UFC 107 Results: Champ BJ Penn Stops Diego Sanchez...Literally?

Can we fight fans now be done with Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked lightweight “Nightmare” Diego Sanchez (19-3-0)?  Not as a fighter, of course, but as an elite mixed martial artist.

He’s not.  He never has been.

Fighters.com and UFC Lightweight Champion “Prodigy” BJ Penn (13-4-1) kicked a third eye in Sanchez’s forehead in the form of a three-inch slit above Sanchez’s left eye in the fifth round at UFC 107 in Memphis Saturday night, prompting referee Herb Dean to call for the doctor, who stopped the fight at 2:37 of the final round.

Sanchez never stepped-up to Penn’s level throughout the four-and-a-half rounds; and, Fighters.com has contended since the fight was announced that Sanchez shouldn’t have been exposed to Penn after only two wins in the division versus non-contenders.

After Sanchez characteristically exploded from his corner in round one only to be quickly dropped by a short Penn right hook, Sanchez fought timidly in his first UFC title fight.  Sanchez’s offense consisted of a high left kick that Penn consistently shrugged off and a single-leg shot that Penn used as an excuse to crank short punches and elbows into Sanchez’s head.

Eventually, the Memphis crowd began booing Sanchez, of whom UFC President Dana White said pre-fight, “Diego Sanchez never fights a boring fight.”  He did in Memphis.

Penn plain out-boxed Sanchez with affective countering of Sanchez’s stand-up and takedown attempts.  Penn fought calmly, like it was heavy sparring day in Hilo.  Marv Marinovich draws more sweat and blood from Penn on a random Thursday than Sanchez did in the five round UFC title fight Saturday night.

Sanchez did land an elbow breaking the clinch in round four and a sloppy takedown in round five.

But, Penn was as dominant as he’s ever been, leaving open the question of which top contender Sanchez leaped over will get the next shot: fifth-ranked “Bully” Gray Maynard (8-0) or sixth-ranked “The Answer” Frank Edgar (11-1)?

Fighters.com contends that if White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva choose based on merit rather than their own hype, as in Sanchez’s case, the next UFC lightweight title fight won’t be as disappointingly uncompetitive as Saturday night’s fight.

For Sanchez, the fight exposed him again as an exciting fighter versus top mid-tier competition, but unable to make the step up to an elite level.  Quite simply, like “El Matador” Roger Huerta (20-3-1) before him, Sanchez just doesn’t live up to the hype propelling him since he won the first season of SpikeTV’s The Ultimate Fighter.