Rodriguez stops comebacking Penn in Phoenix
RISING Ultimate Fighting Championship star Yair “El Pantera” Rodriguez continued with his impressive UFC showing, stopping the comebacking BJ “The Prodigy” Penn by technical knockout in their headlining featherweight match at “UFC Fight Night 103” in Phoenix, Arizona, yesterday to claim his sixth straight win in the organization.
In a virtual “generation battle” to usher in the brand-new year for the UFC, Mexican Rodriguez represented well for the new-generation fighters with a dominating TKO victory over MMA legend Penn, who was coming out from a more than two-year inactivity.
Mr. Rodriguez, 24, worked instantly to take control of the contest, throwing kicks to the body and head that rocked and wobbled 38-year-old Penn in the opening round.
Sensing the tide in his favor, Mr. Rodriguez did not wait too long to finish the fight in the second round, throwing a kick and a straight punch that dropped Mr. Penn from which he could not recover from as his young foe was all over him, prompting referee John McCarthy to stop the fight 24 seconds into the round.
Despite the win, Mr. Rodriguez still paid tribute to his legendary opponent.
“This was an amazing fight for me against a legendary fighter. He (Penn) deserves a lot of our respect, I say thank you so much to BJ Penn for the fight,” Mr. Rodriguez said following the fight.
With the win, Mr. Rodriguez, the number 10- ranked fighter in the division, improved to 10-1 while dropping Mr. Penn, a former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion and certified Hall-of Famer, to 16-11-2.
In earlier fights, lightweight Joe Lauzon edged Marcin Held by way of split decision ( 30- 27 [Held], 29-28 [Lauzon] and 2928 [Lauzon]), welterweight Ben “Killa B” Saunders beat Court “The Crusher” McGee by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28 and 29-28), and flyweight Sergio Pettis upset number eight- ranked John Moraga in their scheduled three-rounder by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28 and 30-27).
Next for the “UFC on Fox: Shevchenko vs. Peña” that will feature the women’s bantamweight battle between number one contender Valentina “Bullet” Shevchenko and Julianna “The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña (#2) on Jan. 29 (Manila time) in Denver, Colorado.
Also on tap for the event are the clashes of welterweight Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (#5) against Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal (#12), heavyweight Andrei “The Pit Bull” Arlovski (#7) versus Francis “The Predator” Ngannou (#11), and featherweight Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres against Jason “The Kid” Knight.
In the Philippines, Cignal TV, the country’s foremost directto-home (DTH) company, is the home of the UFC after the two groups agreed to an extensive deal that will see the UFC beamed on various platforms. —