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.

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.

Vaseline-Gate: GSP(issed) Says Enough

Apparently Georges St. Pierre has had, and heard, enough from BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, & others about allegations of cheating stemming from “Vaseline-Gate”. And he’s made himself heard. He was on the Sherdog Radio Network yesterday, here are excerpts from what he said:

“Listen, I never cheated in my life,” an animated St. Pierre told Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show on Wednesday. “Let me tell you something, I never said something bad to B.J. Penn. I never answered back to him with what he said. I’ve always been respectful. Even after the fight I went and told him, ‘Hey, keep your head up. You can be proud. You’re a tough guy. You stayed in the ring for a long time.’ But now that he says something like that it bothers me a lot. He already said I was taking steroids, that I was a quitter, that he was blaming me for seeing a sports psychologist and now he says that I cheat because I use Vaseline.”
“It’s disrespectful, but B.J. is a winner,” St. Pierre said. “I understand a winner’s mentality. A winner’s mentality always tries to understand the reason why he lost. In B.J.’s case, he doesn’t do it in a good way. I understand that he tries to understand why he lost, but what he should’ve done instead of looking at things he doesn’t control he should’ve looked at himself in the mirror and asked himself what he should’ve done better to be more well-prepared for that fight to be able to beat Georges St. Pierre instead of looking at me and try to find excuses… B.J. right now is doing it all wrong and he’s not going to become a better fighter if he keeps acting like this.”
“First of all what happened is Phil, he put Vaseline in my face, but then after he didn’t have the Vaseline,” said St. Pierre. “After he put Vaseline in my face, he didn’t put Vaseline in my back. That’s what people don’t understand. He put one hand on my chest and he made a circle behind my back. It helps my breathing.”
St. Pierre also outlined the importance of being massaged between rounds.
“When you come back in the corner, sometimes by punching and clinching, your shoulders are stiff,” said St. Pierre. “So it’s good to massage the shoulders to make the blood flow, you know what I mean? To make it more loose. If you look at muay Thai fights, in muay Thai they come back in the corner to get massage[d] to make the blood circulate. It’s the same thing in MMA. You get massage[d] to make the blood flow so you’re more fresh the next round.”
In the letter filed Tuesday with the NSAC, Penn’s camp also stated they’d received prior knowledge of St. Pierre’s alleged tendencies.
Matt Hughes, who lost to St. Pierre in two of their three welterweight bouts, has been one former opponent of the beloved Canadian champion to comment publicly about the allegations.
“I’m not saying GSP did something wrong and I’m not saying that it would have changed any outcomes of any fights; but what I am saying is, for my last two fights against Georges, he felt greasy,” read a post on Hughes’ Web site on Tuesday.
St. Pierre seemed shocked by Hughes’ words.
“I don’t know what to say,” he told the “Beatdown” hosts. “The next fight day they just have to check me. I have nothing to hide. It pisse[s] me off a little bit. It’s like people are jealous or something… I’m not going to talk bad. I don’t mind. Everything comes up and down in life. I think Matt Hughes is trying to find excuses now for going on the way down. I don’t know.”
When asked about giving Penn a rematch in light of the controversy, St. Pierre didn’t hesitate though.
“Lets go do a rematch with B.J. Penn,” said St. Pierre. “We’re going to do it this summer. St. Pierre-Penn III — and this time we’ll wear a rash guard. I guarantee you the result will be the same or even worse for him.”

http://sherdog.com/news/news/st-pierre-i-never-cheated-in-my-life-16065

Which probably ends with something along the lines of “I am not impressed by your performance”. Nonetheless, it’s good to finally hear GSP’s side of the story, and it’s important he speak out given all the allegations being made by Penn & others. This probably won’t be the end to all of it, but GSP is one of the people who would know best about what goes on in his corner and this sounds like a fairly good defense argument. Now we wait and see what the NSAC and others have to say.

Vaseline-Gate Update: Matts Claim GSP Greased Before?

