are so high.
We got the highest state income tax.
What is the state income tax in Hawaii?
What is, I don't know, I don't got the exact number right now, but we talk
about that.
We'll get Jamie to pull it up.
Yeah, we talk about that often.
Well, I think California is like 13-something, 13-plus percent.
There was even talk there about raising it up, you know?
It's a shame that you feel that everything is that bad, that you feel called to
do it,
but I know you, and I know you wouldn't do this unless you really felt like
there was a need for change.
You're not a guy that, like, wants to be running the government.
You're a guy who just doesn't want to be fucked with and pushed around,
and when you see what you consider your people, your friends, your family, your
neighbors,
getting their businesses fucked over and getting locked out of work
and having regulations put in place to make it difficult to start a business in
the first place.
So what would you do different in terms of, like, what are they doing?
Like, were you saying, like, planning and regulations?
Like, what is that about?
Is that about concerns for the environment because you're on an island?
Like, what is that?
I don't know why they're just so slow.
They're just so slow with that stuff.
Do you think it's just inefficient, or you think maybe they're overwhelmed?
Like, what do you think it is?
I think inefficient, and I think, you know, let's just take –
I see this happen a lot when they start regulating something.
I mean, here we were doing MMA in Hawaii.
It got – you remember how big MMA got?
Rumble on the rock, son.
Yeah.
I remember you put on your own promotion.
That was fantastic.
Oh, thank you.
Come on, man.
That was – like, in the early days of MMA, Rumble on the rock was classic,
man.
That was something.
You had some fucking great fights.
We did.
We did.
We had Tank Abbott.
We had everybody in there.
You had great fights.
As far as, like, a lot of times, unfortunately, with, like, smaller promotions,
when they try to branch off away from the UFC, they can't get top-tier talent.
You know, you get guys that are on the way out, or you get guys that maybe
couldn't compete
with the best of the best.
But Rumble on the rock was this shit, dude.
It was.
How many did you do?
You did two?
No, we had a bunch of Rumble on the rocks, actually.
How many did you do?
We must have – I think we had five or six of them.
Oh, wow.
But you know what happened?
Elite XC came in, bought everybody up, except for King of the Cage.
They didn't sell.
And then they went down, and they crashed everybody's – it was almost like it
was a – not
I couldn't – like, let's send these guys in to buy everybody and crash
everybody.
Well, I think, BJ, it just – people saw money in it, you know, because I
remember those
days.
I remember, like, people asking me questions.
There was a lot of people asking questions.
How come it's only the UFC?
Like, why aren't there other organizations?
Everybody thought it was easy, and then Elite XC came along, and that Kimbo Slice,
and –
Right?
You know, they had some fun fights, right?
They did have some fun fights.
I really enjoyed that time.
But anyway, a guy shows up, and he says, hey, BJ, I'm here.
I'm here from the state.
We're here to regulate you guys.
And I'm thinking, after we got our faces smashed in for the last 20 years, now
you show up.
Now it looks like there's a little money here.
Now you guys show up.
And then they just tanked the whole thing, tried to do all these – you couldn't
even
give water to the amateur fighters, or you were paying them.
What?
Yeah, that's just how strict they got.
Well, what's Ronald Reagan – Ronald Reagan's best line, me and Lorenzo talked
about it.
Ronald Reagan's best line, the nine most terrifying words in the English
language.
I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.
So how do they stop you from giving water to amateur fighters?
Explain that.
Right?
They just walk in, and they just said, you guys can't have this.
You guys can't be giving – these are amateurs.
You guys can't give them anything.
You can't even give them water?
Bottles of water.
You can't even have that in the back.
That's how strict – I think they just go –
So they have to bring their own water?
You know –
Do the fighters have to carry in their own water personally?
Yeah, back then – back then, I mean, it was just – these were just examples
of how –
And you saw – remember how big the Super Brawl was?
Remember how big – Egan was fighting?
Huge.
Jason Miller, Fallen Eagle, Robbie Lawler, Trigg, everybody.
Wasn't that where Vitor got his debut as well?
That too, right?
Against John Hess.
Yeah.
And Hess was pretty tough, actually.
Yeah, he was – he had like his own system, right?
Like SAFTA.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
The early days, BJ.
The early days.
The early days.
Yep.
The early days.
We know about – me and you, we know about – right?
Yeah, man.
We know some history.
You can't get far in martial arts or I say many things if you don't know the
history of the whole thing.
No, but it's really been like an honor to be there early and to get to see it
and see where it is now.
For me, as like a fan, it's like I'm like a little kid, man.
Every week when the UFC is around, I'm like, oh, shit.
It is.
It's going down.
I still love it.
Yes, it is.
Oh, my God.
It's still the most exciting sport, you know?
