If there was any doubt that George St Pierre has finally proved himself the better of B J Penn. We now know that Penn has been more talk than anything else. So much trash talking and at the end of the day he just didn’t have what it takes to defeat his Canadian nemesis.
George St Pierre seated at the press conference publicizing his bout with BJ Penn . picture appears courtesy of ap/Brian Boscoe ……………
If there was disappointment then it had to be amongst Penn’s fans. If nothing else this trilogy of fights within the UFC genre has made the fans all the more affixed as to the rivalry between the two. It’s these sort of rivalries that make the sport the thriving and driving force it is.
Penn takes a right hand from St Pierre . picture appears courtesy of mma.com/ Paul Whitfield ………………….
No longer viewed as the back street bullies of brawling as the sport has been portrayed by certain legislators and law enforcement officials. The genre that is known as mixed martial arts has now become a multi million dollar business. And the king of the hill is the entity UFC which is a wholly owned entity of Zuffa LLC.
That being said the fight card put together UFC 94 by UFC had St Pierre and Penn as the headliners. The undercard itself wasn’t too shabby either.
The fighters were very much a who’s who of the MMA world in other weight categories. Lyoto Machida versus Thiago Silva, Stephan Bonnar versus Jon Jones , Karo Parisyan versus Dong Hyun Kim and Nate Diaz versus Clay Guida. The gate itself was one of the highest gated revenues for an MMA event. The box office revenues were in excess of $4.35m and had over 13,000 people in attendance.
St Pierre the victor after his bout against B J Penn . picture appears courtesy of ap/ Brian Boscoe ………….
If Penn had anything to prove to his fans and to St Pierre in particular . It was he was the better of the two practitioners in the genre. It has been greatly debated by many as to who really is better of the two fighters. And if nothing else all the sniping between the two has added nothing but disdain for each other between the two. And this is the thing if any that UFC CEO loves to see amongst his stable of fighters. Create the atmosphere of animosity that the fans will love. And then you’ve got them hook line and sinker in terms of fans for the bouts or attendees for an event. Be it there live or via PPV. And PPV is the cash cow for UFC. In 2007 the revenues for all UFC events combined were in excess of $275m . And when you consider that boxing was only marginally lower than that in terms of its overall revenues via pay for view.
Penn and St Pierre in the octagon . picture appears courtesy of ap/Brian Boscoe ……………………….
But now the new kid on the block is MMA with UFC as its proprietor. Never let it be said that Dana White doesn’t know how sell his product. He’s the Don King for the new millennia. Such has been his acumen in making MMA what it is . That he now rules the roost like a megalomaniacal despotic ruler. He’s the final arbiter of everything to do with the sport. Though he states that it’s a collective that actually is a part of the decision making. But his intent is now on world domination when it comes to the sport and nothing , absolutely nothing will stand in his way.
St Pierre and Penn side by side publicizing their bout at the UFC 94 press conference. picture appears courtesy of ap/Phil Wainwright ………….
The bout between Penn and St Pierre would last for five grueling rounds. But it was St Pierre who got the better of Penn of for much of this bout. Penn was the offensive for much of the fight but it was St Pierre who was the better practitioner. He punished Penn with severe brutality and it was clear that the referee had no choice but to stop the bout when he did.
So now we must ask what’s next for St Pierre in the welterweight division ? For Penn he’ll have to rethink his future quite possibly as to whether it’s better for him to fight as a welterweight or lightweight. It has to be said that at this juncture it’ll be interesting to see what’ll materialize down the road for both fighters.
