Confuseyus: UFC 101 & WEC 42 Preview & Predictions

Confuseyus

Philadelphia is best known as being the birthplace of America, the home of the authentic Philly cheesesteak, having some of the toughest fans in sports (booing Santa Claus?), and is nicknamed “The city of brotherly love”. That may not be the case on August 8 when UFC makes their first trip to Philly for UFC 101: Declaration. Certainly no love in the main event, where UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn finally defends the title in a long-anticipated matchup with Kenny Florian. Read on for my preview of the event, of course best enjoyed alongside a hot fresh cheesesteak. Extra cheese & mayo, bacon too, hold the onions. Then after that, break out the mullets and stick around for predictions for WEC 42 the next night in Vegas (August 9), headlined by Mark Buehrle’s favorite fighter-Miguel Torres-defending the WEC Bantamweight Championship against Brian Bowles.

Funny MMA Video Of The Day: You Hate BJ Penn, He Hates You Back

This is actually an audio clip of a recent ESPN Radio 1100 (Las Vegas) interview with UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn. Supposedly he has a beef with MMA Weekly over “Vaseline-Gate”, specifically for, at least in his mind, making his appeal to the Nevada State Athletic Commission seem extremely whiny rather than just annoyingly whiny.  What’s worse, Penn added, he did a lot to help the Ryan Bennett Memorial Fund after the death of the MMA Weekly founder, and this should apparently guarantee positive coverage from them years later. That’s at the 2:15 mark of this roughly 3:45 clip. Listen after the jump and draw your own conclusions…I do hope Kenny Florian finally shuts him up next week at UFC 101. At least until BJ starts whining again the day after.

Funny MMA Video Of The Day: BJ Penn Is So Serious About His Training!

Yep, he’s at it again. Today he’s wowing us with his Olympic-worthy high-diving skills. Or lack thereof. It’s after the jump. Enjoy.

Funny MMA Video Of The Day 2: BJ Penn Is Serious About Training

Just not for Kenny Florian at UFC 101. In the latest example of “The Prodigy” making a fool of himself, he shows how good he is at jumping out of a shallow pool of water. Witness this amazing feat of strength, agility and whatever else you want to make of it after the jump.

Funny MMA Video Of The Day 2: UFC Fighters Save Money, Live Better

Wow, times must REALLY be tight. Why else would BJ Penn, Mark Coleman and other UFC fighters be at a Walmart in Las Vegas? And just why would they bring Quinton Jackson with them? I can’t embed this video because the tags aren’t usable here (and it’s not from certain sites) but you can view this surprisingly funny video, which should’ve been called Rampage Being Rampage At Walmart either by clicking the link below or access it through the vodpod. Enjoy:

http://www.rawvegas.tv/watch/rampage-bj–coleman-at-walmart/393451b2249973c0990d27fbf415dd

Vaseline-Gate Update: It Drags On

Yes, we UFC fans were reminded yesterday that we still don’t have a definite resolution to the controversy at UFC 94 I quickly dubbed (and should’ve copyrighted) “Vaseline-Gate” stemming from the main event of BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre. Click below to read a small update from the topic coming up again the other day before the NSAC.

Vaseline-Gate Update: The End Is (Finally) Near? (Updated)

If what the NSAC is saying, the answer thankfully could be yes…and as soon as today. MMAjunkie.com has the scoop, check it out after the jump:

Vaseline-Gate Update: Penn (Finally) Files Formal Complaint

Took him long enough. Anyway, MMAWeekly has the scoop.

Vaseline-Gate Update: GSP’s Team Formally Responds

It’s far from over, unfortunately. Head Trainer Greg Jackson and Georges St. Pierre cornerman Phil Nurse have formally responded to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) in defense of a letter sent to the NSAC by BJ Penn earlier this month to address greasing allegations in their welterweight title fight at UFC 94 on January 31. Penn still hasn’t filed the formal complaint even though he recently said he will do so soon.

The LA Times has put up the entire response letter, viewable after the jump (there’s a link at this page to the PDF file-warning for slow connections: It’s 17 pages):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/mma_/index.html

I took a glance over the first few pages but eventually the quality of the file (which clearly looked to be hand-scanned) got to the point of unreadable and too messy for me. Draw your own conclusions. What happens to GSP’s side is still up to the NSAC-they could hand out fines, suspensions, or other punishment, or ultimately do nothing. It’s wait and see.

