August brought the crowning of Fighters.com's new Lightweight Champion "Prodigy" B.J. Penn (13-4-1) and the top ten debuts of fourth-ranked "Hellboy" Joachim Hansen (19-7-1), sixth-ranked Eiji Mitsuoka (13-5-2), and eighth-ranked Kotetsu Boku (13-5-1). "Hellboy" shocked Osaka 21 July by TKOing former Fighters.com Lightweight Champion "Tobikan Judan" Shinya Aoki (17-3) in the first round of the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix final. Aoki spirals down eight wrungs to ninth on the loss, taking vanquished rival tenth-ranked "JZ" Gesias Calvancante (14-2-1) with him. Penn takes the Championship from the second rank, but is torn between moving to welterweight to fight Fighters.com Welterweight Champion "Rush" Georges St. Pierre (17-2) or defending his Fighters.com and UFC titles from seventh-ranked, top UFC contender "KenFlo" Kenny Florian (10-3). In Minneapolis 9 August, Florian cleared-up the UFC's lightweight picture with a dominant UD over "El Matador" Roger Huerta (20-2-1). ...

Fighters.com’s third-ranked lightweight “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (28-3) will face current DEEP champion Sung Hwan Pang (5-1) at World Victory Road's 24 August Sengoku 4 event in Saitama, the organization announced Thursday. PRIDE vet Gomi TKO’d “Bang” Duane Ludwig (16-8) in 2:28 at the first Sengoku event in March.  It was Gomi's first fight in eleven months. Pang, from South Korea, KO’d Kazunori Yokota (6-1-3) in 3:38 in May for the lightweight title. His only loss came during his professional debut in July 2007. ...