Two of the most popular and talented fighters in the UFC, B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez, will meet in a welterweight showdown at UFC 74 on August 25, according to Sherdog.com.
Penn of course just stopped Jens Pulver at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Finale in a lightweight clash. He was at the top in terms of competing for the 155-pound title, but it appears that the Hawaiian is more comfortable at 170 pounds.
Sanchez was already rumored to be on the card that evening at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, a report from a local television station in his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., last month reported that his opponent would be Hayato Sakurai.
That seems to no longer be the case with thanks to “inside sources” from Sherdog.
Sanchez is looking to rebound after a staph infection and terrible showing against Josh Koscheck at UFC 69 — his first career loss. “The Nightmare” was on track to contend for the welterweight championship before the upset.
Without a doubt, a win over the uber-talented Penn would put him right back in the hunt. Likewise for Penn, a former 170-pound champion, a win over Sanchez will get him that much closer to avenging his losses to Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre and reclaiming his title.
St. Pierre and Koscheck are also fighting on the UFC 74 card for the right to challenge the winner of UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra and Matt Hughes early in 2008.
With UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture also defending his belt against Gabriel Gonzaga, the addition of a Penn-Sanchez clash would no doubt make UFC 74, once again, one of the more “stacked” cards in recent memory.
I can get used to this real easy.
For the developing UFC 74 fight card click here.
56 Comments »
damn thats a crazy fight with two of my favorite fighters, it would be a war and a fight of the year candidate for sure, i’d love to see it, even though i’d hate to see either one lose…i still think bj should stay and go for the lw belt though…
i think these two guys match up better against each other than diego and sakurai did, sakurai is more of a stand up fighter and that contrasts with diego’s ground game, but both diego and bj are monsters on the ground and this could be another diego/diaz type of fight, i don’t know what to say, i’m just all kinds of excited about this, this is just an awesome awesome fight if it happens, some great news to start out the holiday…
Sakurai is a more exciting fighter than BJ Penn…
I agree with the spida. The fight would be CRAZY. Exciting to see, and would answer a lot of questions about who’s who in the WW division. I hope this rumor pans out. It’s a great, career-altering fight for both fighters.
It’s not true that Sakurai is more exciting than Penn. Mach’s fight with Anderson Silva was a total snorefest. That fight was a total dud. A disaster. On the contrary, Penn has NEVER had a boring fight.
What a card that would turn out to be. Penn and Sanchez would be an amazing fight, and they are both freaky talented -and I agree it would be a career changing fight for both fighters – I hope this rumor follows through. I would like to see BJ win only because I’d like to see him avenge a few losses in the WW div. If either fighter won, who do you guys think they’d fight next? GSP/KOS have been told a title shot is in their near future after Hughes/Serra square off – do you think they’d throw Karo at either fighter (#2 for Diego)? I’d just like a few opinions…cheers all!
penn is twice the fighter that sakurai is. this is a dream matchup. i could’nt begin to pick a winner. i just hope its true.
i think karo is gonna fight fitch next and then try to wait for his title shot if he wins, but he might be forced to fight one more time before that and who knows, the winner of this fight vs. the winner of karo/fitch could be a nice fight for the #1 contender to face the winner of matt/matt vs. gsp/kos, but that would be like a year away so who knows…
AMAZING this card is more stacked than 73 i think by far
Yeah it would be a great match up. Having said that, this Will Not happen at the 74 card. Dismiss such rumors.
[quote comment="97364"]Yeah it would be a great match up. Having said that, this Will Not happen at the 74 card. Dismiss such rumors.[/quote]
yeah it wasn’t to long ago that dana was saying that b.j. was going to fight for the lw title. i still hope this rumor is true. btw what is it that you know about this?
Tough call, but a decision to a busier, stronger Sanchez…BJ much better served staying at LW IMO….
i think bj will try to keep this standing…hes got a pretty good sprawl and is much better of a striker than diego in my opinion
I think Diego could be looking at his second straight loss,I like both of them so its gonna be a tough one.
Man, they really are loading up the cards…. Eagerly looking forward to this fight…
Remember the Bisping vs Shamrock rumor?
i’d rather see sakurai vs penn, but i guess that is just me.
[quote comment="97349"]i think these two guys match up better against each other than diego and sakurai did, sakurai is more of a stand up fighter and that contrasts with diego’s ground game, but both diego and bj are monsters on the ground and this could be another diego/diaz type of fight, i don’t know what to say, i’m just all kinds of excited about this, this is just an awesome awesome fight if it happens, some great news to start out the holiday…[/quote]
Thats what I’m talking about Spida. This fight is great news. The Sakurai matchup was great but the Penn fight is awesome. Both guys are starving to get back in mix and they are both great at what they do. 74 will now have three fights worthy of main event recognition. I’m on the fence for this one.
