Will BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre Be a Title Fight?

by Michael Rome on Jul 25, 2008 1:41 PM EDT in News

Dana White has confirmed on multiple occasions now that he intends to have BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre fight each other if St. Pierre beats Jon Fitch at UFC 87. However, it's never been clear if Dana was willing to let BJ Penn hold two titles at once. There are obvious problems with that sitiuation, the primary one being that with one guy holding both, each belt could only be defended once or twice a year.

This is not confirmed, but a fan over at The Underground says that BJ Penn was on a Hawaiian TV station and spoke about the fight:

they will be fighting this december 27.(source is bj penn his self on hawaii local news) the fight will not be a title fight but its going to be announced as "battle of the weight divisions". if all goes to plan hopefully gsp will still be holding the ww title after they fight in december and bj will move up and fight gsp in hawaii for the ww belt.

The only reason I'm willing to buy this is that it gives them an opportunity to do a meaningful rubber match if Penn wins. The downside is that the "battle of the weight divisions" will probably only be a 3 round fight.

Of course, it may turn out this guy is just making stuff up. As they say, developing...

1 recs | Comment 30 comments

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If it’s true, that would be awesome. It would be one of the best rubber matches. GSP’s rubber match against Matt Hughes was awesome as well. Can’t wait to see this come to fruition.

by lovingmma25 on Jul 25, 2008 1:46 PM EDT 0 recs

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I have some sort of reservation about this fight. I know it’ll be even bigger than the lost one, but something’s eating at me…

by Luke Thomas on Jul 25, 2008 1:57 PM EDT 0 recs

My problem is the purposely or not, B.J. is basically burying the lightweight division. Between completely dominating good lightweights like Stephenson and Sherk and spending a lot of his time hyping up and asking for fights outside the division, hes basically making a joke out of a very respectable division.

B.J. is amazingly talented and could easily hold belts in 2-3 weight classes, but when he does things like talk about fighting GSP immediately after beating Sherk (his first title defense, if you can call it that) and taking the title off the market while he trains for and subsequently fights GSP he does a disservice to the rest of the division.

Yes I know hes a freak and has the talent to fight anyone in the world, I just think that if he wants to be a champion of a division he should be using that talent for the division’s betterment by putting on exciting defenses (even if they happen to be serious beatings) rather then putting the belt on the back-burner while he explores his own interests.

by Day Man on Jul 25, 2008 2:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

Maybe it’s that both of these guys should be dominating their divisions right now instead of being in this kind of 50/50 fight that isn’t big enough to justify beating one of them.

by Michael Rome on Jul 25, 2008 1:59 PM EDT 0 recs

Exactly.

I don’t like to see division jumping unless the division has been cleaned out by the champ. GSP, as much as I love him, isn’t more than a paper tiger at this point, in that he has yet to defend his title successfully. And Penn? I really like him as a fighter also, but his arrogance in deciding he doesn’t really need to defend his title because it’s assumed he’d trounce everyone in the LW division is annoying. It’s assumed GSP and Penn would clean out their divisions; well, it hasn’t actually happened yet. My boss isn’t going to give me a promotion now, just because it’s assumed I’m a good worker and will eventually do it in a year or two. I have to actually walk the walk. I’m not taking away anything from what these two fighters have accomplished – these two are some of my favorite fighters – but they haven’t actually cleaned ou the divisions, and in MMA, nothing is guaranteed.

by pud333 on Jul 25, 2008 4:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

LOL, neither Penn nor GSP has had a ton of title defenses, but GSP has beaten more Top 10 WWs and better competition than any fighter has at any other weight class.

You can clean out a division without having all those wins being title defenses, especially in GSP’s case, where the UFC made him run the gauntlet of Top 10 WWs before getting title shots.

by Hardcharger on Jul 25, 2008 5:04 PM EDT up 0 recs

You’re right about GSP, but there are still a bunch of compelling fights for GSP left, as the WW division just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

by pud333 on Jul 25, 2008 7:26 PM EDT up 0 recs

So now all the top contenders in their division can just sit there and wait on the sidelines. There are too many top contenders right now in each division to put this fight on. Alves is first in line but he has a fight coming up against Sanchez. Lets say he gets through Sanchez. He’s obviously going to have to take another fight to keep busy unless he wants to be sidlined for another 6 months. Then he will probably get KO’d by some nobody which will screw everything up.

by steveoc24 on Jul 25, 2008 2:06 PM EDT 0 recs

restless contenders

So if BJ wins the non-title fight, he’ll get a title shot in Hawaii at a later date? I’m a huge BJ Penn fan, but if this happens the top contenders will be sidelined for well more than 6 months. There will be a lot of unhappy fighters.

by steak_knife on Jul 25, 2008 2:18 PM EDT up 0 recs

There will be a lot of unhappy fans too!

by steveoc24 on Jul 25, 2008 2:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

This is a fight I definitely want to see, but the consequences could be problematic enough to justify putting it off. In my mind, it makes total sense for Anderson Silva to move up to light heavyweight, because he’s beaten all the top contenders at middleweight in convincing fashion. GSP and B.J. have a lot of work left to do in their respective divisions.

by Cannon J on Jul 25, 2008 2:14 PM EDT 0 recs

Good points, but I, like other fans, really want to see BJ Penn rematch GSP.