Either that or anyone Georges St. Pierre has beaten over the last year or two is jumping on the bandwagon since Saturday. I think the latter, but this interesting quote came from former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes, who’s fought GSP a few times before and, over the last couple years, has twice lost to him, via his official blog on matt-hughes.com, his official website:

“I was also surprised by the final match, I thought B.J. would have put on a better performance. B.J. Penn is coming from a lighter weight class, but he took the fight at 170. That’s the bottom line. I knew it was going to come down to who had the better cardio and even at the end of the first round B.J. looked tired.

Now, on to what everybody is talking about, the greasing. I’m not the only one who has said that GSP felt greasy during a fight. I know Matt Serra has mentioned it and, even in their first fight, I think B.J. said something. I’m not saying GSP did something wrong and I’m not saying that it would have changed any outcomes of any fights; but what I am saying is, for my last two fights against Georges, he felt greasy.”

http://matt-hughes.com/blog1/2009/02/03/ufc-94/

Boo hoo hoo. Cry me a river. I smell some serious bandwagoning. Now let’s keep in mind these 2 Hughes-GSP fights were, respectively, just over 1 & 2 years ago (November ’07 and November ’06), their first fight was all the way back in November ’04. But it’s possible that Greg Jackson (GSP’s current trainer) has been doing this stuff with his guys for a while and we didn’t know it until “the tweak” became mainstream a few months ago. The first Penn-GSP fight, for those curious, was nearly 3 years ago (March ’06). Which begs one question to be asked…why now? If you knew about it back then why wasn’t it brought up way back then instead of waiting until just now? That makes it sound more like it’s a ploy to get some free attention at the expense of others, hence the bandwagoning. Or maybe Hughes is still just bitter over dropping 2 in a row to GSP, and to even mention Serra without anything negative towards his bitter rival is shocking in its own right. Who’s next? Maybe we’ll find out soon in the next installment of As The (Greasy) World Turns…

BJ Penn Retiring? Or Perhaps Something Else?

It seems that, unbeknownst to the vast majority of us, BJ Penn had a plan Saturday. Go in, win, and retire a double champion and throw UFC further into chaos. Plan backfired. In the last day he’s made his first public remarks post-fight to a Hawaii TV station, which went something like this:

“I have no clue what is going on in my head right now. I was going to make this my last fight and finish up fighting GSP. In my head, I was with [the UFC] for nine or ten years and I kind of just wanted to be finished with this whole thing after this. So I don’t know where my head is right now.”

Is he really going to retire now? I hope not. Why? A few reasons…
1-Kenny Florian. The big one. KenFlo is supposed to be next in line for a UFC Lightweight Title shot (Penn holds title) since his win against Roger Huerta, but Penn opted for the GSP fight at the time. To stay active, Florian then took a huge gamble in the form of another fight in the meantime against Joe Stevenson. Florian won, and a Penn win would’ve likely meant deciding between taking another such fight or being inactive for several more months (Penn would’ve defended the Welterweight Title first against Thiago Alves). Now KenFlo should get his shot.

2-Vaseline-Gate. Penn started it by claiming he was going to file a protest of the fight with the NSAC. (Note: As of roughly 4:30 PM ET Monday afternoon the protest had not been filed, according to NSAC executive director Keith Kizer. Penn has roughly 8 more days to file, but not filing DOES NOT mean the NSAC won’t take action. NSAC has already given GSP’s side a “very, very stern warning” and further action could be taken even if no official protest is filed) Perhaps he’s trying to find a way to quickly get out of this mess which he started. Might work. Might not. My guess? Won’t, at least not until the NSAC investigation’s done.

