After wrapping up his nearly 20-year career with the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC 207: Rousey vs. Nunes pay-per-view this past December, longtime UFC announcer Mike Goldberg popped up in the crowd at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona to watch his friend and UFC Hall Of Famer B.J. […]
After wrapping up his nearly 20-year career with the Ultimate Fighting Championship at the UFC 207: Rousey vs. Nunes pay-per-view this past December, longtime UFC announcer Mike Goldberg popped up in the crowd at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona to watch his friend and UFC Hall Of Famer B.J. […]
Sergio Pettis returned to the Octagon in style when he bested John Moraga at last Sunday night’s (Jan. 15) UFC Fight Night event. Pettis was in hostile territory as he was competing in Moraga’s hometown of…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS4pN9FES9g
Sergio Pettis returned to the Octagon in style when he bested John Moraga at last Sunday night’s (Jan. 15) UFC Fight Night event. Pettis was in hostile territory as he was competing in Moraga’s hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Nonetheless, Pettis walked out of the Talking Stick Arena with a unanimous decision win.
The official YouTube channel of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), uploaded Megan Olivi’s post-fight interview with “The Phenom.” Pettis said he felt in prime condition when he shared the Octagon with his opponent:
“I didn’t feel any ring rust or anything. I was more excited to be out there, blessed that my body was able to come out here and perform. This is something I love doing, this is my passion. I’m a martial artist and out there is my canvas and I feel like I was performing hard and expressing myself.”
While the decision was clearly in Pettis’ favor, Moraga had his moments where he landed a few clean strikes. The rising flyweight admitted he had his bell rung for some of those punches.
“I mean he did hit me with some hits that kind of were like, ‘oh I should probably put my hands up,’ but he hit me with some good shots. [He] definitely had me a little shaken from some of em. He has some hard power and at 32 years old, he’s throwing some bombs out there.”
After the fight, Pettis called out Jussier Formiga to a bout for UFC 209 on March 4. Pettis said he doesn’t want to waste time before throwing some more leather.
“I just wanna get back in there right away. I feel like my body is okay besides the calf. But I feel like my body’s okay and I wanna take advantage of my youth. I’m only 23 years old. [I] really don’t have much injuries. I had suffered one LCL injury and after having such a long layoff, I realized I gotta really take care of my body.”
When B.J. Penn was preparing for his return fight against rising featherweight Yair Rodriguez, his team had a strong belief in their guy. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer looked…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEQz7HGT_-0&t
When B.J. Penn was preparing for his return fight against rising featherweight Yair Rodriguez, his team had a strong belief in their guy. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer looked for his first win since Nov. 2010.
Instead, “The Prodigy” got smoked. Round one was one-sided in favor of “El Pantera,” and the second round was mercifully stopped 24 seconds in. Penn was simply too slow and couldn’t react to Rodriguez’s offense quick enough to do much.
The official YouTube channel of the UFC uploaded a post-fight interview done with Penn’s coach Jason Parillo. He expressed his sorrow for Penn:
“We’re sad. We obviously have high hopes for B.J. What he’s done in the sport and the type of fighter that he is, they always say there’s one more fight in a great fighter and we felt that it was it. We felt that this kid was beatable. We felt we could beat him and you know, I’d like to think we still can. But we’re always gonna think that about B.J.”
When Penn’s bout with Rodriguez was announced, a lot of fans and analysts were left scratching their heads over the booking. Rodriguez looked prepared for a top 10 ranked opponent, while Penn needed someone to ease his way back to competition. Parillo admitted the match-up was difficult.
“It was a tough fight to come in after a two and a half, almost three-year layoff. You know, you’re fighting a top 10 guy. That’s something B.J. has always done. B.J. never comes off a long layoff, I mean his two-year layoff prior to that was Frankie Edgar the number two guy in the world. Unfortunately B.J. never gets put in there with a guy that, we call it a shake off the rust a little bit or a tuneup fight I guess.”
