Rumor: Georges St. Pierre vs BJ Penn December 5th in Montreal?

by ghettoiam on Aug 19, 2008 6:01 PM EDT Comment 16 comments

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

From today's Wrestling Observer update Bryan Alvarez reports the following:

We will have more tomorrow as this has not yet been made official, but it appears the December 5th UFC will be taking place at the Bell Center in Montreal with George St. Pierre headlining.

It's quite an interesting development. GSP seemed hesistant to take the fight wanting instead to rest up. B.J. Penn wants nothing more than this fight with GSP to show everyone that he's not only the best lightweight, but also the best welteweight in the world.

Their first match was close decisions and I'm excited to see the fight, but with such a long list of challengers at 170 and Penn's two defeats while at welterweight, I'm hard pressed to see any rationale in making this a title fight.

That said, there are no two people I'd rather see fight for 5 rounds than Penn and GSP.

Update from Michael Rome: December 5 is a Friday, which makes this even more interesting. They were unable to do it on a Saturday because the Canadiens were playing every weekend, and it looked like they gave up on Montreal as a result. It's also worth wondering whether or not this will take the place of the November PPV, which they had no real main event for and were having no luck putting one together.

The Wrestling Observer website has deleted the story from its daily update, as well as from the headline. It's very od d that they did this instead of printing a retraction.

Update II: I contacted Dave, and it turns out there was a report in Montreal about a show that day, but he has not been able to confirm it, so they took it down.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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That said, there are no two people I’d rather see fight for 5 rounds than Penn and GSP.

Last I heard they were trying to do this as a non-title fight. Any word on this or another way it may be 5 rounds (which it MUST be)?

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

by BJJDenver on Aug 19, 2008 6:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, the fact that they are doing it in Montreal helps the cause. Las Vegas will not sanction non title fights for 5 rounds, but Montreal’s commission probably has no rule against it.

by Michael Rome on Aug 19, 2008 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

depends on contract talks between GSP and UFC….. talks have not concluded yet….

Mike Goldberg on robnashville:
"His analysis is so analytical"

by robnashville on Aug 19, 2008 6:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I did hear GSP on the radio last night saying things are going very well. They wouldn’t be putting him in such a gigantic match and position if not. I suspect it will be done soon.

by Michael Rome on Aug 19, 2008 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’m a little surprised by running a PPV show on a Friday. people are creatures of habit, definitely throws another element into the mix. It also makes me wonder if there’s some kind of TV deal.

by Michael Rome on Aug 19, 2008 6:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That was my first thought when I heard that the date was a Friday.

by Day Man on Aug 19, 2008 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It looks like that story has been removed from the website. I was just at wrestlingobserver.com, and I can’t see it there in the daily update.

by CLNicholson on Aug 19, 2008 7:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Very odd, it was there 20 minutes ago.

by Michael Rome on Aug 19, 2008 7:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

How can you say that since BJ lost 2 matches that it shouldn’t be a title fight at 170lbs? Couture lost 2 of his last 3 at 205 and stepped up to heavyweight to win the title. This is all about pound for pound here!

by tritonv8 on Aug 19, 2008 8:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There is absolutely no upside in this fight for GSP. Bad fight. If BJ wants this fight so bad, he should be required to vacate his title, because in my opinion and the opinion of many others, he has yet to defend his title. The only man he defended against was the LW champ and hadn’t been beaten by anyone else up until that point.

by nitro on Aug 19, 2008 8:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The upside for GSP is that if he wins this, he has beaten one of the top 5 p4p in the world, twice.

by idefinecagefighter on Aug 19, 2008 8:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

A split decision loss and a fight he was winning until he got injured, aren’t exactly the worst losses to have to top WW’s. Not to mention, he BEAT Hughes for the title at WW once already. He’s also had dominating wins in his 3 LW bouts. There’s definitely an upside to this for both these guys in establishing their legacy.

by LiuLang on Aug 19, 2008 11:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tease!

by Nick Thomas on Aug 20, 2008 9:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

An update from the Wrestling Observer

RDS, a French language sports network based in Montreal reported this morning a Dec. 5 date at the Bell Centre in Montreal for UFC, headlined by Georges St. Pierre which was reported in Bryan’s morning update.

However, we have been unable to confirm any such date with UFC and had been told last week such a show, which was under consideration for December, although we never got a date, was “unlikely.”

St. Pierre’s people told us they had not even heard of a show on that date and they are still working out a date for his next fight.

by ghettoiam on Aug 20, 2008 10:32 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs