That was Part 1 of Lyoto Machida, currently one of the top light heavyweights in the UFC, fighting B.J. Penn, currently the lightweight champion of the UFC. Parts 2 and 3 are after the jump.
Part 2:
Part 3:
Machida won by unanimous decision in a K-1 promotion on March 26, 2005. Why, you ask, did a lightweight fight a light heavyweight? Cage Potato explains:
After moving up to 185 pounds to defeat Rodrigo Gracie at Rumble on the Rock 6, B.J. Penn had a revelation - why don't I just keep eating?Good thinking. And, it must be said that Penn fought respectably, considering the size difference between the two. In fact, FightMetric.com says Penn was very narrowly the winner. The judges, however, went with Machida.
Now that Penn is moving back up in weight class to fight Georges St. Pierre again, is there a chance he'll keep moving up, and we'll see Penn-Machida II? Yeah, I don't think so either.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
I know that many people don't like Machida due to his cautious style of striking and his elusiveness (I'm not one of those people), but you can't doubt that he is a very good fighter. The fact that Penn (a natural 155lb fighter) gave him his toughest test to date, proves that B.J. is the best fighter in the world in the lower weight divisions.
I think B.J. is going to make a somewhat easy fight out of St. Pierre. B.J.'s hands are better and heavier, and his Jui-Jitsu ... forget about it. If you don't agree just look at both of them after their first fight and compare Georges' face to B.J.'s. St. Pierre was bloody and swolen. A couple of takedowns in which you don't do any damage,shouldn't decide the fight in my opinion, but it did in their first fight.
"B.J. by KO or rear naked in 4" - My Prediction