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.

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.

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.

Talk about a dream match; Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre vs Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva in a catch-weight super fight…as long as both guys win their next fights.

Silva takes on Patrick Cote at UFC 90 later this month, and St. Pierre tangles with BJ Penn on Super Bowl weekend. However, there’s an interesting twist to this plan, and it has to do with Lightweight Champion, BJ Penn. Here’s a quote from UFC President Dana White:

If GSP beats BJ then you’ll see Silva v GSP – possibly at a catch weight. But if Penn beats GSP there’s no way I’d let him move up to 185lbs, no way. He’ll f***ing fight, argue and cry about it but there’s no way – it ain’t gonna happen, I can tell you that right now – it ain’t gonna happen.

Sounds like a case of size discrimination to me!!

Anderson Silva is 6’2″ and walks around at 215lbs (Where does he hide all the weight?! He looks like a string bean!!) while St. Pierre is 5’10″ and walks around at 195lbs.  Penn is 5’9″ and probably walks around at 175lbs. That is a huge size difference from Silva, not to mention height. Penn has fought at light heavyweight before, taking on Lyoto Machida in a competitive losing fight.

I say, as long as the commission approves it, why not? Silva vs Penn and Silva vs St. Pierre are both super fights, and that’s what the Brazilian wants before he rides off into the sunset, possibly as soon as six fights from now.

Fresh off his 25 minute beat-down of consensus #2 welterweight fighter Jon Fitch, GSP had this to say to RDS.ca regarding his immediate future:

Nothing is obviously signed yet, but fighting him (BJ Penn) is my number one goal.  I think he deserves a chance to challenge for my belt, but we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks. The President of the UFC, Dana White, said he would like to return to Montreal before the end of the year.  For my part, I do not know if I will go back in the Octagon before 2009.

The Canadian has fought (and won) four times in the past twelve months, Josh Koscheck by decision at UFC 74 in August 2007, Matt Hughes by arm bar at UFC 79 in December 2007, Matt Serra by TKO at UFC 83 in April, and most recently Jon Fitch by decision at UFC 87 this past Saturday.  Training camps run anywhere from 10 to 12 weeks, plus travel, plus all the sacrifices, all the PR and stress that go along with it.  Let’s hope after some chillin’ and illin’ St. Pierre will reconsider and make the BJ Penn super fight happen sooner than later, as the UFC December 27 card is still four months away.

The a**hole side of Matt Hughes has reared its asinine head again. Check out what he wrote in his blog about the UFC 87 Main Event, featuring Georges St. Pierre (the guy who throttled him twice) vs. Jon Fitch:

Georges didn’t look as big as he has before and he seemed like he had gotten tired from the first round. Fitch had the game plan of countering Georges and you just can’t do that. You can’t counter a quicker fighter. To be honest, halfway in the third round I got up and walked out of the arena and went to my hotel. The fight wasn’t the most exciting and I wanted to get out of there before everyone else was getting up to leave.

The fight was awarded Fight of the Night honors. As well, Fitch said himself he wasn’t countering St. Pierre, but that the Canadian was just too damn fast.

Now I remember why Hughes is the guy I love to hate. After his tough losses to Georges St. Pierre and then Thiago Alves, it seemed as though a sombre, respectful Matt Hughes was considering retirement…then he pops off and makes me post the above photo again. Sheesh. Good to have the antagonistic Hughes back I suppose.