After Saturdays 5 round war between George St. Pierre and John Fitch, Lightweight champion BJ Penn entered the ring to help announce St. Pierre vs.
Penn 2. Most fans agree that this will be an excellent fight, but the underlying issue seems to be that at the three lower weights of the UFC have seemingly unbeatable champs.
BJ Penn is known as the prodigy and the current lightweight champ. He has won 3 fights in a row at 155 lbs and has not lost a fight at that weight since 2002. He last lost to Matt Hughes at 170 lbs, and before that GSP at 170. It should be noted that it has appeared as though BJ finally started taking fighting more seriously about the same time his win streak began, and since doing so he has rolled through competition never even looking to be in jeopardy. Also important is that GSP lost the first round of their fight and then took over the last 2 when Penn’s cardio fell apart. If BJ had adequate cardio he very well could have taken the win.
George St. Pierre is the UFC welterweight champion and absolutely destroyed John Fitch(who came into the fight with an 8 fight win streak) on Sunday retaining his belt for the first time. he has went through a long road to get to where he is including working with Olympic wrestling teams to improve on what was his only hole. He also learned a lot in a loss to Matt Serra where it appeared he underestimated his opponent. Everyone left for him to fight at 170 it appears will be incredibly outclassed. This has lead to the decision to have Penn fight GSP on Dec. 27 at the unannounced UFC 92.
Anderson Silva has won 7 straight fights since joining the UFC and has run roughshod over the 185 pound weight class. He has beaten everyone BADLY at his natural weight class and has hardly been in peril since joining the organization. He has dominated former champ Rich Franklin twice and is the only fighter to defeat Rich at 185. The lack of competition forced him to move up to 205 lbs in his last fight to face James Irvin whom he KO’d in just over a minute.
The problem it would seem the UFC is facing is a gap in talent where the top of the class is so much better than whoever is #2 that the fights between the champ and the contender are boring. Silva is fighting Patrick Cote next who was beaten most recently by two fighters that Silva has KO’d. The UFC needs to go after the best talent left in free agency to challenge their Champs. The fact is people only will watch the champions if there is a chance for a loss. I applaud the UFC for making this fight as I believe the fans want to see it. But remember even in the best case scenario these 3 fighters can make 3 different fights and that is a very short-term fix for an on-going problem. Hopefully the UFC will get a large enough influx of talent to make these weight classes interesting again.
Tags: BJ Penn, George St Pierre, John Fitch, UFC
