With victories over Cruz at WEC 50 (9 p.m. ET Wednesday, Versus) and Edgar at UFC 118 (10 p.m. ET Aug. 28, pay-per-view), Benavidez and Penn can join a select group. It takes less than two full hands to count the number of notable rematches or trilogies at the elite level that ended with a different result:
- Dan Severn - Ken Shamrock
- Tito Ortiz - Guy Mezger
- Royce Gracie - Hidehiko Yoshida
- Chuck Liddell - Randy Couture
- Kazuo Misaki - Dan Henderson
- Takanori Gomi - Marcus Aurelio
- Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - Josh Barnett
- Tim Sylvia - Andrei Arlovski
- USA Today's Sergio Non talks about the uphill battle (according to MMA history) facing B.J. Penn when he rematches Frankie Edgar and Joseph Benavidez when he rematches Dominick Cruz
I think the data is interesting but you have to look at the first fight and break things down. Cruz really worked Benavidez in the first fight. In the second bout there isn't a ton of reason to expect a different result. However, given that many feel B.J. Penn should have won the decision against Frankie Edgar it's far from a given that Penn is at a disadvantage here. Given that the oddsmakers have Penn at -300 that would seem to support the idea that Penn will buck the historical trend.