The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s marketing people hit the nail on the head with its latest card, UFC 84: Ill Will. Two of the three featured fights revolved around bitter disputes, one that was decided in the octagon while the other will be relegated to public opinion.

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Saturday’s main event from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada featured two of the best lightweight fighters in mixed martial arts. BJ ‘The Prodigy’ Penn (13-4-1) successfully defended his title by knocking out former champ Sean ‘The Muscle Shark’ Sherk (36-3-1) at the end of the third round, cashing tickets as the $2.40 favorite (bet $240 to win $100).

The matchup between two of the best ground fighters in the game was a standup war, with Penn routinely beating Sherk to the punch. Penn bloodied his opponent’s right eye midway through the opening stanza with repeated left jabs, and continued that approach the rest of the fight. There were leg kicks and clinches sprinkled throughout the contest, but most of the action had the two combatants trading punches.

It appeared that the championship contest would go to the fourth round until Penn connected with a combination that caused Sherk to stumble back to the cage. ‘The Prodigy’ quickly followed up with a knee that dropped Sherk, and Penn continued to reign down shots until the buzzer.

There was some question on whether Sherk could continue, but he remained on the canvas in Penn’s corner until the fight was ultimately called. Sherk was the lightweight champion at this point last year until testing positive for steroids and having his title stripped.

“There is always respect for Sean Sherk,” said Penn in the postfight interview. “There was a lot of talk on both sides, but we settled it in the octagon.”

Sherk talked about his fight strategy in a postfight interview.

“I knew it was going to be a competitive fight,” stated the Minnesota native. “BJ is very hard to take down, and I felt that I was competitive so I kept the fight standing.”

Sherk, the $1.90 underdog, was also asked about the end of the fight.

“I didn’t hear the bell ring and I wanted to continue fighting,” said Sherk. “The next step for me is to go back home and figure out what’s next.”

Knockout of the night involved the Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva (31-8-1) fight with ‘The Dean of Mean’ Keith Jardine (13-4-1). The popular Brazilian ended a personal three-fight losing streak in dominating fashion, needing just 36 seconds to defeat Jardine. Called ‘The Axe Murderer’ because of his entertaining and aggressive style, he landed a right, left, right combo to knock down his opponent.

From there, Silva jumped on Jardine and connected on numerous right hands while choking him with his left. Referee Steve Mazzagatti quickly stopped the contest, while Silva cashed tickets as a $1.30 favorite. The Brazilian was listed as high as a $1.80 ‘chalk’ before being bet down.

“I’m very emotional right now,” stated Silva in a postfight interview. “This is a great moment for me.”

Another highly anticipated event that featured bad blood wasn’t between light heavyweights Tito ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ Ortiz and Lyoto ‘The Dragon’ Machida, but between Ortiz and UFC President Dana White. Even though White was Ortiz’s manager at one point, things have deteriorated so much that Ortiz wore a ‘Dana is my bitch’ t-shirt at Friday’s weigh-ins. White has repeatedly stated that the company has no interest in re-signing the popular fighter.

Ortiz, the light heavyweight champion from 2000 to 2003, finished his UFC contract with this fight. The 33-year-old, entering the octagon to Public Enemy’s ‘Fight the Power,' has fought more times for the UFC than any other fighter. Among his supporters in the crowd was his girlfriend Jenna Jameson and tycoon Donald Trump who befriended the fighter during ‘The Celebrity Apprentice.’

Machida (13-0) ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision despite backing away from most of the action. All three judges scored the fight in favor of the Brazilian, 30-27, while VegasInsider.com scored the fight 29-28. We gave Ortiz (16-6-1) the second round for pushing the pace over a fighter who was routinely back peddling.

The first round ended when Machida got top control over Ortiz with a solid judo throw before reigning down punches. Most of the first and second rounds saw Tito trying to engage his opponent, with Machida throwing an occasional leg kick.

The best shot of the fight occurred late in the third and final round when Machida landed a knee to Ortiz’s midsection that knocked down the former champ. ‘The Dragon’ then proceeded to connect with elbows in Tito’s guard before Ortiz almost ended the fight with a triangle choke. However, Machida escaped the submission and ended up winning the decision as the $2.20 ‘chalk.’

Octagon Extras

-Thiago ‘The Pitbull’ Silva (13-0) dominated Antonio ‘Samuray’ Mendes (14-3) with a first-round victory from tapout due to strikes at 2:24. Silva was by far the biggest favorite on the UFC 84: Ill Will card, listed as an overwhelming $8.00 ‘chalk.’

-Heavyweight Shane Carwin (9-0) made quick work of Christian ‘The Hungarian Nightmare’ Wellish (8-3) with a knockout just 44 seconds into the fight.  It will be interesting to see how quickly Carwin rises through the extremely-thin heavyweight division.

-Croatian Goran Reljic (8-0) took a page out of countryman Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic’s playbook with solid left head kicks to Brazilian Wilson Gouveia (10-5). The 24-year-old, making his UFC debut, won the fight at 3:15 of the second round due to strikes as a slight $1.10 underdog. While the left kicks were definitely effective and helped slow down his opponent, the end of this light heavyweight contest came with a straight left hand followed by some ground and pound before referee Herb Dean stopped the contest.

Brad Young can be reached at byoung@vegasinsider.com.