Penn Sanchez:

BJ Penn ran his tongue over top of his gloves late Saturday night, raised his arms and began alternately slapping his face in an outlet of emotion.

It was a celebration of a statement made in the very octagon in which he stood, a notice served to the world of mixed martial arts just in case anyone doubted, that he was the king of the UFC’s lightweight division. It was also a statement that, just maybe, Penn is the company’s dominant champion.

To illustrate that dominance, Penn likely hit himself more in the face with those slaps than his opponent, Diego Sanchez, did over the course of their five-round fight. The Fightmetric Stats were staggering. Penn landed 150 shots on Sanchez — 137 to the head, 10 to the body and three to the legs. Sanchez tried 27 takedowns and failed all 27 times. He landed … eight shots. Eight. Seven to the head, one to the body, and not a scratch on Penn, hardly, to be found.

Stats however, don’t accurately describe how bad the beating was. Sanchez, a well liked fighter, who binges on mind-over-matter philosophy, came to the ring chanting “YES,” gave Penn one of the nastiest stare downs in the history of all fight sports and commenced to taking the beating of his life. Penn dropped Sanchez in the first round, and completely outclassed him until the fight was called in the fifth and final round because of a nasty trench-like cut Penn opened above Sanchez’s brow.

“One thing I do give Diego credit for, he recovers very well,” Penn said. “I hit him with some big shots. He recovered and kept going, but I think, as far as going forward, he kind of got bummed out on that so he was kind of backing up and moving around the ring. After the first round, he started to back up a little, but he never total gave up the fight.”

He never threatened in the fight either, and Sanchez was the guy that was the last, best threat at lightweight for Penn. Saturday, it became clear, at 155-pounds there is Penn and then there’s everyone else. Now, the UFC has to work to find a challenger. Most likely, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard are in line to get the next shot. Neither looks like they could do much better than Sanchez or Kenny Florian before them.

More from UFC 107

UFC 197 proved to be one of the more exciting cards the company as had recently. In a heavyweight bout, Frank Mir knocked down Cheick Kongo in the first round and finished him on the ground; Florian scored a dominant win over Clay Guida. In other UFC 107 bouts Jon Fitch def. Mike Pierce via unanimous decision; Stefan Sturve def. Paul Buentello via majority decision, T.J. Grant def. Kevin Burns via TKO, DaMarques Johnson def. Edgar Garcia via submission; Rousimar Palhares def. Lucio Linhares via submission; Matt Wiman def. Shane Nelson via unanimous decision, Alan Belcher def. Wilson Gouveia via TKO and Johny Hendricks def. Ricardo Funch via unanimous decision.

‘Hendo’ signs with Strikeforce

The UFC’s stable of talent took a big-time hit this week when middleweight title contender, and MMA legend, Dan Henderson signed a multi-fight agreement with Strikeforce.

Henderson who last fought at UFC 100, delivering a devastating knockout to Michael Bisping, was believed to be in-line for a rematch against middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva, but was passed over in favor of Vitor Belfort. A free agent following UFC 100, Henderson engaged in contract talks with the UFC that became public when UFC President Dana White claimed that Henderson was asking to be the company’s highest paid fighter. Henderson denied the claim, and the two sides never came to an agreement.

Henderson is the only fighter in history to hold two titles in two different weight classes at the same time in a major promotion, holding welterweight and light heavyweight title in PRIDE. Henderson immediately becomes a favorite to take on Jake Shields for the Strikeforce middleweight title, and a dream fight against Strikeforce light heavyweight titleholder Gegard Mousasi has been discussed.

This weekend

Strikeforce Evolution will air on Showtime Saturday at 10 p.m. ET. The event features a main card of Cung Le (6-0) vs. Scott Smith (17-6), Josh Thompson (16-2) vs. Gilbert Melendez (16-2) in a fight for the lightweight title, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2) vs. Matt Lindland (21-6), Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (5-0) vs. Iron Mike Whitehead and Robbie Lawler (16-5) vs. Trevor Prangley.

Also, Saturday, WEC “Cerrone vs. Ratcliff will air on Versus a 10 p.m. ET. The event features a main event of Donald Cerrone (10-2) vs. Ed Ratcliff (7-1-0).