I would love this fight a little more if BJ had some time to gain a little weight. I am pretty sure Diego cuts to make 170 and BJ is 160 soaking wet.
I don’t doubt that BJ’s talents will make up for the size descrepency, but it would be nice to see a beefed up BJ Penn fighting someone his own size.
Total B.S!!! I hate when they get me excited and for nothing. Wikipedia already confirmed Diego’s fight with Sakurai. And was it only me who heard Dana say that BJ Penn would get a shot at the lightweight title following the Sherk/Franca fight. Thanks Sherdog for the misinformation.
BJ might have a chance , its not a 5 rounder .. So maybe just maybe he wont gas this time … IMHO hes terrible at 170 , he doesnt have 5 round title fights in him , he cant make it.
Much better suited at 155.
I can’t see BJ turning down a 155 title to fight Diago so soon. He is in great shape and looked great at 155…
This would be a really great fight and I think that it isnt going to happen but I hope that Im wrong. Bj penn is for sure one of my favorite fighters and i think he can possibly take anyone in WW or LW but I can see a stronger and better cardio sanchez pulling off a decision
Great match on now a spectacular card. I don’t like Diego much and I’m still only impressed by his one win over Parisyan, but he can change all that if he can beat BJ. I’m surprised this match was made on 74, since its only been 2 month layoff since BJ’s last fight with Pulver.
Well,it appears Dana’s no longer protecting his TUF wonderboy. Maybe we’ll see Griffin/Bisping in the near future as well.
I hope that if this fight happens that Diego wins. I think that if Diego wins then that will force BJ to fight at lightweight where he is better.
[quote comment="97433"]I hope that if this fight happens that Diego wins. I think that if Diego wins then that will force BJ to fight at lightweight where he is better.[/quote]
No way Diego takes this one. BJ will destroy him. He is far superior to Diego standing or on the ground.
I dont think Diego Sanchez stands a chance personally, Bj is just too good.
It has the potential to be a very exciting match, but it could also be very boring depending on the strategy. Diego can decide to turn it into a marathon and have BJ try to chase him, which of course, BJ won’t do.
only time ive seen a boring sanchez fight was against kos… n he doesnt wann do that agn… sure bj is better on the ground and stand up… but…. diego is a nightmare i think he can wear bj down with his crazy pace n i see the stoppage in the 3rd round….bj´s cardio sucks…remember ufc 63?? dominated matt hughes…but got tired n owned
[quote comment="97434"][quote comment="97433"]I hope that if this fight happens that Diego wins. I think that if Diego wins then that will force BJ to fight at lightweight where he is better.[/quote]
No way Diego takes this one. BJ will destroy him. He is far superior to Diego standing or on the ground.[/quote]
Yeah, I don’t understand how people can doubt BJ in this fight. He took it to GSP and lost an extremely close decision, when he was in nowhere near as good of shape as he is now. I would still like to see BJ get more time to bulk up for the heavier division, but you can’t doubt his skills.
[quote post="2643"]only time ive seen a boring sanchez fight was against kos… n he doesnt wann do that agn… sure bj is better on the ground and stand up… but…. diego is a nightmare i think he can wear bj down with his crazy pace n i see the stoppage in the 3rd round….bj´s cardio sucks…remember ufc 63?? dominated matt hughes…but got tired n owned [/quote]BJ didnt’t gas vs Hughes he cracked his rib in the 2nd round.
I don’t think that this is going to happen. It seems too soon for BJ to come up to 170. I think that BJ is the kind of fighter who says anybody, anywhere, anytime. But, it just seems too soon.
Would be a good fight. I think BJ would take it, but I just don’t see it happening.
Id like to see BJ woop some ass in the lightweight divison. He looks healthy at 155. I always thought he looked a little plump for 170.
BJ will eat Sanchez liver with favor beans and a nice Chianti lol
I think if Diego comes out like he has in past match-ups (Floriyan, Diaz, Pariysan) he has a great shot at winning this fight. If this fight goes the distance, I do believe Diego will pull out the decison. That being said, I wont believe it, til UFC.com confirms it.
favor?
if this fight is true ufc 74 will answer alot of questions about whos who in the top 5 of the welterweight division.
[quote comment="97534"]I think if Diego comes out like he has in past match-ups (Floriyan, Diaz, Pariysan) he has a great shot at winning this fight. If this fight goes the distance, I do believe Diego will pull out the decison. That being said, I wont believe it, til UFC.com confirms it.[/quote]
I can’t see how the UFC expects BJ to put on 15 pounds in less then 2 months and be in great shape. I personally think BJ would win this regardless though. Nothing against Diego, he is a stud for sure just BJ is about there best this is period. I won’t believe it till UFC confirms it either. I think this place would be aptly named UFCrumors.com
Sanchez will tire him out.. and pull out a win in the end
BJ will have cut more than 15 pounds to fight Jens…
[quote comment="97389"]Remember the Bisping vs Shamrock rumor?[/quote]
Oh man would that be cruel!
