UFC 107 final thoughts

A rough week around FW, so this is a bit late. Better late than never, as they say. UFC 107 is in the books. BJ Penn proved he’s the most-dominant lightweight in UFC history. He out-struck Diego Sanchez 150-8 and stuffed all 27 takedown attempts en route to a fifth-round ref stoppage victory after he opened a nasty gash in Sanchez’s forehead. Simply remarkable.

The only interest in his future fights in this weight class is to see how badly he beats his opponent. Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar, a Kenny Florian rematch, all punching bags. Ditto Shinya Aoki, if he ever brings his magic grappling pants to the UFC. So basically, the UFC lightweight division just got as boring as the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

Give Sanchez credit, he’s got heart and guts and a “never say die” attitude. You can’t teach that. Wonder how he’d do with better MMA coaching? Make no mistake, Saulo Ribeiro is a jiu-jitsu genius, but if the game never gets to the ground then Ribeiro’s best game never comes into play.

What’s next for Sanchez? How about a rematch with his Ultimate Fighter Finale opponent, Kenny Florian?

Speaking of Florian, his boxing looked very crisp against Clay Guida, whom he beat on and submitted with relative ease. Stil an exciting fight, which is what Guida gets paid for.

Added mass seemed to add a lot more pop to Frank Mir’s punch as he put Cheick Kongo’s UFC future into doubt seventy-two seconds into round one. Mir is definitely serious about rematching with Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title and with the added muscle to match his striking and ground game Mir has a legitimate shot at taking the belt (assuming there’s no interim belt created while Lesnar recovers from his illness).

Unless Jon Fitch is fighting for the belt he shouldn’t be allowed within sixty minutes of the main card ever again. Another three-round decision win – yawn – over Mike Pierce drags the pay-per-view to a screeching halt, and this on a night when all fight night bonuses went to preliminary card bouts.

Stefan Struve. A 6-foot-11 Dutch kickboxer with a strong ground game. He won a majority decision over Paul Buentello but all anyone remembers from the fight is Struve’s attempt at a flying knee that led to him eating a sharp right that Buentello had to actually jump up to throw. Still, he deserved the win and he’s only 21. Give him time and thirty more pounds and he’ll be scary.