Martial Arts

He was a former lawman who called himself "Mask" and advocated a hold-nothing-back lifestyle that helped transform mixed martial arts fighting into a craze and turned his own fighting apparel company into a multimillion-dollar business.

B.J. Penn has been an Ultimate Fighting Championship competitor since 2001, and he's participated in some form of fighting since he was 17. He's 30 now, wears the UFC's lightweight belt, and tonight attempts to beat the skilled welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in a mixed martial arts battle scheduled for five rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. If victorious in the 170-pound bout, Hawaii's Penn will become the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold two belts.

Never call the practice of classical Shaolin kung fu a "performance," says American photographer Justin Guariglia, whose new book, "Shaolin: Temple of Zen," takes the reader into the cloistered world of the monks who uphold the tradition in China's 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple. The correct term, says Guariglia, is "demonstration."

EVEN at West Hollywood's Studio Soma -- a fitness studio that hosts classes such as "Prenatal Pilates" and "Pole Funk," a tutorial in hip-hop pole dancing -- the new exercise program known as "Balete" is a bit of a head-spinner. So it was a good thing I arrived ready for a new challenge. The brainchild of professional dancer-choreographer Whitney Shannon and "extreme" martial arts world champion Mindy Kelly, Balete is, just as it sounds, a hybrid of ballet and karate.

What is a teen football star to do when he's ended his final game in a brawl and mom is moving the family from Iowa to the bimbo belt of Florida? If his name is Jake Tyler, he packs his glory days into a box marked "useless junk," loads it into a van and takes his fighting fists on the road.

Pastor T.J. O'Donnell thought that by offering mixed martial arts training, he had found a sure way to lure young people away from vice and direct them toward the word of God. He didn't expect to encounter the long arm of the California State Athletic Commission. O'Donnell rented out the second floor of a San Bernardino carpet store where volunteers at his 777 Ministry taught aspiring fighters jiu-jitsu, karate, wrestling and boxing.

It's a formidable image: The legendary Middle Kingdom, perched atop the looming hand-shaped Five Element mountain range of director Rob Minkoff's martial arts epic, "The Forbidden Kingdom." Based on production designer Bill Brzeski's concepts and matte artist Michelle Moen's continuity art, boutique FX house Svengali created four shots of the sinister palace with its myriad patios, pillars, windows and walkways, plunging about 25 stories down the cliff face.

For the last few years, Michael Angarano has been concentrating on independent films, so when he learned about the Jackie Chan-Jet Li martial arts adventure "The Forbidden Kingdom" at a basketball game with his agent, he wasn't certain that would be the film for him. "You never know what you could be doing next," says the 20-year-old actor. "It was exciting, though it wasn't something I obsessed over. I knew just as well that it could not be the next thing I would be doing.

The longtime martial arts instructor for former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona was convicted Thursday of criminally threatening a golfer during a dispute that began with a wayward fairway shot. Raymond Yi was acquitted of all other charges, including three felony counts of assault with a firearm, by a San Bernardino County jury that deliberated less than a day in a case that drew attention to Carona's troubled reserve deputy program. Yi's attorney, John D.

Maybe it's the eyes. China-white saucers punctuated by dark-as-night centers. Maybe it's the shimmering gold teeth. Sharp as an ax and framed by a bushy black beard. It could be the arms. Defined by impossibly thick muscles and quick as a rattlesnake strike. Something -- maybe all of the above -- helped to transform Kimbo Slice from bare-knuckle, backyard brawler into one of the leading attractions in mixed martial arts.