If this fight stands and makes it to 74… then UFC 74 is like “Stacked II”. 75 is impressive also. 72 was relatively disappointing so they seem to be making up for it.
At first I got excited at the thought of these two going at it, but then I remembered the thousand possible ways that BJ could finish this fight. I also remember how pissed he was about an up and coming guy (Jens Pulver) making his name off of beating BJ Penn and I don’t see him letting that happen again. I also thought who has Diego beaten anyway (please don’t mention Karo, I don’t think much of him). BJ Penn will win by any method and in any round he chooses.
Could you tell if BJ was juicing for the Pulver fight Matt? Maybe Sanchez will get roided up and take it to Penn. Maybe they’ll both be so juiced up they’ll have to fight it out in the middle weight division.
Hope BJ stays at lightweight.
what happened to the report that he gets a shot at the winner of franca sherk?
God man BJ looked fine at WW what is everybody’s problem with him at WW? Especially if he can compete and he is even the favorite here? Can’t see Diego beating him at all, He does have some mad Grappling skills, just don’t think they will match up to Penn’s.
Having said that being the crazy Penn fan that I am, it still makes me a little nervous. GO BJ!!!!
WOW!! Holy shite is UFC 74 “stacked” in my opinion biggest names ever on a card. I hope this is true, these two guys would make for a crazy fight, especially if Penns in shape. I would give the advantage to Penn obviously, Sanchez’s only chance is to tire him out and eek out a decision. Please let this happen it would be a night of wicked fights. I know Penn is more interested in the welter weight title than the lightweight title and has said in the past he wants a rematch with Georges and Hughes, not going to happen at lightweight. If he wins the lightweight title it would put a fight with those guys on a back burner for a quite a while.
“BJ’s Camp denies any fight in august with Diego has been offered”
Sorry, I got my hopes up to. Dangit this would have been good.
B.J. Penn’s camp informed that the 28-year-old Hawaiian would not face Diego Sanchez in August, though the possibility wasn’t ruled out for a later date.
Penn’s camp said the fight with Sanchez had not been offered by the UFC for August, and indicated many options are being discussed as far the fighter’s future inside the octagon, which includes the possibility of him remaining at lightweight.
Penn (11-4-1) expects to release news of his future via his Web site, BJPenn.com, though no date was given as to when he would make a statement.
Front page sherdog.com
[quote comment="97437"]I dont think Diego Sanchez stands a chance personally, Bj is just too good.[/quote]
Totally agree with you there dude Diego is no where near the elite in the 170 division.
Diego’s stand up is ok at best he’s not the stiker B.J is and on the ground B.J’s not called the ”prodgy” for no reason, he did get his black belt in BBJ in under three years.
As I suspected in the first place. Why would the UFC put Diego in there with someone he will probably lose to for two in a row? At the same time how could they tell BJ to forget a LW belt put on 15 lbs in under two months to fight someone who isn’t even next for a title shot? This isn’t a knock on either fighter, it’s just not good business. While it would be an incredible battle, now is not the right time for these two to face off. Maybe Ken Shamrock will fight Diego Sanchez next…stay tuned to UFCrumors to learn the next fight that will never happen or was even mentioned to happen by The UFC. Instead of worrying about every little offensive word you feel you should police delete or edit, you’ll start spending more time in getting the facts right. Doubt it though, you’ll probably just edit this too.
[quote comment="97599"]God man BJ looked fine at WW what is everybody’s problem with him at WW? Especially if he can compete and he is even the favorite here? Can’t see Diego beating him at all, He does have some mad Grappling skills, just don’t think they will match up to Penn’s.
Having said that being the crazy Penn fan that I am, it still makes me a little nervous. GO BJ!!!![/quote]
i agree about bj at ww. he subbed hughes in 1 rnd and almost beat him again. he also gave gsp all he could handle. deigo makes me nervous too, he is very strong at ww. if this fight ever actually happens i’d say its a pickem fight 50/50. if i just had to bet money though i would go with b.j.
[quote post="2643"]Diego’s stand up is ok at best he’s not the stiker B.J is and on the ground B.J’s not called the “‘prodgy” for no reason, he did get his black belt in BBJ in under three years. [/quote]
Ok standup is being generous
[quote post="2643"]Why would the UFC put Diego in there with someone he will probably lose to for two in a row?[/quote]
Because that is what they should do. A fighters competition should always get better, not get an easy fight just to save his sorry ass. This is ultimate fighting, leave the puppetiering to Vince Mcmahon to decide a fighters fate.