Another great night for the Ultimate Fighting Championships at UFC 80-Rapid Fire. BJ "The Prodigy" Penn defeated Joe Stevenson this past Saturday night via a rear naked choke in the second round (Complete UFC 80 Results). Stevenson started the fight by being the aggressor as he stood toe to toe with Penn. The Prodigy just looked to focus and fought like never before. His boxing and jiu-jitsu skills are just at another level, at a level that seems almost unbeatable.
Many people have criticized the fact that Penn was looking past Stevenson prior to this bout. He did indeed talk about fighting Sean Sherk next and he also discussed how he wanted to fight George St. Pierre and Matt Hughes again if the UFC gave him that chance. Penn has won 2 fights in a row and will look to add another consecutive win when he faces Sherk next in a fight many consider it to be "the real lightweight title match."
Immediately after his fight with Stevenson, Joe Rogan asked Penn how he felt about fighting Sherk next. Penn stated that he was looking forward to this fight and ended with, "you’re dead!" Sherk furiously rushed into the octagon and replied to Penn’s comment by stating, "That belt belongs to me…you’ve got one more fight before you can be called lightweight champ." During the post-fight conference, Penn went on to say "When it comes to Sean Sherk, he’s not a bad person and this is
nothing personal…But with everything going on in sports
and in my life and all my dreams, I was disappointed when that went
down (Sherk testing positive for steroids) and how things came out…I’m not going to say Sean Sherk (stinks). He’s a good fighter, a
champion. I’m just disappointed how that went down. I’m sure he’ll be
back and stronger than ever."
BJ Penn has proven to be one of the top MMA fighters as he wins the UFC lightweight belt for the very first time in his career. Penn made history this weekend as he becomes only the second fighter (Randy Couture was first) in the world to win 2 UFC titles in 2 different weight classes (welterweight and now lightweight).
In the heavyweight division, Fabricio Werdum surprised UFC fans when he defeated Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga via TKO-strikes in the second round. Werdum is well known for his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, acquiring more than half of his wins via submissions. The Muay Thai skills he has obtained from his Chute Boxe academy proved to be very useful against Gonzaga as well. The very powerful Napao placed a few devastating kicks to the legs of Werdum, which seemed to have hurt him throughout the fight. However, it just wasn’t enough to put away the Chute Boxe expert as Werdum fed Gonzaga with several knees and punches to the face, which forced the referee to stop the fight. Although Werdum is 1-1 in the UFC, Dana White strongly feels that he deserves a title shot. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be taking on Tim Sylvia at UFC 81-Breaking Point for the vacant UFC heavyweight title on February 2nd, Super bowl weekend.
For more information regarding the upcoming UFC 81-Breaking Point event, click here
