UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II (31-Jan-09)

<table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tbody><tr align="center"><td colspan="6">UFC 94: ST. PIERRE VS. PENN II
</td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" align="left">January 31st, 2009, PPV
</td><td colspan="3" align="right">MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, NV
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">Weight</td><td align="center">Name</td><td align="center">Record</td><td align="center">Name</td><td align="center">Record</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">170</td><td align="center">Georges St. Pierre
</td><td align="center">(17-2)</td><td align="center">BJ Penn
</td><td align="center">(13-4-1)</td><td align="center">

Rematch, Welterweight Championship​

</td></tr><tr><td align="center">205</td><td align="center">Lyoto Machida
</td><td align="center">(13-0)</td><td align="center">Thiago Silva
</td><td align="center">(13-0)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">155</td><td align="center">Nate Diaz
</td><td align="center">(10-2)</td><td align="center">Clay Guida
</td><td align="center">(24-9)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">205</td><td align="center">Stephan Bonnar
</td><td align="center">(11-4)</td><td align="center">Jon Jones
</td><td align="center">(6-0)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">170</td><td align="center">Karo Parisyan
</td><td align="center">(18-5)</td><td align="center">Dong Hyun Kim </td><td align="center">(11-0-1)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">185</td><td align="center">Matt Arroyo
</td><td align="center">(3-2)</td><td align="center">Dan Kramer
</td><td align="center">(0-0)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">155</td><td align="center">Manny Gamburyan
</td><td align="center">(8-3)</td><td align="center">Thiago Tavares
</td><td align="center">(13-3)</td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">170</td><td align="center">Akihiro Gono </td><td align="center">(29-13-7) </td><td align="center">Jon Fitch</td><td align="center">(17-3) </td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">170 </td><td align="center">John Howard
</td><td align="center">(12-4) </td><td align="center">Chris Wilson
</td><td align="center">(14-4) </td><td align="center">
</td></tr><tr><td align="center">205 </td><td align="center">Jake O'Brien</td><td align="center">(10-2)</td><td align="center">Christian Wellisch</td><td align="center">(8-4) </td><td align="center"></td></tr></tbody></table>

 

Re: UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II

Notes on the Event:

-- BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre first fought three years ago at UFC 58: USA vs. Canada. The fight marked BJ Penn's return to the UFC. Penn left the UFC after defeating Matt Hughes for the welterweight title. He went to Japan to fight for K-1, Hawaii for Rumble on the Rock, and back to Japan for a couple more K-1 fights. While Penn wasted a year kickboxing the UFC stripped him of his title and put it up for grabs at UFC 50: The War of 04, naming Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre the competitors for the title. After a back-and-fourth first round Georges St. Pierre went for a kimura from guard and gave up his arm allowing Matt Hughes to jump over and sink in an armbar. Hughes defended his title by defeating Frank Trigg, then fought in two non-title fights, winning both, defeating Joe Riggs and Royce Gracie. Meanwhile, a young St. Pierre began clearing out the welterweight division, winning four straight fights, defeating Jason Miller, Trigg, Dave Strasser, and Sean Sherk. When BJ came back to the UFC, he still had his belt, and still considered himself the welterweight champion. The UFC decided to put him up against St. Pierre to determine the number one contender.

In the first round of their fight St. Pierre was poked in the eye and had double vision for the duration of the bout as a result. BJ Penn took advantage and peppered St. Pierre with jabs and uppercuts, breaking St. Pierre's nose and mashing up his face. St. Pierre used leg kicks to keep Penn from putting him in danger. All three judges scored the round for Penn 10-9. In the second round BJ slowed down considerably and St. Pierre went to work. St. Pierre got his arms around Penn and slammed him twice while keeping the fight even in terms of kickboxing. Between the second and third rounds BJ Penn claims he felt exhausted and when he came out for the beginning of the third round, he didn't have much left. Georges picked up and slammed BJ in that round and both fighters scored another take down. In the dying seconds of the fight BJ attempted a gogoplata but St. Pierre powered out of it. Two judges scored the bout 29-28 for St. Pierre while judge Cecil Peoples scored the bout 29-28 Penn. GSP would injure himself in training, forcing him out of a title bout with Matt Hughes. BJ Penn took his place but lost by TKO.

-- Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts with identical 13-0 records. The winner of this bout is likely to get a title shot. Machida is a training partner of Anderson Silva and the Nogueira Brothers while Silva trains at American Top Team with Thiago Alves, JZ Cavalcante, and Marcus Aurelio.

-- Former welterweight contender Karo Parisyan was supposed to fight Jon Fitch on this card but the bout never materialized.

-- Heavyweight Jake O'Brien was released from the UFC at one point, but was re-signed to lose to Andrei Arlovski and Cain Velasquez. The loser of his upcoming bout with Christian Wellsich will likely be cut from the UFC.

 

The heartbeat of this rematch has been beating for two years... much louder now... the anticipation is killer.

 

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=gekT6gfDKyw

 

How have you been watching previously?

 

I really don't know who I think is going to win in this one. If BJ can pump his jab and keep the stand up, it could be a long night for Pierre. If GSP can implant his will, it'll be a good night for Pierre.

 

In my sig in honor of you actually. I wasn't sure if you caught the show, so I put it in my sig so you could read it. I figured you would like it.

I've made my decision.

Penn-TKO-3.

 

In response to GSP's trainer saying they were training GSP to finish Penn, BJ has come out and told GSP's trainer to go fuck himself. Either BJ is nervous and can't stop shit from dribbling from his lips, or he'll disrespect anyone to hype a fight.

 

http://www.thescore.com/video/Player.aspx?vid=2477

GSP interview with The Score (responds to BJ's steroid allegations, etc.)

Just below it is an interview with Rashad who has been helping GSP train. Rashad is going to be featured on the next (and final) installment of UFC Primetime this Wednesday.

 

I don't think BJ is scared. I think he'd fucking fight Fedor if he could, I think he is just hyping up the fight. BJ kind of reminds me of Floyd Mayweather. He'll talk a shit load of shit to hype the fight, but pay GSP his respects after the fight. He did the same shit with Sherk.

 

I think he is trying to motivate himself by taking offense where none is intended. I interpret that as him verbalizing his doubt. If he was confident he wouldn't be flipping out so much, talking trash and banning the UFC film crew, telling Dana he's going to slap him, etc..

Strange that in a fight with a guy from Hawaii, his opponent is the laid back one.