Rant: BJ Penn Needs To Shut Up And Man Up

I used to think higher of UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn. But between UFC 94, what happened since and what became known today, I’m in the process of doing quite the 180. Why? Click below…

So Close, Yet So Far Away: UFC 94 NOT The Biggest UFC Ever

So much for the biggest UFC fight to date being just that, at least when we’re talking money and butts in seats. The NSAC has just revealed the actual attendance and live gate totals for UFC 94, and they look something like this…

Attendance: 14,885 total. They claimed 14,885 paid, but they actually had 13,622 paid and 1,263 comps (free tickets given away).

Live gate: $4,290,020. They claimed $4.3 million, so one could argue they rounded up to account for that missing $9,980. FYI: That comes out to an average ticket price per paid attendee of $314.93 (rounded).

As far as the attendance goes, that number puts it a distant #2 all-time among attendance for a UFC event. UFC 83, with 21,390, is the record holder. The live gate is #6 all-time. The record holder is still UFC 66 (Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz for UFC Light Heavyweight Title). So while GSP-Penn might’ve been billed as the biggest fight in UFC yet, it appears it was only that in the Octagon…and, of course in controversy (Vaseline-Gate).

BJ Penn Retirement Rumor Update: Not Yet

At a recent “Welcome Home” rally for him in Hilo, Hawaii, UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn discussed his future plans, namely thoughts he might retire, and gave his answer on those rumors: Nope. From The Honolulu Advertiser:

There will be more world championship bouts for Hilo’s BJ Penn.

Whether or not another one with Georges St-Pierre is in the future remains to be seen.

In his first public appearance since losing to St-Pierre in the main event of UFC 94 in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, Penn addressed hundreds of his fans at a “Welcome Home BJ Penn” rally yesterday at the Ala Moana Center Centerstage.

“Of course, I was sad after that loss and a lot of things were going through my head,” he said. “But I woke up one day and said, ‘You know what? I’m still the lightweight champ. Let’s keep fighting.’ ”

The bout with Canada’s St-Pierre was for the UFC welterweight (170 pounds) world championship. Penn’s lightweight (155) world title was not on the line.

Penn said his camp is currently negotiating with UFC officials for a lightweight title bout against No. 1 contender Kenny Florian of Boston.

“That will probably be this summer, so that’s my focus now,” Penn said.

But there are still unfinished matters from the St-Pierre fight. Most notable, there is what has become known as “Greasegate.”

The Nevada State Athletic Commission is still reviewing the illegal application of Vaseline by a cornerman on St-Pierre’s chest, shoulders and back in between the first and second rounds of the bout. St-Pierre went on to win via TKO after the fourth round.

“The most important thing is that we told the commission to watch out for that before the fight, and then they caught him doing it and they didn’t tell us until after the fight,” Penn said. “I just wish they would have told us when it happened. It’s all hindsight now, but maybe they could have taken him to the back and cleaned him off or something.”

Because of the controversy, Penn said he’d like to get another shot at St-Pierre’s welterweight belt. St-Pierre is scheduled to face Brazilian Thiago Alves this summer.

“After I defend my belt and he defends his belt, I’d love to do it again,” Penn said. “Mostly because of the controversy. I just want it to be clean — no questions, no controversy.”

But Penn also admits that he took a beating at UFC 94. He said he can’t even recall what happened in the third and fourth rounds.

“I was probably borderline knocked out or something,” he said. “I just got beat up, that much I know.”

Penn received $125,000 for the bout, according to the Nevada commission (St-Pierre received $400,000).

“That’s how it is in our business, so I’m OK with it,” he said. “But I guess no matter what job you do, you always want to get paid more.”

Penn said he could not comment on potential additional income he could earn through pay-per-view sales of UFC 94. The event was projected to make close to $60 million in pay-per-view sales.

“Our contracts are confidential,” he said.

Still, Penn said being part of the frenzy surrounding UFC 94 was “amazing.”

