Vaseline-Gate: Here We Go Again?

Oh, Strikeforce. You make such a valiant effort to give us what we want and yet through no fault of your own it just isn’t meant to be. This time the culprit is Mitsuhiro Ishida, who seems intent on bringing us “Vaseline-Gate 2.0”. Details after the jump.

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.

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.

Coming Soon: Vaseline-Gate II?

Well, that depends on past history and how you see things, but before there was Vaseline-Gate there was…well…I wouldn’t call it Vaseline-Gate but similar in Japan involving UFC’s newest acquisition today: Yoshihiro Akiyama. Nothing official yet but look for him to debut in UFC this summer. Akiyama, considered a Top 10 Middleweight, has a career mark of 12-1 with 2 No Contests, the NCs coming against Kazushi Sakuraba for aforementioned Vaseline-Gate (he was greased up pre-fight) and when he was KO’d by Kazuo Misaki, a result overturned to NC due to being KO’d by an illegal soccer kick. His only career loss came in March ’05 to K-1 veteran Jerome LeBanner in Akiyama’s 2nd career fight. He hasn’t lost since. He last fought at DREAM 6 in September, submitting Masanori Tonooka at 6:26 of round 1 (DREAM has 10-minute first rounds, not 5). He’s never gone the distance-7 of his wins are by submission, 5 by KO/TKO.

This may not be the signing UFC fans expected, given recent names mentioned have included Satoshi Ishii, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, and perhaps others, but it at least gives UFC another lamb to sacrifice to Anderson Silva. This lamb might not be slaughtered so easily, even with the NCs he’s still beaten 2 top foreign fighters in now-UFC fighter Denis “Liu” Kang and feared murderer Melvin Manhoef, and those two are very big names. Although age might work a little against him (33), Akiyama probably will get a title shot with a win, worst-case is two, and it’s another step forward for UFC in its efforts to get back to Japan like they’ve talked about. Just as long as he doesn’t cause another Vaseline-Gate, although I’m sure 2 other guys in particular wouldn’t mind one little bit.

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).

Vaseline-Gate: Greg Jackson On “MMA Nation”

On a special Sunday episode (it usually airs Saturdays from 5-7 PM ET) of “MMA Nation” on 106.7 WJFK-FM in the Washington, DC area, sometimes-GSP trainer Greg Jackson discussed the topic and more with host Luke Thomas. Worth a listen to get Greg’s side of it and more. Listen after the jump (20 minutes):

http://www.wjfk.com/episode_download.php?contentType=36&contentId=3468734

If the above link doesn’t work you can find it and listen at the show’s page here:

http://www.wjfk.com/pages/2583959.php

You can listen live to the show in the DC area on 106.7 FM or live online at wjfk.com A podcast version of the show is also available on iTunes.

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.

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: Some Guys Just Can’t Let It Go

I refer to one Matt Hughes, who apparently hasn’t gotten all his 15 minutes yet. From his official blog at matt-hughes.com:

I usually don’t do this, but I will this time.  When I talk about a topic one week, it usually doesn’t get brought up again.  I think a lot of people need to go back and reread last week’s blog, including GSP.  At no point did I accuse Georges of putting grease on himself.  All I said was that he felt slick.  I’ve wrestled over a thousand matches, fought 50 opponents, all I’ve ever done in life is wrestle and compete with other people.  With all that experience, do you think I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between sweat and something else?  Last week when I got to Florida, I was in the elevator with Robbie, I said “Robbie did you hear about GSP?”  He said, “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  I then said that BJ accused him of being slippery, Robbie looked right up at me and said, “That’s what you said after Anaheim.”  Also, I’ve had several people close to me around my town who have come up to me and said the same thing.  I’ve nothing against GSP, I even think he’s somewhat a likable guy.  Some people are trying to say that I’m making this personal and that’s just not true at all.  The reason I didn’t bring this up before was because I didn’t know there was anything to him being slick.  With all the other guys coming out and saying the same thing, I just wanted to be true to myself, and to everybody else, and say that there could be some validity there.  -matt

http://matt-hughes.com/blog1/2009/02/10/matt-veach/

Matt, I don’t have anything against you personally, I liked you when you fought, but SHUT UP ALREADY! You are coming off as a crybaby, a sore loser, an attention whore, and so on and so on. You are making it personal because you can’t stand that GSP is the champ and you’re not, plus he beat you more times than you beat him. Now I’ll give Matt credit, he makes a couple valid points here, but the terminology is still close enough and the timing of these comments aren’t the best either. Let it go, Matt. A-Roid is doing us all a favor right now. Don’t ruin it.

Vaseline-Gate: A Doctor’s Thoughts On Preventing It Again

Interesting column up now at MMAJunkie.com from their resident medical expert, Dr. Johnny Benjamin. In his column, “Medical Beat” today, he says preventing it is quite simple. Read on and draw your own conclusions:

On occasion I am asked to comment on potential MMA rules changes or modifications that are designed to better help protect the fighters and integrity of the sport.

In light of the recent controversy from UFC 94’s main event between Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn regarding the alleged inappropriate use of Vaseline, I offer a simple and effective rules modification.

• Prohibit corner men associated with the fighter access to the cage, octagon or ring during a bout.
• Prohibit physical contact with the fighter by anyone outside the cage, octagon or ring during a bout.
• All physical contact (toweling perspiration, supplying water, etc.) and “cut work” to be performed solely by authorized state-sanctioned personnel.

Following UFC 94 on Jan. 31, Penn alleged St. Pierre was “greased up.” In a letter to the Nevada State Athletic Commission last week, Penn stated he was unable to implement any sort of Brazilian jiu jitsu as his legs continually slid down St. Pierre’s back. In an interview with MMAjunkie.com, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer said he had to issue a warning and wipe down St. Pierre before rounds of the fight, though he said the amount of Vaseline applied to the body was minimal at most.

While many have pushed for a mandate to allow only independent cut men can to apply Vaseline to a fighter, I think we should take it a step further.

He’s my example.

The UFC currently employs an expert cut team (headed by two of the greats, Jacob “Stitch” Duran and Leon Tabb) for each corner. These impartial cut teams, ringside medical staff, referees and athletic commission officials should be the only people allowed access to the cage, octagon or ring during a bout. The above-mentioned parties should be the only persons allowed physical contact with a fighter during a bout.

Individual fighter team members should only give instruction from outside the cage, octagon or ring. They should have no physical contact with the fighter after he or she has been inspected by the referee prior to entering the fighting structure.

There can be no question as to the integrity of the process. Even the perception of impropriety cannot be tolerated.

I believe this simple and easily enforceable rules modification can adequately address the potential issue of fighter contamination.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/13957/medical-beat-fighter-contaminationvaseline-issues-can-be-simply-resolved.mma

Simple, yes, and probably very easy to implement. Of course I would expect the fighters’ camps to object seeing how they’d then be getting paid to sit around and do nothing (I wouldn’t complain about that) but at least they would be watching and could easily relay any complaints/concerns to the Athletic Commission officials at cageside. Dr. Benjamin has done some good columns for Junkie over the last several months, this one’s no exception. Why wasn’t this thought of earlier?

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.