PJ Dean grew up in Makaha, one in a family of 6 kids. He was first
introduced to boxing at the tender age of 6 years old by his father. He
later was brought to the legendary Waianae Boxing Club to work on his
skills under the watchful eye of Coach Fred Perreira. PJ was a quick
study, causing his coach to immediately put him into competition. PJ won
his first two Police Activity League (PAL) championship titles at 65lbs
in 1979 & 1980. PJ continued training on and off, while participating in
other sports until the seventh grade.
PJ started training in Tae Kwon Do, thinking it was Bruce Lee’s art of
“Jeet Kune Do.” He quickly realized the mistake, but found the kicking
skills of Tae Kwon Do were a great addition to his boxing skills. Being
a competitor at heart, PJ saw the same results in Tae Kwon Do
tournaments, training under Keith Rainwater. He immediately won two Tae
Kwon Do championships in 1985 and 1986 and earned a Red belt. After his
instructor closed his school and moved to the mainland, PJ went back
into boxing, picking up where he left off and won his next two PAL state
titles at 95lbs and 106lbs in 1987 and 1988. The dream of every young
boxer is to compete and win the Golden Gloves boxing championship,
however, right before PJ turned 16 years old, the age needed to compete,
there was a huge fight at the Golden Gloves tournament when the fighters
from Waianae got into it with fighters from the Army team. Due to this
black eye on the sport, they suspended the Golden Gloves indefinitely.
Due to this, PJ lost the motivation to continue training and started
getting into trouble, but stayed access in sports.
At the age of 18, PJ’s priorities had changed due to the birth of his
first child at 18, but he continued to train on and off. He jumped back
into competing in Amateur boxing at 20. In 1993, he fought his way up to
second place for the Hawaii State Amateur title. Dennis Alexio ignited
the sport of kickboxing selling out the Neal Blaisdell Arena and that
caused PJ to make the natural progression into kickboxing and amassed an
impressive amateur record of 14-2.
Always one to challenge himself, PJ tried his hand at MMA, a sport that
has been growing rapidly in Hawaii. He took his first MMA match just to
compete against one of the best strikers in Hawaii, Mark Moreno, who was
knocking out a lot of fighters at that time. That match went back and
forth, with Moreno pushing the ground game that he had been working on,
figuring that he had the advantage. PJ’s natural athletic ability
partially made up for his lack of grappling skill. He lost that match,
but the competitive aspects of MMA was something that he couldn’t
resist. He jumped in head first, but needed to improve his grappling ,
which he did by starting to train with Chris and Mike Onzuka at the O2
Martial Arts Academy. PJ focused the efforts that he used to obtain his
boxing and Tae Kwon Do skills to Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and has been on a tear
ever since. The fighter that had been a ferocious striker was now
winning MMA fights due to his Jiu-Jitsu skill. He is a veteran of
EliteXC, Icon Sport, and Shooto Hawaii.
Amateur Boxing Record: 32-4
Amateur Kickboxing Record: 14-2
MMA Record: 2-3-1
1979 Police Activity League (PAL) Hawaii State Champion at 65lbs
1980 Police Activity League (PAL) Hawaii State Champion at 65lbs
1985 Tae Kwon Do Hawaii State Champion (Honolulu)
1986 Tae Kwon Do Hawaii State Champion (Kauai)
1987 Police Activity League (PAL) Hawaii State Champion at 95lbs
1988 Police Activity League (PAL) Hawaii State Champion at 106lbs
2002 Amateur Fighting Competition 2: Under 200lbs 8-Man Tournament
Champion (5/23/02)
2002 Punishment In Paradise Super Fight Champion
2002 Punishment In Paradise Super Fight Champion
2005 Aloha State Championships of BJJ White Belt 162 - 174 lbs Champion
(11/15/05)
2010 KTI Scrappla Fest Blue Belt 174lbs Champion (5/15/10)
2010 KTI Scrappla Fest No Gi Intermediate 174lbs Champion (5/15/10)
2010 NAGA: Hawaii State Grappling Championships Blue Belt 174lbs
Champion (11/27/10)
2010 NAGA: Hawaii State Grappling Championships No Gi Intermediate
180lbs Champion (11/27/10)
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