Despite being out of the sport for a few years, BJ Penn is still a name and still a draw for the UFC. The UFC Fight Night 103 main card did an average of 1,090 million viewers. This is was up from the UFC Fight Night 101 main card, which drew 686,000 viewers. The prelims
Despite being out of the sport for a few years, BJ Penn is still a name and still a draw for the UFC.
The UFC Fight Night 103 main card did an average of 1,090 million viewers. This is was up from the UFC Fight Night 101 main card, which drew 686,000 viewers. The prelims for the event drew 824,000 viewers, which is up from the UFC FN 101 prelims that did 654,000 viewers. The post-fight show drew 364,000 viewers. The UFC held up very good against a massive audience for an NFL divisional playoff game between Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs on NBC that drew 37 million viewers. The game was originally supposed to be at 1 PM EST, but weather forced its pushback to 8 PM EST instead.
UFC Fight Night 103 took place on Sunday, January 15, 2017, at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
UFC Fight Night 103 drew less than half the audience of the Sunday night show a year ago, but that card had a much bigger lineup and main event (Dominick Cruz vs. then-bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw). The event would have been the fifth-highest rated Fight Night show in 2016 and marks the biggest number since the September 26 Cyborg Justino-headlined show which, did 1,109 million viewers
The UFC will be away for a week but not to fear fight fights, the promotion will hold its next event on January 28th (UFC on FOX on 23), which is headlined by Valentina Shevchenko vs. Julianna Pena in a #1 women’s bantamweight contender bout.
Despite going up against the second half of Pittsburgh-Kansas City in the NFL playoffs, the main card for UFC Fight Night 103 still cracked the million viewers mark.
According to a tweet by Jason Floy…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6GxAKELF-I
Despite going up against the second half of Pittsburgh-Kansas City in the NFL playoffs, the main card for UFC Fight Night 103 still cracked the million viewers mark.
According to a tweet by Jason Floyd of The MMA Report, the FOX Sports 1 four-fight main card was watched by 1.090 million viewers. That number topped the FS1 prelims, which were watched by 824,000.
The early prelims streamed on UFC Fight Pass, while the post-fight show was viewed by 364,000 on FS1.
#UFCPhoenix TV Viewership: Prelims: 824k Main Card: 1.090 million Post Fight: 364k
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer B.J. Penn had a rough return to the Octagon this past Sunday night (Jan. 15). He took on Yair Rodriguez in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card in Pho…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAy5VTQrJ7A
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Hall of Famer B.J. Penn had a rough return to the Octagon this past Sunday night (Jan. 15). He took on Yair Rodriguez in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card in Phoenix, Arizona. The speed difference was glaring and “The Prodigy” was never in the fight.
“El Pantera’s” flashy kicks had Penn off balance and backing up in the first round. Even when Penn tied his opponent up against the fence momentarily, he couldn’t hold him there. At the start of the second round, Rodriguez blasted Penn with a front kick followed by a straight punch that dropped him. A series of strikes later and the fight was stopped.
Former UFC fighter and opponent of Penn’s Kenny Florian said enough is enough at the FOX Sports 1 post-fight show. The analyst made his advice to Penn clear:
“Retire, at this point. No one needs to see a legend like B.J. Penn go out like that. That was very hard to see and not to mention the last fight against Frankie Edgar was very hard to see. And now we’re seeing it again against Yair Rodriguez.”
While there have been exceptions to fighters excelling beyond their supposed prime such as Randy Couture when he won the UFC heavyweight title at the age of 43, that was the exception and not the rule. Florian said there are other money making opportunities for the 38-year-old legend.
“The sport has passed him by. This is an eventuality for every single fighter. It doesn’t matter. Eventually, you don’t move the same way. If you don’t keep up with the sport, you’re gonna get beat down like this and this sport is way too hard. There’s other ways to make money and I hope B.J. Penn finds some kind of peace in retiring finally.”
