Sherdog's UFC 84 Recap

Penn Stops Sherk; Silva, Machida Dominate

May 25, 2008
by Mike Sloan (msloan@sherdog.com)

LAS VEGAS -- Once the dust settled inside the sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena following the conclusion of UFC 84, there was no debate over who truly is the best fighter at 155 pounds.

Without question it's B.J. Penn (Pictures), now the undisputed UFC lightweight champion.

Penn outclassed challenger Sean Sherk (Pictures) for three full rounds until he finally took out his foe with a flying knee and follow-up punches. The Hawaiian used his superior boxing skills to keep the much shorter Sherk at bay from the outset. Sherk chose to box, but nothing he did seemed to work. Instead, he ate pesky left jabs and the occasional right hand down the pipe.

Sherk tried to bring Penn to the ground only a few times. Those attempts were only from brief clinches; not once did the former lightweight champ shoot in for a chance to put "The Prodigy" on his back.

"I knew I had to come out here and show something different," a disappointed Sherk said following his loss. "B.J. is really hard to take down. I wanted to establish a striking game before I started trying to take the fight to the ground. I felt like I was pretty competitive there on the feet, so I just figured I would keep it up on the feet."

Sherk's best chance of winning the fight was to make Penn work harder than he would have liked. But Sherk's game plan to box with Penn, which kept him calm and exerting less energy, appeared to be the wrong idea in hindsight.

As the minutes wore away, Sherk's eyes became lacerated and swollen. It was obvious that he needed to take drastic measures in order to salvage his quest to regain his stripped championship. However, he did no such thing, and with seconds left in the third frame, "The Muscle Shark" was dealt a vicious flying knee that sent him crashing onto his knees along the fence.

Penn quickly pounced, swarming him with a flurry of punches until the round ended.

When referee Mario Yamasaki pulled Penn away, it seemed as if the fight would continue. But after looking at the fallen Sherk, who had yet to climb back up to his feet, the veteran third man waived off the bout.

"Very, very satisfying," a proud Penn said of his win. "Sean Sherk is a great competitor. Very satisfying."

After scoring the greatest victory in his career thus far, many insiders were picking Keith Jardine (Pictures) to continue his shocking surge through the light heavyweight division by handing former Pride middleweight king Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) his fourth consecutive defeat. Jardine entered the contest full of confidence while "The Axe Murderer" climbed into the Octagon desperate for a win.

Thirty-six seconds later, Silva was perched on top of the cage, his arms raised in triumph. Jardine, on the other hand, lay motionless on his back, a victim of a barrage of crippling punches.

Silva (32-8-1) staggered and then dropped Jardine (13-4-1) during a clinch. One of his punches clipped "The Dean of Mean" behind his ear. Jardine tried to fight his way back to his feet, but it was too late -- Silva was already unloading a furious clip of punches. One too many landed on Jardine's chin, knocking him completely out. Jardine didn't come to until about three or four minutes later.

"Incredible, because I'm very emotional right now," an overjoyed Silva, whose performance was reminiscent of his career in Japan, said afterward. "I thought the first minute, second minute were very [dangerous] because the gloves are very small. But this guy's a great fighter."

Tito Ortiz (Pictures)'s days as a contracted fighter for the UFC appear to be over, and his last fight in the Octagon didn't unfold the way he had planned as he lost a unanimous decision to unbeaten Lyoto Machida (Pictures).

Ortiz couldn't muster any sort of offense toward the technical wizardry of Machida. He landed no meaningful strikes and was not even close to scoring any takedowns.

Machida avoided virtually everything Ortiz (15-6-1) threw his way and sprawled beautifully the few times "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" tried to bring him to the canvas. The fight wasn't aesthetically pleasing, and as the minutes wore away the capacity crowd booed and jeered toward the lack of action.

Machida (12-0) almost scored a late knockout as a debilitating knee crashed into the liver of Ortiz late in the third. Ortiz recovered after he pulled guard, though, and caught Machida in a deep triangle. When Ortiz transitioned from triangle to armbar, Machida snaked out the back door and then rode out the clock for the win, 30-27 on all three cards.

"I was thinking, ‘I'm going to die, but I'm not going to tap,'" Machida said after what is arguably the biggest win of his career to date.

"Machida's a great fighter, but when I had that submission, I thought I had him for a second," Ortiz added moments later.

Ortiz also addressed his expected departure from the UFC.

