6. Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn II
Penn stunned the MMA world when he moved up a division and defeated dominant welterweight champion Hughes at UFC 46. Two-and-a-half-years later, he attempted to do it again at UFC 63. For the first two rounds, Penn looked well on his way to accomplishing that as he clearly got the better of Hughes once again. He stuffed his takedowns and landed hard strikes in the first round. He also tied him up in submission attempts in the second.
At one stage in the round, Penn had Hughes in a tight triangle choke attempt. The champion would later admit he had been close to tapping out, but managed to survive until the end of the round. Penn’s efforts to find a finish in the first 10 minutes of the fight started to catch up with him. After that, Hughes capitalized on his depleted cardio reserves in the third, landing strikes and then taking him down. He trapped Penn in the crucifix position, drilling him with a long series of punches and elbows until a TKO stoppage.
