Penn Vs Hughes 3 @ ufc 123

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/09/13/matt-hughes-bj-penn-to-complete-trilogy-at-ufc-123-in-michigan/

Former UFC champions Matt Hughes and BJ Penn have agreed to fight for the third time, according to MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani, who learned of the fight from sources close to the fight. The bout, which will take place at welterweight, will be at UFC 123 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Mich.

Hughes also posted at his official website that he and UFC president Dana White had discussed him fighting on the card, though he made no mention of an opponent.

CagePotato.com first reported the possibility of the bout Monday evening.

Hughes and Penn first fought at UFC 46 in January 2004. In that fight, Penn submitted Hughes with a rear naked choke to win the welterweight title. Hughes had defended the belt five straight times before the loss. They met again at UFC 63. That time, Hughes, again champion, won with a third-round TKO to defend the title.

Hughes, who was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in May, has won three straight fights, including a Submission of the Night win over Ricardo Almeida at UFC 117 last month – his first submission win in nearly five years. His 18 victories in the UFC are a record. Over his two welterweight title reigns, he defended the belt a total of seven times.

After his win over Almeida, Hughes said at the UFC 117 post-fight press conference that he intended to take the fall and winter off to hunt and spend time at his farm in rural Hillsboro, Ill. But the allure of a trilogy fight with Penn, and in the Midwest, may have been enough to change those plans.

Penn, considered by many to be the most dominant lightweight in the sport's history, has lost consecutive fights for the second time in his career – both to current lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Edgar took Penn's title at UFC 112 in April in a unanimous decision. In the rematch at UFC 118 last month, he dominated Penn, winning 50-45 on all three scorecards.

Penn won the UFC lightweight title at UFC 80 and defended it three times before his first loss to Edgar. After beating Hughes for the welterweight title at UFC 46, he vacated the belt and left the promotion for nearly two years.

Penn started his career as a lightweight, then moved up to welterweight to challenge Hughes in their first fight. He fought at middleweight in fights for K-1 before returning to welterweight in the UFC. He moved back to lightweight to fight Jens Pulver in June 2007 and has fought at that weight except for one superfight against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94, challenging for St-Pierre's welterweight title. St-Pierre won that bout by corner stoppage after four rounds.

UFC 123 will be the promotion's first trip to Michigan since UFC 9 in Detroit in 1996. Though not officially announced by the UFC, the main event is expected to be a light heavyweight bout between former champions Lyoto Machida and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Man this is going to be a good card!

way to come back to Michigan in style, they are probably still booing the last event to be there

WHo in the hell could have fathomed after Penn vs Sanchez that we would see BJ lose 3 fights in a row after that dominant performance

Cool. I hope BJ just stays at WW now. No need to flip back and forth. Make a run at it at 170

Penn

sick fight

Excellent fight. Hughes wins and receives a title shot.

Didn't see this coming. I like it, though. If Penn loses, where does he go??? He has a lot riding on this one.

Hughes finishes BJ

Oh man this fight is the kind of fight you wanna stay the fuck away from when making grand predictions on how you just absolutely know how it is going to go.

I called it!

Bigs03 wrote:

Didn't see this coming. I like it, though. If Penn loses, where does he go??? He has a lot riding on this one.

no doubt about it he cant lose this fight imo

BJ avoids the takedowns, jab, jab, jab, decision

Hughes gets the takedowns, lay, lay, lay, decision

agree LA hopefully Hughes doesnt think his new found boxing can hang with Baby Js

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

BJ avoids the takedowns, jab, jab, jab, decision

Hughes gets the takedowns, lay, lay, lay, decision

BJ is not going to stop Hughes' takedowns.

freakzilla316ftw wrote:

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

BJ avoids the takedowns, jab, jab, jab, decision

Hughes gets the takedowns, lay, lay, lay, decision

BJ is not going to stop Hughes' takedowns.

Yeah BJ's never had good takedown defense

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Oh man this fight is the kind of fight you wanna stay the fuck away from when making grand predictions on how you just absolutely know how it is going to go.

I'll make a bet today that Hughes wins. Hell right now I'm even leaning toward a finish.

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

freakzilla316ftw wrote:

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

BJ avoids the takedowns, jab, jab, jab, decision

Hughes gets the takedowns, lay, lay, lay, decision

BJ is not going to stop Hughes' takedowns.

Yeah BJ's never had good takedown defense

BJ does have good TD defense....but Hughes will still put him down.

He will, but he won't do it enough to win IMO

tolivendiewithLA wrote:

He will, but he won't do it enough to win IMO

Yep.

I'd rather these two fight someone else.

NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo........................

Seriously, this is the best they could do for these two? Was the public really clamoring for this fight? Jesus, there's fights for BJ at LW and WW aside from this and Hughes needs to keep looking for Gracie's and Hallman's to fight. Okay, that's not fair... But I think there are many fights that could be made for both that don't include the two of them in the same cage together again...

Early prediction is Penn RNCs Hughes with the seriousness. He hit his valley now it's time to march back to the peak. Consistency is Penn's enemy. Another poor performance would be too consistent.

Matt's riding high on confidence right now with the three victories in a row, it's going to be really interesting to see how BJ bounces back from those two losses to Edgar, and I'll be curious to see how he bulks up to 170lb.