Is it enough to say that b/c we know how good BJ Penn and GSP are that one fight out side of a title fight is ok?

by lovingmma25 on Jul 25, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up 0 recs

Honestly, it’s not like Thiago Alves could beat BJ Penn, so I’m not that concerned about it.

by Michael Rome on Jul 25, 2008 2:20 PM EDT 0 recs

Yeah, just like most people thought Thiago stood no chance against Parisyan and Hughes.

by steveoc24 on Jul 25, 2008 2:43 PM EDT up 0 recs

I want to see both fighters clean out their divisions before fighting…

Also, maybe the UFC could develop their own P4P belt of something that they could fight for…and the winner would fight Anderson Silva or something?

http://tharealness.wordpress.com/

by Tha Realness on Jul 25, 2008 2:26 PM EDT 0 recs

Cool idea but ...

A naturally big LHW like Anderson has too much of an advantage for BJ to have much of a chance even if you believe there skills are roughly similar (i.e. both spectacular).

by thetakeover on Jul 25, 2008 2:35 PM EDT 0 recs

Maybe I am one of the few people who think that BJ stands a better chance against Anderson than Cote.

by lovingmma25 on Jul 25, 2008 2:42 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think a lot of people believe that actually.

Cote wins that fight what? 10 percent of the time? (I think thats probably high but biased)

I think B.J. wins that fight closer to 30% of the time (a low number to be sure, but he would have to put on a lot of muscle while retaining the cardio that has made him so effective in his recent fights and I know how hard that is to do.).

by Day Man on Jul 25, 2008 2:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

I love the fight and want to see the fight… but not as much as I want to see GSP and BJ clean out their respective divisions.

by Nick Thomas on Jul 25, 2008 2:44 PM EDT 0 recs

I like the idea of the P4P title. It can be a trophy that kind of moves around in addition to the belts. The problem with cleaning out the division is it may sound good to us, but it doesn’t motivate BJ Penn. It doesn’t make him want to fight. I can’t blame the guy for being more concerned with the fights he wants than going on a run against the Huertas and Danzigs of the world.

by Michael Rome on Jul 25, 2008 2:53 PM EDT 0 recs

now!

although both have not cleaned out their divisions, both of these fighters are better then we have ever seen them! title match or not this match needs to happen now.

by DeMo Spinning back fist on Jul 25, 2008 3:15 PM EDT 0 recs

3 rounds? 5 rounds? Like it’ll take BJ more than 2 to beat GSP. :-)

Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones

by jemaleddin on Jul 25, 2008 3:35 PM EDT 0 recs

Penn couldn’t put Sherk away within 3 rounds. He will fare far worse against GSP

by Hardcharger on Jul 25, 2008 5:02 PM EDT up 0 recs

GSP has several compelling fights at 170.

BJ has very little at 155.

Call me what you want, but putting my disturbing man-love for BJ aside, lol, I don’t see any competition for him in the UFC at 155.

That said, I think the 155 division would be more interesting if it is more competitive, which it is outside of BJ. So, overall, I think it is in the UFC’s best interest to let him go to 170 and fight for the title.

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Jul 25, 2008 3:45 PM EDT 0 recs

You're right

I mean do we really want to see BJ fight Roger Huerta or Kenny Florian? I know I don’t. I have been more impressed with Roger’s fights than Kenny’s to begin with, and I just don’t want to see BJ make another fighter cry.

by lovingmma25 on Jul 25, 2008 3:58 PM EDT up 0 recs

hmmmmm…. that’s odd…Dana has said in the past that he wouldn’t do a card in Hawaii unitil they came under regulation of the the State Athletic commission…that isn’t scheduled to happen until summer of next year july 1, 2009…. so he would have to go back on that in order to do BJ vs GSP in Hawaii

by robnashville on Jul 25, 2008 5:02 PM EDT 0 recs

How come Elite XC was able to have an even in Hawaii

by The Bronzeville Bully on Jul 25, 2008 10:16 PM EDT up 0 recs

Maybe.

He could also do GSP vs. Penn in December here, and if GSP wins, then it’s not a problem, and there’s a good chance of that. If Penn wins, they could always have each guy defend their respective titles once before doing the big summer fight.

by Michael Rome on Jul 25, 2008 6:00 PM EDT 0 recs

yeah… the odds of them doing a new year’s show anywhere other than vegas are very slim…. too much money to be made in LV….. Maybe a GSP in Montreal in Olympic stadium but that is about it…..

by robnashville on Jul 25, 2008 6:13 PM EDT up 0 recs