MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reports that Matt Hughes will face BJ Penn at UFC 123 in Detroit, Michigan.
Penn will move up to welterweight to fight Hughes. Penn’s last fight at 170lbs was a loss to Georges St. Pierre on January 31, 2009.
From MMA Fighting:
Hughes and Penn first fought at UFC 46 in January 2004. In that fight, Penn submitted Hughes with a rear naked choke to win the welterweight title. Hughes had defended the belt five straight times before the loss. They met again at UFC 63. That time, Hughes, again champion, won with a third-round TKO to defend the title.
The scheduled main event at UFC 123 will be Quinton “Rampage” Jackson facing Lyoto Machida.
Payout Perspective:
This matchup is intriguing considering Matt Hughes is on a three fight winning streak and BJ Penn is suffering a two fight skid. Despite their streaks, this fight should garner brand name interest. Hughes, the UFC Hall of Famer, looked sharp in taking out Ricardo Almeida in the first round at UFC 117. Penn on the other hand, is trying to recover from being dominated by Frankie Edgar at UFC 118. Will a move up to welterweight help Penn against Hughes? If Hughes wins, does this propel him into the welterweight title hunt?
This match bolsters a November PPV which features Rampage Jackson fighting Lyoto Machida.
It will do no more than 500kbuys
With good promotion, yes.
It will.
Even if it does “only” 500k buys, for a non-title card that’s a very solid showing. And Quinton, Hughes and BJ all have good name recognition. And I agree with Machiel that it can do more. All three of the aforementioned gentlemen have been known to do some pre-fight trash-talking to hype an event.