By Brian Hemminger

I had extremely high hopes for UFC 107 and it didn’t disappoint, hell, UFC 107 may have exceeded my expectations.  I knew this was a monster card beforehand, but I didn’t realize the magnitude until I arrived at my local sports bar to watch UFC 107 with friends and it was packed to the gills.  We never even got a seat.  I had to watch the entire event standing in the lobby but I ignored the pain in my legs and the grumbling of my stomach because the fights were so good.

Getting everything off to a great start were fights that most fans didn’t get to see.  The undercard was so incredible that it swept the postfight awards.  Knockout of the night went to TJ Grant for a fantastic comeback TKO against Kevin Burns with 3 seconds left in the 1^st round.  Submission of the night was awarded to DeMarques Johnson for his beautiful triangle against Edgar Garcia after he had been rocked with some nasty punches.  Fight of the night went to the three minute brawl between Alan “The Talent” Belcher and Wilson Gouveia that ended with a TKO victory for Belcher.

On the main card, Stefan “The Skyscraper” Struve had a solid performance against Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello.  Struve got off to a great start when he took Buentello’s back and put him in a body triangle.  He spent much of the first round working for a rear naked choke, but Buentello defended it well and Struve was slightly out of position to sink it in.  In the second, Struve and Buentello turned the fight into a huge brawl, with Buentello coming out on top.  He dropped Struve twice, one of them on a beautiful counter as Struve was coming in on a flying knee.  Buentello couldn’t capitalize though, and in the third, Struve chopped The Headhunter down with tons of leg and body kicks to pick up the first decision victory of his young and very bright career.

In lightweight action, Kenny Florian proved why he’s one of the best at 155 in the UFC with a dominant submission win over Clay “The Carpenter” Guida.  Florian had a great gameplan, constantly countering Guida when he charged in with kicks, punches and takedown attempts.  Near the end of the first round, Florian opened up a huge cut on the left side of Guida’s head but the doctor let the fight continue.  In the second, Florian began picking Guida apart with his standup and after dropping Clay with a beautiful right, he took his back and slapped on a beautiful rear naked choke for the submission victory.

John Fitch grinded out yet another decision against a very game Mike Pierce to continue to get back on track.  Fitch worked his standup and jiu jitsu game more this fight, but he continued his track record of failing to finish an opponent that is in a bad position.  Despite taking Pierce’s back multiple times, he never made a serious choke attempt or got Pierce on the ground.  The only truly exciting action in the fight happened with 30 seconds left when Pierce clipped Fitch and poured it on to try to get the knockout victory.  Fitch proved his durability by surviving the assault and he won a 29-28 decision on all the scorecards.

In a fight that had a lot of bad blood between the contestants, Frank Mir put on one of the most dominant performances of his career with a quick submission victory over Cheick Kongo.  Shocking even the announcers, Mir dropped Kongo with a powerful left hand and then pounced on him.  When Kongo stuck his neck out to grab Mir’s leg, Mir locked in a guillotine choke.  Kongo went unconscious only 72 seconds into the fight to give Mir a big win.  Many wondered how Frank Mir would react mentally after losing so badly to Brock Lesnar in front of one of the biggest fight audiences of all time at UFC 100.  Mir answered his critics by putting on 25 pounds of muscle, and using every bit of it to dominate Kongo.  If Lesnar can’t come back for another 6 months or more, I would love to see Mir fight Shane Carwin in a number one contender match.

Finally, for the lightweight title, BJ “The Prodigy” Penn took on Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez.  As expected, Sanchez pushed the pace by being aggressive early, but BJ Penn made an immediate statement by dropping Sanchez with a beautiful right hook.  Sanchez was rocked but somehow survived Penn’s attempts to end the fight and miraculously got to his feet to continue the match.  Penn dropped Sanchez again at the end of the round for good measure.  From rounds 2-4, basically the same thing would happen: Sanchez would back away from Penn, throw a high kick at Penn’s head (that would miss or be blocked) and then run in and grab BJ’s leg for a takedown attempt.  BJ defended everything brilliantly and punished Diego every time he tried to be aggressive.  By the start of the 5^th round, Sanchez’s face was beaten to a pulp.  His left eye was bruised and swollen, and he had a horrible cut on his bottom lip.  Penn’s shorts were red with blood too, but it ws Diego’s blood.  After Sanchez failed on his 16^th (seriously) and final takedown attempt, BJ put him out of his misery with a beautiful head kick followed by some power punches.  When referee Herb Dean separated the fighters, you knew it was over.  Diego had one of the nastiest gashes I’ve ever seen on his forehead and his entire face was covered in blood.  The doctor stopped the fight and BJ Penn had once again defended his belt, this time via doctor stoppage.

This was one of the greatest performances of Penn’s storied career.  He answered all the questions about him by fighting nearly all 5 rounds and never showed any signs of being tired.  There was not even one second where he was losing this fight.  Sanchez kept going for the takedown despite BJ’s brilliant defense, and his corner kept telling him to take BJ down.  Sanchez had no diversity in his gameplan, he had nothing as a backup if Plan A didn’t work, and BJ exploited it bad.  I have no idea who BJ fights next.  The lightweight division is pretty cleaned out at the moment.  Gray Maynard, Tyson Griffin, Frankie Edgar and Kenny Florian are decent contenders, but no one has really vaulted themselves in front of the rest.  I think BJ should at least for the time being move up to 170 and take a fight there while the lightweight division sorts itself out.  Regardless, I honestly don’t think BJ is going to be losing his lightweight title for a really, really long time.  He is as dominant a champion as there is in the sport right now.