< Big Island Press Club member Tiffany Edwards Hunt tries
on BJ Penn's recently won UFC lightweight championship
belt at the Big Island Press Club's annual dinner Friday
at Pescatore in Hilo.
Penn knocks GOP presidential candidate
 Ultimate fighting champion BJ Penn said "ignorance" fuels the kind of criticism Arizona Sen. John McCain recently leveled at his sport.
McCain, a GOP candidate for president, said the mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship was akin to "human cockfighting."
Speaking at the Big Island Press Club's annual dinner Friday night, Feb. 1, in Hilo, Penn said the GOP presidential candidate doesn't understand the sport.
“You fear what you don’t understand, I guess,” Penn said. "He
just hasn’t looked into all the things that go into it. From the
outside looking in, from the naked eye,
it looks like two people having a cock fight.
"But everything that goes into it, diet, the training,
the emotions, it's so complex, ... that's why this is going
to be the best sport in the world for years to come."
Penn dismissed McCain's remark as "his ignorance of what this sport really
is.”
On Jan. 19, Penn became the second UFC fighter to win titles in two different weight class. He is also the first non-Brazilian to earn a competitive black belt in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu.
Born on Oahu, Penn moved to Hilo with his family when he was four years old and talked briefly about growing up in Hilo, "just a normal kid, played soccer, got into some different
things, Hailie Christian school, Henry O School, ended up at Hilo High School, got into, I guess,
different things that all the kids get into … going to the beach, hanging around
with friends."
Penn denounced the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the UFC for giving users an unfair advantage. He also regrets his arrest in Honolulu for assaulting a police officer but "it's the past and I have to move on," he said.
Part of Penn's community service work while on probation will be in schools where he will tell kids to keep the violence in the gym, be careful about the people you hang around with, and stay out of trouble.
 Peter Sur, the Press Club's president in 2007, turned over the reins to newly installed President John Burnett. Sur was also named the Press Club's Member of the Year.
Treasurer Rod Thompson was recognized with the Project of the Year award for his work organizing the Club's 40th anniversary celebration in 2007.
The 2008 Board of Directors includes: John Burnett, president; Peter Serafin, vice president; Chris Loos, secretary; Rod Thompson, treasurer; Peter Sur, immediate past president; Alan Schnepf, Tim Bryan, Wendell Kaehuaea and Wayne Joseph, directors.
Peter Sur accepts his BIPC Member
of the Year award Friday as new club
president John Burnett looks on.
 The Big Island Press Club is the oldest continuously active media organization in the 50th State. Established in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1967, the Press Club has raised thousands of dollars for journalism scholarships, has been a watchdog for the public's right to know, and has presented the Torch of Light and Lava Tube award annually since 1997 to highlight the best and worst examples of openness in Hawaii.
The club's nine-member Board of Directors also manages the BIPC Foundation, a non-profit, tax-exempt endowment that funds the scholarships awarded annually to deserving Big Island students in accredited media programs.
Please use the navigation bar to your left for much more information about the Press Club and its programs.
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