After middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s less than impressive showing against Thales Leites the UFC realizes they need to start putting up bigger names for Silva to fight. Silva’s performance likely was his not-so-subtle way of letting them know he isn’t pleased fighting middle of the road 185′ers.

UFC Prez Dana White stated at the UFC 97 presser that if St. Pierre gets past Thiago Alves at UFC 100, Silva vs St. Pierre is a definate possibility. He stressed however that Alves was a huge test for St. Pierre, as long as he made the damn weight. Ok, he didn’t say that, but that dude is just way too big for welterweight.

With the UFC imposing retirement for their top draw Chuck Liddell, that is one less superfight option available to Silva. I think the UFC needs to make the Silva/St. Pierre happen regardless of the outcome of GSP’s fight at UFC 100. Has he not proven enough that no 170lb guy can really challenge him?

It would be just about the biggest fight the UFC could put on, and REALLY get Silva’s engine going. He has never taken Franklin, Hendo, Irvin or Marquardt lightly, which kind of spells out to me that he didn’t take Cote/Leites seriously.

• Accuses that George ingested a substance that would cause his body to become highly and unnaturally slippery
• Phil Nurse, Greg Jackson, and the unknown parties are named as co-conspirators to St. Pierre’s alleged use of vaseline
• Penn is asking the commission to fine St. Pierre, Jackson, Nurse, and the unnamed parties up to $250,000.00
• To suspend Georges St. Pierre’s fighter license as well as the licenses of Jackson, Nurse, and the unnamed parties
• To change the result of the UFC 94 fight to a “no contest”
• Asks that St. Pierre take a pre-bout shower to make sure no substances exist on his body

Wow.

It was an unfortunate incident, and I believe there was an unintentional transfer of vaseline to St. Pierre, albeit a miniscule amount. However, that that point after the first round, the fighters were already drenched in sweat, and I do not believe the vaseline affected the outcome of the fight whatsoever. Not sure what Penn is trying to do here… Perhaps he had convinced himself so thorougly he could beat St. Pierre that he cannot accept a loss.

Of course it’s up to the UFC, but I would be happy to offer B.J. a second rematch. I am confident the outcome will be the same.

St. Pierre went as far as to offer to wear a rash guard, (think the tight spandex shirt the Tour de France guys wear) in their next bout.

BJ Penn has responded in kind on his official website, bjpenn.comm, and has accepted the offer.

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! … 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.

It came to light after Penn’s loss to St. Pierre that the Hawaiian had intended to call it quits had he defeated St. Pierre. Penn would have gone out on top as the only dual weight champion in UFC history, but as we all know by now, it didn’t go down like that. It now looks Penn will stick around to take care of some “unfinished business” with St. Pierre.

However, for that to happen, both Penn and St. Pierre may need to get by their next challenges, that being Kenny Forian for Penn and Thiago Alves for St. Pierre. Although, with the huge business the first rematch generated, it’s hard to believe the UFC wouldn’t make the second rematch happen regardless of the outcome of either fighter’s next fights.

Round 3:
St. Pierre landed 52 ground strikes.

Round 4:
St. Pierre landed 91 ground strikes.

Penn totaled 30 strikes over the final three rounds of the bout. By this time, Penn was mostly on his back defending himself, and rapidly tiring from muscling the larger St. Pierre around.

Penn’s camp has since filed a formal request to the NSAC to investigate the apparent “greasing” of St. Pierre by one of his cornermen between round 1 and 2. Looking at the fight again and looking at these stats, it’s hard to imagine the miniscule amount of Vasiline that may have been on St. Pierre’s back making any difference in the fight. UFC President Dana White has said as much, but we shall see what comes of this alleged cheating.

Matt Hughes has also piped in from the bench that St. Pierre felt “greasy” in their last two fights.

This fight is the fight everyone wanted and expected when Pride folded, but it never came to fruition because Fedor could never come to terms on a UFC deal. Now, under the Affliction banner, it’s finally happening, and happening soon! I’m picking Fedor by TKO.