“To see how big it was for everybody, and to have so much support, I feel so grateful,” he said.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090215/SPORTS24/902150398/1213

Well, obviously I’m kinda satisfied here because it appears KenFlo is getting his overdue title shot…my guess is it’ll be at either UFC 99 (June) or 101 (likely August). And it does make Penn’s post-fight initial comments seem like they were a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to losing and being caught up in what was the start of “Vaseline-Gate”, among other things. Happens to the best of us. As for GSP, he’ll be defending vs. Thiago Alves at UFC 100 in July, so the earliest we could possible see a Penn-GSP 3 is probably November or December, maybe even Super Bowl ’10 weekend, thich would be something like probably UFC 108. But both guys have to take care of business first. We’ll see how that turns out.

Site Update: More Fight Videos Being Added

Chances are you’ve noticed the Vodpod widget on the left side of this blog. I collect different videos I like to put there, namely MMA-related stuff. Based on the recent popularity of some of the videos I’m working to collect more and a greater variety of videos, both recent from from a few years ago. For those looking for UFC 94 vids I now have GSP-Penn 2 up and I’ve managed to find another working (for now) copy of Machida-Silva as the original file is now gone. Also put up a Gina Carano fight from EliteXC and some older fights featuring other top fighters like Fedor, Takanori Gomi, and others. As I find more ones and verify they work I’ll try and snag them. Be patient if any are slow to run too, they are NOT hosted on this blog (I am merely linking to them using embed codes via the widget). Enjoy and keep an eye out for more in the future!

(PS-Be sure to click the “See all XX videos” link to see even more vids. The widget can only display the 5 most recent ones I collected. Also, it sometimes takes a little time for videos I collect to show up and for the widget to update, so if some of the mentioned vids aren’t there yet, that’s why. It gets to me too)

Vaseline-Gate Update: Who Is The Mole?

According to BJ Penn, it’s the man he may next fight…Kenny Florian. Sherdog’s got the scoop:

16178

Kenny Florian knew that trash talk would be par for the course gearing up towards a fight with UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn. However, he didn’t quite expect the kick-off he got on Tuesday.

Penn, who’s been nursing his wounds since his four-round loss to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 94 on Jan. 31, expressed surprise that Florian planned to train with the French Canadian fighter, claiming that Florian had previously contacted Penn to warn him of St. Pierre’s proclivity to “grease up” before fights.

Penn dropped the bombshell statement during his first sit-down video interview since UFC 94 on BJPenn.com.

“That is kind of surprising to me because Kenny is actually the guy who tipped us off that GSP was going to be greasing,” said Penn. “He actually e-mailed me and tipped me off.”

Florian, who once trained with the popular Hawaiian fighter in his homeland, seemed flabbergasted by Penn’s assertion.

“I’ve never emailed a fighter about anything like that. I don’t even have B.J. Penn’s email,” a puzzled Florian told Sherdog.com on Tuesday. “I’d love to see that email. I would say print that email and show it to everybody. Where’s this mystery email?”

Florian, 32, also dispelled any possibility that the two had exchanged the alleged information by other means.

“I haven’t spoken to B.J. — besides ‘hello’ — since January of 2007,” he said. “I’ve never trained with [St. Pierre] in the past. I have no motive in saying that. Even if I knew, would I say that? I know of other fighters who have [greased] and I don’t say anything to anybody.”

Florian, who busted through Joe Stevenson in four minutes at UFC 91 last November, has gone 6-0 in the Octagon since his unanimous decision loss to then-champion Sean Sherk at UFC 64 in October 2006.

The Boston native is widely considered the No. 1 contender to Penn’s lightweight throne, though the controversy surrounding greasing allegations by St. Pierre’s corner and subsequent aspirations for a rematch have threatened to derail a Penn-Florian showdown.

Florian (11-3) interpreted Penn’s latest revelation as a step back in his direction at least.

“I was a little worried [about a St. Pierre-Penn rematch coming first],” said Florian. “From what I heard, it did really well with the pay-per-view and a lot of people turned up for it. The UFC certainly could have made a lot of money doing the third one, but I think the overwhelming response was –- I didn’t realize how big of a fight it would be between me and B.J. until I saw the polls and people talking on the Interweb. People want to see me fight B.J. and it feels good to know that.”

Florian suggested that Penn “feels threatened” by the fighter’s intentions to train with St. Pierre, and described the Hawaiian’s comments as “a mind game.” Florian hopes to join the multi-talented 170-pound king in Montreal sometime in March.

Penn’s assessment of Florian the fighter was far less controversial.