No doubt.
When – are you done?
Are you done fighting 100%?
I'm done.
You're done?
I'm done 100%.
And it was hard for me to get out after being in there for 20 years.
I mean, that's your identity.
Yeah.
You know?
And then I just kind of got into trying to be a father, you know?
And I was doing that thing, try to be around more.
And then all this stuff happened, and I find myself in here.
But I do think all the blood, all the tears, all the sweat, all the ups and
downs, all the good media, all the bad media, all of that was to prepare me for,
you know, for this kind of, you know?
I see, like, everything that they're going to throw at me, I can kind of see,
like, well, I could have been through that.
Yeah.
Yeah, the mental warfare, the mental warfare that a fighter has to go through.
I mean, my God, there's nothing like it in all sports.
And, you know, when I first got – decided to get into this, I was like, you
know, I haven't – I was just retired.
So I wasn't trying to keep my everything, you know, perfect in public and this,
and I was just running around trying to – I was just a guy trying to come off
of a 20-year journey of being the baddest man on the planet.
And then I – so it was tough.
It was really tough to get over, you know, that identity.
So as time went, you know, I was just living my life, some more ups and downs.
I say, you know, sometimes I was judged fairly, other times I wasn't, you know?
Well, BJ, when you were on top, you were one of the baddest motherfuckers on
earth.
You really were.
You were a guy who went all the way up to heavyweight to fight Lyoto Machida.
I mean, it's – I remember that fight.
I mean, you did some wild shit, dude, and you were strangling a lot of fucking
people, man.
And for jiu-jitsu guys, like for all my jiu-jitsu guys, you were the fucking
man because you were a smaller guy who choked out Matt Hughes, you know, who
was so fucking good at the time, man.
And Matt Hughes was a tank.
When you got his back and choked him, everybody was like, oh, shit.
Jiu-jitsu's back.
People forgot.
They forgot those times, BJ.
And, you know, there was a run like the Sean Shirk days, Diego Sanchez days.
You were a scary motherfucker, dude.
You were a scary motherfucker.
You were tuned in.
When you were tuned in, man, you were something fierce.
I always tell people that you have to judge a fighter by the heights they
reached, not where they fell afterwards or the up-and-coming fights.
You got to judge them by the heights that they reached.
You're like a guy like Oliveira.
He's a great example.
He's had some losses.
He's been knocked out.
But you can't.
You got to judge them by the height that he's at now.
You got to be accurate.
And then maybe he can only sustain that for a few years.
Like Fedor could only sustain it for a few years at the tippity-top of
performance.
Yes.
But you got to judge him from that.
Yeah.
It makes me sick when people judge him by their worst performances, you know?
For you, your best performances were spectacular.
You had some crushing performances.
When you were training with Marinovich and they got you in tip-top Magoo shape,
dude, you were terrifying when you had that crazy gas tank.
Man, I loved it.
You know, one of the Marinovich – wait, what's Marinovich's –
Marv.
Yeah, well, Marv passed away.
Yeah.
But Gary's at my house in Hawaii right now.
He's training some football teams or something, and he has to come down, and it's
great to have –
How did that connection happen?
Because they basically changed the way you did strength and conditioning, right?
Yes.
How did that – how did this introduction happen?
They – yeah, how did it – my brother met – how did I run into them?
I forget how I – exactly, but I think my brother introduced me to them, and
when they – they were just geniuses, man.
And no matter how good you are, they were 50 years ahead.
I remember we were at UCLA or something, and they had that – a little cone
pattern, and they had me run it to see my agility.
And Marv said, well, that's too slow.
And the lady said, well, how do you know?
And he said, because I made it up.
These guys were just ahead of everybody.
And they were the guys with the NFL combine, and everything was speed, because
he noticed that, like, the strongest guys who had the strongest squat, the
biggest bench press, and all that, they had the lowest numbers on the field.
And then that's how he started to put in the agility, the speed, the movement,
the reflexes, and going back.
So they were really ahead of their time.
Yeah, it was wild to watch, man.
They looked like they were torturing you.
It was – you know what?
Looking back now, I see everybody, and I look at them all – who eats the most
at the buffet, the hungriest one, and bats the whole thing, no matter what.
I'll look, and I'll just be like, is he still hungry?
That's the only question I – or does he – yeah, does he still want to eat
as much?
Because literally, a lot of these guys, they haven't ate filet mignon before.
They haven't ate lobster, and they're still thinking about what that's going to
taste like when they finally get the opportunity to buy that for their family.
Yeah, there's like a balance, right, of how long you can maintain that hunger.
Yes.
How long can you maintain that ferocity?
Yep.
It has nothing to do with who's the best.
It's who wants it the most.
That's what it 