UFC 107: PENN DOMINATES SANCHEZ
Courtesy of mmaweekly.com
He may be paid by the organization that promotes B.J. Penn’s fights, but after the champion’s performance at UFC 107, it’s hard to argue with Joe Rogan when he says, “That right there, ladies and gentleman, is the greatest lightweight in the history of the sport.”
Diego Sanchez’s plan was obvious: go straight at Penn, get him off his feet, and batter him on the mat.
The problem with that strategy? He couldn’t take Penn down. He couldn’t strike with Penn on the feet. He couldn’t do any damage in the clinch.
The real problem was, Diego Sanchez was fighting B.J. Penn.
The UFC lightweight champion dropped Sanchez early in round one with a jaw-crushing right hand. He immediately followed with a relentless onslaught of punches on the mat – even appearing to put Sanchez’s lights out at one point – but somehow Sanchez survived. But that’s all he was able to do for the rest of the fight, survive, constantly searching for a way, any way, to take the fight to the mat.
Penn would have none of it. He waited patiently for his opportunities, picking Sanchez apart with his boxing, stuffing his takedowns, and unloading elbows and hammerfists when they clinched.
By the fifth round, Sanchez’s lip was split, his face swollen, blood leaking from his mouth. As the minutes wound down, Penn, hunting the finish, unleashed a right high kick that opened a fissure on Sanchez’s forehead. The doctor was called in as the cut rained blood down Sanchez’s face. With the gash measured best in inches, there was no way the fight could continue.
“I was keeping my mouth shut, but I always wanted to fight Diego Sanchez,” said Penn after the fight. “I knew he wanted to fight me. I knew for years he wanted to fight me.”
The only loss of Penn’s lightweight career was early on to then-UFC champion Jens Pulver, a loss he later avenged.
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