The Biggest difference about him, at UFC 46 in Madalay Bay, was that he no longer possessed that "Bad Boy" persona. Instead he was back to his roots, The Aloha Spirit.

That's right, B.J.! You looked like an athlete, a warrior, and most importantly, a person. I always thought, he's just a nice hard working loco boy but for some reason he was playing what seems to be a very uncomfortable role of "a bad boy coming off the street."

I remember when he faced Caol Uno, for the second time, in Atlantic City. He came in all hyper and wild circling around inside the Octagon but when he glanced at the opponent, he exchanged this extremely warm eye contact. "Let's have a good one." I almost thought I heard B.J. saying it.

It's probably because he had such a warm air around him even though his entire body seemed wired with intense electricity. At that moment I thought, a real personality of B.J. Penn has revealed itself. Sure, he must've had a few confrontations on the streets here and there, but I thought this guy has got to be the man with The Aloha Spirit. He has got to be. B.J. grew up with poki, spam musubi, lomi lomi salmon, saimin and a lot of sunshine (I'm sure he gave up most of them when he became an athlete).

The Aloha Spirit is a coordination of mind and soul within each person. It brings person to the Self. The Aloha Spirit is actually a law "on the books" in Hawai`i, encoded in the Hawai`i Revised Statutes, section 5-7.5 and acknowledges that The Aloha Spirit "was the working philosophy of native Hawaiians and was presented as a gift to the people of Hawai`i."

Yes, it is about Akahai, the kindness and the tenderness, Ahonui, the patience and the perseverance, and everything else. I am not trying to sound religious here but what I am saying is that B.J. Penn who left a bad boy character behind was just back to himself, deeply touched with his own roots.

Almost every fighter I spoke with predicted that Matt Hughes would walk all over him. But once again, B.J., the first American to win a Jiu-jitsu world championship of Brazil, proved his discipline as being superior to wrestling in the world of MMA. I know Hughes is way more than just a wrestler. In fact, he is a complete MMA fighter but an old habit from freestyle wrestling has cost him the fight. When B.J. got a back-mount, Hughes tried to peel the legs and left his neck area wide open for a rear naked choke.

That night, B.J. stole the show. This was indeed one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UFC.
His name was all over the headlines the next day. B.J. however was very modest after the fight. He even said, "I don't even know if I deserve this thing, man…" looking at the championship belt wrapped on his waist.

He had a sense of Ha`aha`a, meaning humility, to be expressed in modesty. B.J. definitely is not a bad boy anymore; in fact, he doesn't need any marketing gimmick because he is now truly one of the best MMA fighters in the world.

Since last October B.J. dominated Takanori Gomi, who was considered the best in the lightweight category at the time, in Rumble on the Rock 4, he should now be able to claim the title of the best pound for pound fighter in the world today. And this would make B.J. Penn the hottest commodity in the world of MMA.

K-1, rumored to be in a good relationship with Inoki Bom Ba Ye, is starting its own MMA event around this spring and from what they learned from the success of the K-1 MAX series, they have got to be looking into the welter / middleweight category.

A superfight with Masato, who recently tasted a little bit of MMA with an exhibition match against Uno, is not exactly an impossibility. PRIDE Bushido may be thinking Japan vs. Hawaii with a B.J. and Gomi rematch on the top of the cards, and the UFC certainly can arrange a rematch with Hughes or a "settling unfinished business" fight with Uno.

Yes, everything is now circling around B.J. Penn. And maybe, this man with The Aloha Spirit, by conquering all these dream match-ups, is the one who is going to take MMA to mainstream status in this country. B.J. Penn, with no more bad boy image, has that type of a persona now.