3-Vacating the title. Partly tied to #1. They could make KenFlo vs. the #2 contender for the title or an interim title (again) but who would he fight? Sadly, I think most arrows point to Sean Sherk. I’d have said Nate Diaz had he beaten Clay Guida Saturday night, but that’s likely not an option for now. Ditto Mac Danzig before he lost to Guida. Guida? Tough call. Only 5-3 in UFC but he’s won 3 straight since that instant classic fight against Roger Huerta. And he’s beaten 2 TUF winners in a row. Dark horse. Any way you look at it it’s the second time in less than 2 years they’d have a vacant title or the need for an interim title. That’s 2 times too many.

4-Money/drawing power. He’s still a big draw and remains a perennial top 3 Lightweight, still #1 in UFC. He’s generally ranked #1 or #2 by most (those that rank him #2 generally rank Shinya Aoki #1) and he could go back to Welterweight for more superfights. And if UFC were to go to Hawaii a show could be built around him and his fellow Hawaiians now in UFC (that would be TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove and perhaps Troy Mandaloniz). The only bigger celebrity in Hawaii, excluding that Obama dude, might be Dog The Bounty Hunter. And his son’s dabbled in MMA, so…

All things considered, I think #1 & #2 are the most compelling arguments. He & UFC need to stop screwing Florian and since it seems Penn started the whole “Vaseline-Gate” thing, he shouldn’t back out. Like I like to say, “Don’t Start What You Can’t Finish”. Ultimately, the question to answer is will he actually go through with it and retire? My guess: No. Just some face-saving and excuse-making here, among other things. Probably still not all together after GSP gave him the Matt Hughes treatment in rounds 3 & 4. He’s got a 30-45 day break to recover though (medical suspension).

Vaseline-Gate Update: GSP Had A “Witch Doctor”? (Updated)

And not the kind you might think that does that “ching-chang walla walla bing-bang” or whatever thing. Perhaps it’s just another weird fight ritual from the camp who gaves us “the tweak”. According to the latest update from MMAWeekly.com, seems Greg Jackson had a “witch doctor” in GSP’s corner performing some new, bizarre ritual that will soon be the wave of the future in MMA corners:

Jackson spoke to MMAWeekly.com on Sunday afternoon and said the misunderstanding arose after Phil Nurse, one of St. Pierre’s cornermen, executed a ritual taught by a member of St. Pierre’s team, a “witch doctor” named Steven Friend.

“So in between rounds, (Friend) had this little drill that you do – and Phil Nurse is the one who knows how to do it – he showed Phil, and this is what Georges wanted, so we did that,” Jackson said. “But this is why we were doing it. He rubbed your back and tapped your chest; I don’t know exactly how it works. But anyways, what that’s supposed to do is get your energy in line, or motivated or whatever. So in between rounds, we had Phil Nurse do that.”

Jackson said St. Pierre has worked with Friend for years, since the French Canadian began training at Jackson’s academy in Albuquerque, N.M. Jackson says Friend has also worked with Matt Hughes and Randy Couture in preparation for their fights. Friend was featured in the sixth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” as a guest of Hughes.

“The controversy came because Phil Nurse also was putting Vasoline on Georges’ eyebrows,” Jackson elaborated. “In between rounds, you always want to put on Vasoline on (a fighter’s face). So Phil Nurse put all the Vasoline on his face, so his hands might have had a miniscule amount left over from that, when he went around the side and rubbed a little point on his back, and tapped on his chest.

“At that point, somebody in the audience thought we were greasing George down, and ran over and told the commission that we were greasing his body down. The commission came in and said ‘you can’t grease him down,’ which didn’t work. They said ‘you’re putting Vasoline on his back,’ and Phil’s like, ‘oh, there might be a little on my fingers, but it wasn’t intentional at all, and of course they wiped it right off and it was gone, so it wasn’t a factor in the fight at all.”

“We told our side of the story, we said didn’t mean to put any grease anywhere,” he said. “If we were trying to grease the back we’d be greasing up and down, we would make it count. We wouldn’t do a little tiny spot in the back. The whole thing doesn’t make any sense, so they were fine with it once we gave our explanation. It wasn’t like we were taking gobs of Vasoline and slathering on his back. They didn’t understand the drill that the witch doctor was having us do, and so it looked that way. It didn’t effect the fight at all.”

