Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

A savage, surgical attack from B.J. Penn wiped out Matt Hughes in less than half a minute.

Penn split the air with a beautiful counter right hand that leveled Hughes and then finished off the hall of famer with four clean punches on the ground in the UFC 123 “Rampage vs. Machida” co-headliner Saturday at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Mich. Hughes met his demise 21 seconds into Round 1, as the trilogy between two of the sport’s fiercest rivals came to a decisive climax.

“Matt, you’re my idol,” said Penn, who snapped a two-fight losing streak with a spectacular return to the welterweight division. “You will always be my idol. Thank you.”

Hughes was never in the fight. The counter right from Penn put him on his back and it was over a few seconds later, the former welterweight champion teetering briefly near unconsciousness.

“Well, he hit me hard,” said Hughes, whose 24 Octagon appearances rank first all time. “When I felt the hit, I thought it was a knee or a kick. It wasn’t a clip. He hit me pretty hard.”

Hughes entered the rubber match with Penn on a three-fight winning streak. The decisive defeat — only Dennis Hallman has finished him more quickly — left the 37-year-old’s immediate future uncertain.

“I don’t know what the plan is now,” Hughes said. “I had a perfect training camp. This is one of those fights where I would have paid my purse to [UFC president] Dana White to put this fight together. I had a lot on the line. To be honest, I don’t know what will go on now.”

By Brian Knapp
Sherdog.com