“He’s very good,” said Penn during the hour-long interview. “He’s very well rounded. He’s a black belt in jiu-jitsu. He’s obviously improved his wrestling and he’s a southpaw muay Thai fighter with great kicks. He can box, he can elbow, he can knee. He’s a mixed martial artist. He is. I give Kenny that: He’s a mixed martial artist, and I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

The UFC has not officially offered Florian a title shot against Penn (13-5-1) yet, though the part-time ESPN correspondent anticipates a return to the Octagon in June or July. Penn confirmed that his reps are currently negotiating the bout with the UFC.

Known as a cerebral competitor, Florian’s reasons for training with St. Pierre are two-fold.

“He’s trained everyone to fight against me. He trained both [Sam] Stout and [Roger] Huerta to fight me,” said Florian. “and obviously, he got a first-hand account of fighting B.J. –- twice. He’s gone seven rounds with B.J., so that’s some good information to get. Hopefully Georges will forget about the email I sent B.J. Penn and share it with me.”

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/florian-denies-gsp-email-plans-for-penn-bout-16178

It continues to just get more ridiculous. Penn needs to man up and, like Hughes before him, SHUT UP. You lost. Accept it and quit making up crybaby excuses unless you’re fine with losing people’s repsect and being portrayed in a negative light by those outside your own circle. Now if you want to come off as a sore loser, fine. But in the long run it just does you more harm than good. Every word said about this makes me think lesser and lesser of Penn. He ought to just drop the title and retire while he’s still got this much, it could be gone before too long. And just make the KenFlo fight happen already! This is getting insane.

Vaseline-Gate Update: GSP Statement, Penn Wants 3rd Fight, More

As The (Greasy) World Turns…a few more developments in the GSP-Penn war I’ve dubbed “Vaseline-Gate”:

First up, this statement from GSP’s team on his behalf is making the rounds:

To:  The MMA Community
From:  Team GSP
Re:  Official Statement Regarding UFC 94 Victory: “The Last Word”

George St-Pierre’s successful welterweight title defense at UFC 94 was the direct result of his disciplined preparation and skillful execution of a masterful gameplan.  Any implication to the contrary would diminish the significance of what was perhaps the biggest fight in MMA history.

St-Pierre states: “I have never cheated in my life, and as my fans know, I am deeply committed to upholding the integrity of the sport.  My entire camp and I have been completely open about what happened during my fight at UFC 94 – we have nothing to hide.  One of my cornermen did use an energy technique to help with my breathing that involves rubbing my back.  He’s
also done this in my previous fights.  If there was any Vaseline left on his hand after he put it on my face, it was unintentional, and I do not believe it made the slightest difference in the outcome of the fight.  Of course it’s up to the UFC, but I would be happy to offer BJ a second rematch.  I am confident the outcome will be the same.”

Team GSP is currently enjoying our victory celebration and we will soon turn our attention and focus toward Georges’ next competitor – Thiago Alves.

Shari L. Spencer

As for Penn, this…

“For the past several days I have been reading statements made by St. Pierre and Greg Jackson about our fight on January 31. St. Pierre claims that he is ‘not a cheater’ and that he and Greg Jackson will have ‘no problem with a rematch in the summer of 2009.’ To the untrained eye the grease might not look like much, but every grappler knows the effect that it has. Being able to apply your submissions and sweeps or just being able to hold on to your opponent to defend yourself from being hit is absolutely critical! There is a reason why you are not allowed to put grease anywhere on your body except for the area around your eyes. Because of the grease applied to St.Pierre’s Body the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s executive director, Keith Kizer has stated that the Penn-St. Pierre fight ‘definitely wasn’t fair.’ I hereby accept George St. Pierre and Greg Jackson’s challenge for a fight in the summer 2009. Lets call Dana now and set it up.”

Not so fast, Dana has other plans for both. For GSP, it’s Thiago Alves’ title shot which may happen at UFC 100 in July according to Alves. That’s not confirmed yet. An outside shot it happens at UFC’s next Canada event, but it’s short turnaround for GSP if it happens-April 18. Dana’s plan for Penn is to have him back at Lightweight and finally giving Kenny Florian his title shot. So thinking realistically, I see the earliest a 3rd fight could happen as being October. This assumes BJ-KenFlo happens in May or June (that seems the earliest) and GSP-Alves happens in July. But in the meantime, let’s just wait and see what the NSAC says, it’s now in their hands.