Yair Rodriguez Dismantles Returning BJ Penn

Yair Rodríguez devastated the returning UFC hall-of-famer BJ Penn inside two rounds of a clinical performance in Phoenix.

"The Prodigy" was upstaged by a man who may just be the brightest light in the featherweight division, the 24-year-old Mexican proving far too sharp, fast and unpredictable for even one of the greatest fighters in history.

Elsewhere in the card, Sergio Pettis notched the biggest win of his career when he ousted John Moraga, while Lauzon and Saunders eked out very close decisions.

Best of the prelims

The night got off to a hot start when Cyril Asker devastated Dmitrii Smoliakov, and the Sunday night brutality would continue with a vicious finish from Walt Harris. He brutally got the technical knockout with an array of punches, knees too, and in the final fight pass prelim, there was another dramatic finish. Nina Ansaroff, girlfriend of UFC women's bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes, choked out Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger for her first win in the Octagon.

A jaw-dropping submission was on the cards later, and who else than Aleksei Oleinik to take the honours. From the bottom on full mount, he forced Viktor Pesta to submit to an Ezekiel choke - a submission that may not be topped all year.

Pettis dispatches Phoenix's own Moraga

John Moraga was sporting the battle wounds within minutes at the hands of the creative striking exhibited by

Sergio Pettis smoothly worked his way to a convincing unanimous decision victory over former flyweight title challenger John Moraga to open the main card.

Image: theScore

The hometown fighter was already sporting battle wounds in the space of a few minutes, being lit up by the unique striking and fluent - albeit risky - combinations. The risk was typified when Pettis was cracked during a wild exchange, stumbling his momentum just for a few moments. He'd come back stronger to in fact drop Moraga, and land a variety of head-kicks and attempt a few submissions throughout the rest of the fight.

Moraga's wrestling did the job and he continued to work well on the outside, but it will go down as the biggest win of Pettis' career: he owns a victory over ia man who once challenged for the flyweight gold.

Saunders outworks McGee

Ben Saunders scored a unanimous decision victory over Court McGee, using his gameplan to perfection to negate the storm from his opponent.

Court McGee appraoched the fight in his trademark fashion, with forward pressure and not giving his opponent much space to work with. Nonetheless, Saunders was able to land some crisp strikes and would make the fight gruelling, with the veterans dragging one another into the very deep ends.

Saunders would continue to catch McGee on the end of his kicks, but both fighters began to slow down and it proved to be incredibly tiring, Saunders game plan worked on the judges scorecards though: meaning McGee's strong ending wouldn't sway the fight in his favour.

Image: theScore

Lauzon takes controversial split decision over Held

Joe Lauzon controversially edged out Marcin Held by split decision to go tied second for the most wins in lightweight history - even if the victor explicitly stated he disagreed with the decision following the bout.

Some skull-rattling elbows early in the fight against the fence certainly troubled Marcin Held, but he certainly made a good account of himself in the striking ranges compared to previous fights. After surviving an armbar attempt on the ground, the Pole would transition to more of his own element in terms of the grappling and clinching,

Held's top position certainly awarded him plenty of credit, and he continued to shut down Lauzon. It remained an incredibly close fight, ruled a split decision to the American - himself who disagreed with the decision.

Props to @MarcinHeld. I thought he won 2 and 3. I expect big things out of him in he future and I’ll always be a fan! #ufcPhoenix

— Joe Lauzon (@JoeLauzon) January 16, 2017

The Next Prodigy: Rodríguez pulverizes Penn in two

The return of BJ Penn was wrapped up in disaster as Yair Rodríguez put on a clinic to dispatch him in the featherweight main event.

Image: UFC World

The former lightweight and welterweight champion tried to put the pressure on early, by charging forward and backing up his counterpart, but would soon be punished for that approach. Hard body kicks, switch kicks, jumping head kicks - a cocktail of creative offence - had the veteran struggling early on.

Continuing to justify his tag as the pre-fight favourite, he momentarily rocked Penn with a high kick, and 360 attacks were coming from all angles. Penn was unable to establish any rhythm and went back to his stool frustrated.

The second round would barely even take place, as Penn came to the centre and was stunned with a front kick followed by a right hand, planting him on the canvas. After a lot of ground-and-pound, the hall-of-famer was still fighting through, but John McCarthy mercifully stopped the bout and handed Rodríguez the biggest win of his career.

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