| UFC 80: Rapid Fire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 80: Rapid Fire | ||||
| Information | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | 19 January 2008 | |||
| Venue | Metro Radio Arena | |||
| City | Newcastle, United Kingdom | |||
| Attendance | 8,412 | |||
| Total gate | $1,250,000 | |||
| Buyrate | 225,000 | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 80: Rapid Fire was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), that took place on 19 January 2008 at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, United Kingdom. [1]
The main event was originally scheduled as an interim lightweight championship fight; however, then-lightweight champion Sean Sherk was stripped of his title after the California State Athletic Commission upheld his suspension for testing positive for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. With the lightweight championship vacated, the Penn vs. Stevenson bout was altered to be for the undisputed lightweight championship. [2]
| Main card (PPV) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Lightweight | B.J. Penn | def. | Joe Stevenson | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 2 | 4:02 | [lower-alpha 1] |
| Heavyweight | Fabrício Werdum | def. | Gabriel Gonzaga | TKO (punches) | 2 | 4:34 | |
| Welterweight | Marcus Davis | def. | Jess Liaudin | KO (punch) | 1 | 1:04 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Wilson Gouveia | def. | Jason Lambert | KO (punch) | 2 | 0:37 | |
| Middleweight | Jorge Rivera | def. | Kendall Grove | TKO (punches) | 1 | 1:20 | |
| Preliminary card | |||||||
| Lightweight | Sam Stout | def. | Per Eklund | Decision (unanimous) (29–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Alessio Sakara | def. | James Lee | TKO (punches) | 1 | 1:30 | [lower-alpha 2] |
| Welterweight | Paul Kelly | def. | Paul Taylor | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | [lower-alpha 3] |
| Heavyweight | Antoni Hardonk | def. | Colin Robinson | TKO (leg kicks) | 1 | 0:17 | [lower-alpha 4] |
At the end of the event, $35,000 was awarded to each fighter who received one of these three awards. [3]
Jay Dee "B.J." Penn III is an American former professional mixed martial art fighter and 5th degree black belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) practitioner. A former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion, he is the second of nine fighters in UFC history to win titles in multiple weight classes.
Kenny Florian is an American retired mixed martial artist and commentator who formerly competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He formerly served as an analyst for UFC on Fox from 2011 to 2018, provided color commentary for UFC Fight Night, and provides color commentary on the robot combat television series BattleBots. He is currently signed to the Professional Fighters League (PFL) as a commentator.
Joseph Christopher Stevenson is a retired American mixed martial artist fighting out of Hesperia, California. Coached by Matt Hughes, Stevenson rose to prominence by becoming The Ultimate Fighter 2 Welterweight Tournament Winner. Following a drop in weight class and two-year undefeated streak, he was ranked among the top UFC Lightweight competitors, culminating into a title shot for the vacant UFC Lightweight Championship against B.J. Penn at UFC 80: Rapid Fire. Stevenson fought most of his career as a Lightweight and made his Featherweight debut at UFC Live: Kongo vs. Barry. He is the former King of the Cage Lightweight Champion.
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