At this point, no formal complaint has been filed with the NSAC. The popular trainer chalks the whole incident up to fan paranoia.

“The whole greasing thing is pretty ridiculous,” he said. “You can’t grease somebody up. You just couldn’t do it. They check your body before you get into the cage, there’s an inspector right there. In order for us to grease him up, it would be insane. There are cameras everywhere. We don’t cheat. We don’t need to cheat to win.”

Jackson said he wasn’t aware if St. Pierre’s ritual was related to the infamous “nipple tweak,” as the whole business was “out of his domain.” As long as it made his fighter feel better, he was all for it.

“If it works, we’re going to use it,” he said.

Ridiculous indeed. Over-reaction on the NSAC’s part? Perhaps, but they’re trying to make sure the rules are enforced and it’s fair, so you can’t put too much blame on their shoulders. Does sound like it could’ve just been an honest mistake, which makes sense-happens all the time. Or so we are led to believe. Let’s also keep an eye on Vaseline stock today because this whole thing could be quite good for business too. And BJ Penn fans need to man up and admit their guy lost and lost fairly, move on and give Kenny Florian the title shot he deserves already.

UDPATE: According to a summary of the articles and more on BloodyElbow.com, we now might know who that “somebody in the audience” was…Chuck Liddell. Carrying a grudge, perhaps? Here’s the specific quote:

“Jackson doesn’t mention that “somebody in the audience” was apparently Chuck Liddell. Hardly an uninformed spectator.”

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/2/2/744379/more-on-the-georges-st-pie

Also some pictures after the jump. The quote above is near the end.

Vaseline-Gate: Penn Protests UFC 94 Fight Against G(rea)S(ed)P

Apparently the NSAC saw something we didn’t during the UFC 94 main event, namely a certain name brand petroleum jelly being applied to Georges St. Pierre between rounds. The story from MMAmania.com:

Between the second and third rounds of his fight against BJ Penn at UFC 94: “St. Pierre vs. Penn 2,” Georges St. Pierre had an excessive amount of Vaseline applied to his back by his cornermen.

Officials ringside noticed the generous — and illegal — helping of petroleum jelly on the backside of the Canadian and sprung into action, having it removed before he could come out for the round. St. Pierre had no excuses for the incident, saying it was just a minor mistake caused by the between-round frenzy.

BJ Penn and his team, however, do not see it the same.

“The Prodigy” indicated that he is set to file a complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). When contacted for comment, the government entity that regulates the sport in “Sin City” did not have an immediate statement on the incident.

St. Pierre throttled Penn for four full rounds to retain his 170-pound title. He relied on his strong wrestling skills to take the lightweight champion to the mat and pound on him for most of the fight. St. Pierre also demonstrated crisp stand up, landing some nice shots and even a few head-snapping Superman jabs.

The Hawaiian had no answers … literally. Penn did not answer the bell for the fifth and final round.

The fight was a lopsided drubbing. And it’s hard to imagine that Vaseline was the reason behind it. Nonetheless, if the application of the slippery substance was premeditated to give St. Pierre an advantage — and not a minor mistake as St. Pierre claims — then there could be repercussions.

Rest assured that the NSAC, if a complaint was indeed filed, will do its best to get to the bottom of the situation.

From what I know, the advantage would likely be it would make GSP very slippery and tough for Penn to grip, making throws, takedowns, and some ground submission holds, escapes, etc. insanely difficult, akin to when fighters get extremely sweaty over the course of long fights. Not exactly what UFC needs coming off perhaps their biggest fight ever-controversy. Or is Penn just crying foul because he got the Matt Hughes treatment and didn’t like his head being used as essentially a punching back for those last 2 rounds? We shall see. Repercussions would likely affect the guilty cornerman and hopefully not St. Pierre. Let’s see what the NSAC has to say about this first.