Ultimate Fighting Championship

UFC Phoenix Results: Yair Rodriguez Overwhelms BJ Penn

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:25 p.m. ET

Fansided, Danny Doherty/FanSided via Cage Pages

Yair Rodriguez closed out UFC Phoenix with a dominant victory over BJ Penn, in which he overwhelmed the legend with plenty of creative kicks.

Yair Rodriguez is being touted as one of the future stars of the UFC featherweight division, joining names like Doo Ho Choi, Brian Ortega, and Mirsad Bektic. His wild, unorthodox style is fascinating to watch, as he has the ability to throw spinning kicks for 25 minutes. Rodriguez is coming off a great 2016 that included a Knockout of the Year candidate against Andre Fili, and a main event victory over Alex Caceres.

BJ Penn is known as one of the best fighters of all time, known for his fearless spirit and overall well-roundedness. “The Prodigy” is a jiu-jitsu great, earning a black belt incredibly quickly and becoming the first American to win the Mundials. The former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion had a great title reign from 2008 to 2009 with wins over Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, and Diego Sanchez. Penn has not won since 2010, and will be coming out of retirement for the second time for this fight.

A heavy body kick landed right away for Yair Rodriguez. BJ Penn then countered a spin kick with a clinch that Rodriguez broke out of. Penn caught a kicking Yair with a hard left, and Yair got right back to his kicks.

Rodriguez wobbled Penn with a head kick, then followed up with a wheel kick that buckled the legend. Penn was able to recover but ate a pair of body kicks in the process. Yair Rodriguez really started opening up with a 360 head kick and several more that connected to Penn’s head.

Penn was able to land one solid punch during the onslaught, but it was all Rodriguez in round number one.

Round two began with an immediate front kick to the chin of BJ Penn and followed with a right, knocking the Hawaiian to the ground. Rodriguez pounced immediately and finished the fight with a barrage of hammer fists.

Yair Rodriguez was brought to tears during his celebration. Although he believed he would win by submission, Rodriguez did not pass up the opportunity to knock out the legend.