UFC 94: St-Pierre vs Penn 2 Re-Cap

In 2004, BJ Penn [my 2nd favorite fighter] did the impossible when he moved up a weight class to defeat the legendary Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Title. BJ Penn, who is now the UFC Lightweight Champion [having defeated my favorite fighter, Sean Sherk, last year] has now attempted to become the first man, in UFC history, to hold two titles simultaneously, having squared off, once again, with one of the few men that has ever defeated him in the Octagon - the Welterweight Champion George St-Pierre [my brother's favorite fighter]

Who was left standing after the two champions collided in one of the most epic battles in Mixed Martial Arts history?!? Read on to find out. . . [and just for fun, for a female's perspective on tonight's event, be sure to check out my wife's Blog at http://havefamilywilltravel.blogspot.com/] :-)

George St-Pierre [Welterweight Champion] on the left

BJ Penn [Lightweight Champion] on the right

George St-Pierre & BJ Penn face off at the weigh-ins

The night started off with a Lightweight match-up between Nate Diaz & Clay "the Carpenter" Guida. I like both of these guys a lot, and it was hard for me to choose who I wanted to see win - it didn't help when Guida walked out to the song Hero by the Foo Fighters [my son's favorite band, and one of the few songs that I really like by them] not only that, Guida had a Punisher [the original logo] skull on one of his shirts!

Still, I had to go with Diaz on this one, who I always end up going with, as he seems to pull submissions out of thin air and ends up beating fighters you wouldn't expect him to beat.

Diaz started strong, pretty much dominating the 1st half of the 1st round, however Guida caught him about midway in, with a big slam, and pretty much dominated the 2nd half of the 1st round.

Both the 2nd and 3rd rounds were similar, though I felt that Diaz was the aggressor, with the slicker take downs - in the end though, I think that Guida was too strong for him, as every attempt Diaz made to submit Guida, Guida pulled out of, in the end, winning by split decision, which I felt was a bad call on the judges part. [like I said, I like Guida, however all he seemed to do, especially for the majority of the 2nd & 3rd rounds was hang on to Diaz, not really causing any damage whatsoever] Oh well, that is why it is never good to allow things to lay in the judges hands. . .

The second fight of the night was between Welterweights Karo Parisyan & Dong Hyun Kim

I am not really a fan of Parisyan, so I immediately was on Kim's side for this fight. [it helped when he walked out to Linkin Park's 'Numb' too] :-)

Kim definitely dominated the entire 1st round of this fight, which made me happy - in fact, Kim almost caught Parisyan in an armbar mid-way through.

The 2nd round could have gone either way really - Parisyan almost caught Kim in a kimora. . .

The 3rd round was the same - more back and forth, once again leaving a decision to be made by the judges. . . Parisyan won by split-decision. . . Boo!

The third fight was between Light Heavyweights Stephan "the American Psycho" Bonnar & Jon Jones. I had to go with Bonnar on this one, having watched him fight, ever since Season One of The Ultimate Fighter. This was only Jones' second fight in the UFC and he pretty much dominated all three rounds of the fight, winning by unanimous decision - at least this one was a good call :-)

We were then treated to the co-main-event of the evening between two undefeated Light Heavyweights - Lyoto "the Dragon" Machida vs Thiago Sliva - both with 13 wins and 0 losses in their mixed martial arts careers.

It is very rare for MMA fighters to go this long in their careers undefeated, so the thing about this fight was someone was going to get a loss on their record.

Having only seen Machida fight once [that I remember] I expected Silva to win this fight - once again, I was wrong :-(

Machida won the fight by knocking Silva out right on the bell at the end of the 1st round - winning by TKO at 4 minutes 59 seconds.

And now, the Main Event of the evening:

George "Rush" St-Pierre vs BJ "the Prodigy" Penn

If you remember, back in March of 2006, St-Pierre & Penn faced off for the first time, with Penn losing by a razor-thin split decision.

A pic from the first time St-Pierre & Penn faced off

This time, I fully expected BJ Penn to make history and take St-Pierre's belt, becoming the 1st fighter in UFC history to hold two UFC titles simultaneously, but alas - if you have paid attention over the course of tonight's fights, I have been wrong on every single one - including this one!

When the fight first started, GSP kept trying to take BJ down, and I was in shock, thinking to myself, what in the world is GSP thinking?!?

Then came the 2nd round, where GSP did the unthinkable - he took BJ down - not only that, he continued to pass BJ's guard, repeatedly!

BJ was in serious danger in the middle of the 2nd round, but I kept saying to myself - if only he can make it through this round. . . He did, only for the same thing to happen in the 3rd round, and the 4th round - it was complete domination on GSP's part - he controlled BJ and just "grounded & pounded" him mercilessly!

At the end of the 4th round, the doctor called the fight - BJ was unable to continue [I'm not even sure if he knew what was going on at this point]

So, GSP remains the Welterweight Champion, proving himself one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in the world! [Now, if only he will go up in weight and take on Anderson Silva - that will be a fight!!] :-)

Don't forget to check out my wife's thoughts on tonight's fights, on her Blog, [link above] probably on Monday [tomorrow is "Family Day" where we do not watch TV or get on the computer, etc]

In the meantime, check out the below pictures of George St-Pierre & BJ Penn fighting in the new UFC videogame, which will be coming out sometime in the Spring - it is going to be called UFC: Undisputed - here are some screen shots:

Awesome, huh? :-)

Jason