Dan Henderson vs Rich Franklin:
This is/was a notch below the fantasy Pride vs UFC headliner of Arlovski/Emelianenko, but it’s still right up there. Hendo was the Pride 185lb Champion, and Franklin was his alter ego in UFC. Hendo did come to the UFC, but by the time he fought Quinton Jackson to unify the Pride/UFC belts, Franklin had lost some of his lustre after Anderson Silva defeated him. Now both guys are top contenders in the 205lb division and it’s non-title bout. It should still be a hell of a scrap, however. I’m picking Franklin by decision.

Georges St. Pierre beat B.J. Penn:
The match Penn has wanted for 2 1/2 years. Many felt he was robbed of a win after their first meeting at UFC 58, and now Penn gets his chance at redemption. Both fighters have improved immensely since then, with Penn dedicating himself to his training and St. Pierre shoring up his mental game. I may be biased, but I’m picking GSP on this one, and GSP again to defeat number one contender Thiago Alves. Dana White has said if GSP wins these next two fights, Anderson Silva could be next. Ding, ding!

I voted GSP.

Said GSP:

I want to thank Rogers Sportsnet and (Sportsnet analyst Showdown) Joe Ferraro for promoting the sport of MMA, because without them the sport would not be as known as it is right now in Canada. I want to thank everybody for their support and voting for me — I want to be a good Canadian ambassador for the sport and represent MMA well.

St. Pierre’s next task is a rematch aginst 155lb Champion BJ Penn on Jan 31, Super Bowl weekend. St. Pierre took the first meeting by split-decision, but was the more battered of the two fighters. As Penn likes to say about the first fight, “After the fight, he went to the hospital; I went to the bar.”

Things are looking up for St. Pirre, he’s only 27 and became the first mixed martial arts fighter to sign with CAA Sports, home of heavy hitters like Sidney Crosby, Derek Jeter and LeBron James. That’s big money company for sure.

Not only does Thiago Alves have seven straight wins in the cage, he had the last three over Karo Parysian, Matt Hughes, and Josh Koscheck. Hardly slouches, and that impressive run has earned the American Top Team product the next crack at the Welterweight title, no matter if Georges St. Pierre or BJ Penn wins their Welterweight Title bout coming up at UFC 94 this January.

There were strong rumors that if Georges St. Pierre won against Penn that he would get a crack at Anderson Silva, but those plans appear to be shelved at least for a few months. White expanded on this, saying if St. Pierre defeated Penn, and then defeated Alves, he would then get consideration for a shot at Anderson Silva. That’s a lot of “ifs” and it would be a shame if that fight never happened.

As for the forgotten man, Kenny Florian, the undisputed number one contender for BJ Penn’s 155lb title, well, he’ll just have to wait a little bit longer. So does Kenny wait for his “money in the bank” title shot for another 9-12 months, or does he stay busy and risk losing it?

After all those accolades, what is a fighter to do? BJ Penn has the answer, and it’s leaving a legacy as the best MMA fighter ever. Check out the quotes below in an interview with mmaweekly.com:

Dana White:

Is he tough enough to do it? (take on 185lb Champion, Anderson Silva) Absolutely. Is he talented enough to go up there and do it? Absolutely. Does that mean he should do it? Absolutely not. He doesn’t have the frame to carry that kind of weight. And it just makes no sense, no sense at all.

Not to mention, “Is he crazy enough to do it? Absolutely.” That wasn’t an actual quote from White, but I thought it should be mentioned. Yes, Penn is indeed crazy enough to challenge Silva.

Here’s Penn’s take on the situation, especially if he defeats Georges St. Pierre at UFC 94:

If I go in there and just destroy St. Pierre in two or three minutes, could (Dana White) really argue about it? In the end, it’s the fans that are gonna want it. If I sit there and I say, after I just beat Georges St. Pierre in three minutes, and say, ‘I want to fight so-and-so.’ Do you think the fans are gonna say, ‘Boo,’ we won’t pay for that?

He makes a valid point there. The UFC has proved it caters to the “mega” fights over the more deserving fighters. Case in point was UFC 91 when Randy Couture defended his Heavyweight title against a 2-1 Brock Lesnar. Besides, White has already gone on record as saying if St. Pierre defeats Penn, he would get to fight Anderson Silva next. Why is Dana drinking the Hatorade on Penn?

I know I’d pay to see Penn take on Silva.