I've sat and read MMA news all morning, and I can't help but feel sick over what we're seeing.  On Saturday night, BJ Penn was utterly destroyed.  He lost in every area of the fight, never sniffed a submission, and was taken apart in every way possible.

The egos involved with the Penn camp are really the driving force behind this story.  After having talked so much trash and guaranteed victory, they are hanging onto a final thread to avoid having to talk about why BJ Penn wasn't even on GSP's level as a fighter.

I can't help laughing when I see Valentino claim Penn's strategy was to fight off his back.  Is that why he fought the takedown so hard in the first round?  

Phil Nurse made an idiotic mistake, but the only duplicity here is on the part of Team Penn, which is attempting to burn down the entire sport to protect Penn's image.  Despite his attitude, I've always had a great deal of respect for BJ Penn.  If he has any integrity at all, he will call off the people in his camp, and make a direct statement to the press that Georges St. Pierre beat him because he's simply a much better fighter.  For a guy that has been around for so long, it's the least he can do.

Watching a number of fighters who've been destroyed by St. Pierre come out and take the opportunity to cast clouds over their losses is equally pathetic.  I half expect Jay Hieron to allege St. Pierre used brass knuckles.  If Penn and his team decide to actually pursue a formal complaint, Penn will trash his legacy and cement himself as a despised whiner.  

Only BJ Penn can decide whether to pour gas on the flames of this non-story, or to put the fire out and move on.  The ball is in your court, BJ.

Update:  See Luke's post above.  BJ Penn accepted the results, even if others don't.  He does have the integrity I hoped he had, and I'm glad he's accepting reality instead of fighting it.  

Update 2:  I just saw there are hundreds of comments, and rather than spend 12 hours responding to all of them, I'll flesh out a little more why this is a non-story.  As far as I can tell, there is exactly one NSAC regulation on this topic, NAC 467.598:

The excessive use of grease or any other foreign substance may not be used on the face or body of an unarmed combatant.  The referees or the commission's representative in charge shall cause any excessive grease of foreign substance to be removed.

In the end, what is the point of a complaint that can't go anywhere?  The code does not define "excessive."  Further, the code calls for one thing to do when there is excessive grease: have the commissioner's representative remove it.  That is what happened, or at least what they tried to do.  It strikes me that any "investigation" can't really lead to anything.