The UFC made “UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez” official on Tuesday. The event is scheduled for December 12th at the FedEx Forum in Memphis and will be headlined by a UFC lightweight title fight between BJ Penn (14-5-1) and Diego Sanchez (21-2).

The UFC also announced a heavyweight bout between Frank Mir (12-4) and Cheick Kongo (14-5-1) as part of the co-main event and a welterweight bout between Brazilians Thiago Alves (16-6) and Paulo Thiago (11-1) which will also make the PPV televised card.

Unbeaten at 155 pounds for nearly eight years with nine finishes in his 10 lightweight victories, BJ Penn (fighting out of Hilo, Hawaii) has ruled the 155-pound division with an iron fist, finishing top contenders Joe Stevenson, Sean Sherk, and Kenny Florian along the way. The refocused 30-year-old lightweight champion and former welterweight champion came into his title defense against Florian at August’s UFC 101 in the best shape of his brilliant career, and Penn (14-5-1) combined a flawless game plan and world-class conditioning to submit his fellow Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with a rear naked choke in the fourth round of his third fight in 2009. Now the champion’s conditioning will be put to the ultimate test when he faces the new No. 1 contender.

“I can’t wait to defend the title,” Penn said. “I know what kind of competitor Diego Sanchez is and I am training very hard. This will be a good test.”

“The Prodigy” will face a challenger as willing as he is to leave it all on the line in The Ultimate Fighter™ Season One winner Diego Sanchez (fighting out of San Diego, Calif.), who has reinvented himself as a unstoppable cardio machine that won’t quit moving forward until he wears the UFC championship belt around his waist. The 27-year-old Albuquerque, N.M. native with the 23-2 professional record is on a four-fight win streak and is 2-0 since dropping down to lightweight with exciting wins over Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida. This will mark Sanchez’s first title fight, and if the former welterweight, who won his first 19 professional fights, tops Penn, he will join Matt Serra, Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans as the fourth The Ultimate Fighter™ show winner to earn a UFC title.

“I’ve always wanted to face the best,” Sanchez said. “I’ve worked so hard for this and now I finally have a shot at the title. I’m training like I’ve never trained before and I expect an all-out war.”

The current UFC 107 fight card appears as follows:

- B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez (for lightweight title)
- Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida*
- Cheick Kongo vs. Frank Mir
- Thiago Alves vs. Paulo Thiago
- Paul Buentello vs. Todd Duffee*
- Alan Belcher vs. Wilson Gouveia*
- Kevin Burns vs. T.J. Grant*
- Ricardo Funch vs. Johny Hendricks*
- Houston Alexander vs. TBA*

* – Not officially announced

Source: UFC.com