BJPenn.com Site Crashes Following Ultimate Figher Finale

BJ Penn has found himself the next "big thing" at the UFC.  Not only does that mean intensive training and a potential salary increase....The BJPenn.com website will require more bandwidth ability.

Following BJ Penn defeat of Jens Pulver in the Ultimate Fighter Finale 5 Saturday night, it appears the masses heading to his website caused it to crash.

BJPenn.com - Home of The Prodigy - but his server was apparently knocked out heading into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Even getting into the cached copy did not do the trick.

"You could get there but every other page was facing a server upload issue," Sports911.com's Tyrone Black points out. 

Jay Dee "B.J." Penn (born December 12, 1978 in Hilo, Hawaii) is an American professional mixed martial arts fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. He holds notable wins over Matt Hughes, Takanori Gomi, Jens Pulver and Caol Uno. He is the first American-born winner of the World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship (Mundial) in the black belt category (2000), a former UFC Welterweight Champion, and is a coach on the The Ultimate Fighter 5 reality show. His nickname "B.J." is short for "Baby Jay", as he is the youngest of his male siblings named "Jay Dee Penn".

At the age of seventeen, Penn began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after being introduced to it by his neighbor Tom Callos, and in 1997 he started training under Ralph Gracie. After being awarded his black belt in 2000 by Andre Pederneiras of Nova Uniao, he became the first non-Brazilian to win a gold medal in the black belt division of the Mundial World Championships held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"It is the worst possible time for Penn's site to be crashing when everyone and anyone is looking to study up on the fighter," says O'Brien who was working into the wee hours of the morning Sunday. 

Penn's defeat of Jens Pulver concluded a record weekend for online bookmakers like Bookmaker.com who are already offereing betting odds on UFC 73

"The tallies are already coming in and the fight cards as a whole made up must over 83% of Sports911.com/Gambling911.com's traffic throughout Saturday and into Sunday," says Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of Sports911.com.  "It is fair to say that this weekend was the equivalent of the Belmont Stakes."

The Kentucky Derby is traditionally the biggest single bet on event after the Super Bowl here at Sports911.com, though last year it was the biggest.  The Belmont Stakes is like a mini Kentucky Derby.

"All fights combined were about equal to Belmont Stakes traffic," O'Brien disclosed, though non-sporting events such as the Miss Universe Pageant, American Idol and Big Brother UK have exploded over the past year.

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Tyrone Black, Sports911.com

Originally published June 24, 2007 3:47 am ET