"I'm here for another three or four more years. Maybe not here in the UFC," he said, "but I'm going to be fighting for a long time. … A lot of the stuff that happened before between me and Dana White, it's all bullsh--, man. Hard feelings that we have towards each other. It's personal, but the Fertittas have been awesome people. What they've done for the UFC, what they've done for this company, I got to thank them. But you know, I gave 11 years in this Octagon, and it's too bad that I'm leaving right now. I'm going to go to greener pastures -- I hope -- in the future."

Unbeaten light heavyweight Thiago Silva (Pictures) (13-0) almost lost that perfect record against Antonio Mendes (Pictures) (14-2). Mendes dropped him with a right head kick early in their battle but failed to put away the dangerous Brazilian. Soon after Mendes slipped up during an attempted judo throw, and he was tapping out due to the punches by a determined Silva at 2:24 of the first.

Wilson Gouveia (Pictures) had opponent Goran Reljic (Pictures) hurt and almost out in the first round of their light heavyweight encounter, but the Croatian survived into the second. Gouveia (10-5) had been fighting well against Reljic, but a sneaky left to the temple midway through the second frame dropped the Brazilian.

Reljic (8-0) then unloaded a barrage of strikes until referee Herb Dean (Pictures) had no choice but to step in at 3:15.

In one of the many light heavyweight battles of the evening, Rameau Sokoudjou patiently awaited for the perfect opportunity to take out Kazuhiro Nakamura (Pictures). The Cameroonian landed a menacing right kick to Nakamura's body and followed up with a beautifully masked straight right hand that landed flush on the Japanese fighter's jaw. Nakamura (11-8) crumbled to the canvas and was dealt a series of punches, but the round ended before referee Steve Mazzagatti could stop it.

However, while a dazed Nakamura was being tended to in his corner, he stumbled and slipped off the stool. That was all Mazzagatti needed to see, and he stopped the fight, giving Sokoudjou (5-2) a TKO at the end of the first round.

"I knew he was going to grab my legs every time I would kick," Sokoudjou said afterward. "So I had this setup where every time I would kick, I got to punch to keep him off my legs and one of those connected. I was eager to finish the fight."

In what might have been middleweight Ivan Salaverry (Pictures)'s final fight of his career, Rousimar Palhares (Pictures) (8-1) quickly took the Seattle-based fighter down and immediately snatched his back. Salaverry defended the several rear-naked choke attempts from his Brazilian adversary, but Palhares transitioned the would-be choke into a slick armbar, forcing Salaverry (12-7) to tap out at 2:36.

Shane Carwin (Pictures) remained unbeaten as a pro by defeating durable Christian Wellisch (Pictures) in just 46 seconds. Carwin, now 9-0, floored Wellisch with a sizzling right hand that sent his mouthpiece rocketing across the cage. Carwin followed up by landing a series of moderate strikes onto the fallen Hungarian's head, prompting an immediate stoppage by referee Yves Lavigne. Wellisch fell to 8-4.

Korean welterweight Dong Hyun Kim (10-1-1) made the most of his UFC debut by stopping Jason Tan (5-3) early in the third round. Kim almost had his opponent out in the opening stanza after he stuffed a takedown and delivered a series of elbows. Tan was cut near his right ear from the flurry of strikes and was rocked a few times, but his toughness pulled him through the rest of the round.

After a relatively slow-paced second round, Kim executed a perfect judo toss seconds into the third and immediately seized side control. From there he rained down elbows onto Tan until referee Steve Mazzagatti stepped in 25 seconds into the third.

"TUF 6" fan favorite Jon Koppenhaver (Pictures) was put to sleep 56 seconds into his fight with fellow welterweight Yoshiyuki Yoshida (Pictures) (10-2) thanks to a perfect anaconda choke. After a terse exchange of punches, Koppenhaver (5-2) clinched his Japanese counterpart but was judo tossed onto his side. "War Machine" scrambled in an attempt to get back to his feet, but he slipped into a guillotine and eventually the anaconda.

Lightweight Rich Clementi (Pictures) needed three rounds to score a win over the lanky Terry Etim (Pictures) (10-2), winning unanimously via tallies of 29-28 on all three judges' scorecards. Clementi was the more aggressive fighter, landed more strikes and controlled the pace for the most part. Etim's size and reach posed problems for Clementi (32-12-1) early, but "No Love" figured him out and pulled out the hard-fought decision.