Georges “The Greaser” St. Pierre
FALLOUT FROM UFC 137 & MMA NEWS TOO!
San Francisco, CA– The MMA world is still reeling over the licking Nick Diaz put on the physically smaller B.J. Penn in Las Vegas on Saturday night. I say get over it, as Penn hasn’t been Penn in a long time. It was supposed to be Diaz vs Georges St. Pierre, but Nick screwed up and blew off two press conferences, thus he was demoted to the #2 fight on the card as St. Pierre was supposed to meet Carlos Condit Saturday, but he got hurt a few weeks ago. With UFC czar Dana White’s “prodding,” Condit has stepped aside and will allow Diaz the next shot at the iconic Canadian fighter. Diaz will be a “live” underdog when he takes on Georges “The Greaser” St. Pierre, current UFC welterweight (170 lbs) champion. The reason I call GSP “The Greaser” was that his corner applied Vaseline to his body on between two different rounds when facing Penn a couple of years ago. Putting grease on an MMA fighter is a serious “no-no,” but GSP was never fined or suspended. Diaz and GSP will rumble early in 2012…FRANK MIR RETURNS IN DECEMBER: Ex-UFC heavyweight (205+ to 265 lbs.) champ Frank Mir, who was the first man to defeat Brock Lesnar in MMA, takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a rematch December 17 in Toronto, Canada. Mir won the initial encounter when Antonio entered the ring with an infected knee and was taken apart by Mir, who was squelched when he faced the aforementioned Brock Lesnar the second timne around. Ex-light heavyweight (205) Tito Ortiz is supposed to be in the semi-main event…UFC TO GO TWICE ON SAME DAY FROM DIFFERENT CONTINENTS! Dana White is doing two UFC shows on February 25. The first will come from the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. No word as to whether that will be on FOX TV, but they are talking about doing the show early Sunday morning so it can air around 6 PM PT in the USA. This will be followed by a UFC Pay Per View card emanating from Las Vegas…FIGHTER TURNED ACTOR RETURNS TO MMA: Vietnamese superstar Cung Le, once the Strikeforce champ (170) will face the worn Wanderlei Silva of Brazil in his hometown of San Jose, CA on November 19 on PPV. At one time, Le could pack the H.P. Pavilion because of the huge Vietnamese population in the area. But seeing that was before he took up acting full time and then got thrashed by a thought to be lesser fighter, you just don’t know. My guess is that the show with Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua on top will do at least 10,000 people live, but the “numbers on PPV might be disappointing,” so says Dave “The Genius” Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. “King Kyle” Kingsbury, another local fighter, a favorite of the RingTalk.com website and radio show, returns after suffering a broken facial bone in his last fight and will meet Stephan Bonner. FABER ON CARD TOO! EX-World Extreme Cagefighting champ Urijah “The California Kid” Faber will take on rugged (but limited) Brian Bowles. UFC 137 FLASHBACK FOR A SECOND: Am I the only one that thought George Roop beat Hatsu Hioki Saturday? It was a split decision with the Japanese fighter who was making his American debut, won on scores of 29-28 twice. The third judge saw it 29-28 for Roop, whom I thought won the fight handily, as did the crowd who almost booed Hioki out of the building during his post fight interview.
UFC 138 “TAPE DELAYED’ FROM UK THIS COMING SATURDAY
MAIN CARD “DELAYED” ON SPIKE
Chris Leben vs. Mark Munoz
Renan Barao vs. Brad Pickett
Papy Abedi vs. Thiago Alves
Terry Etim vs. Edward Faaloloto
Anthony Njokuani vs. Paul Taylor
PRELIMINARY CARD AIRS “LIVE” ON FACEBOOK
Cyrille Diabate vs. Anthony Perosh
Justin Edwards vs. John Maguire
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Jason Young
Rob Broughton vs. Philip De Fries
Chris Cope vs. Che Mills
Chris Cariaso vs. Vaughan Lee
UFC 138 PREVIEW COMING LATER THIS WEEK
Pedro Fernandez