Feb 21, 2009 - 3:14:03 PM By: Jason Bent, MMATorch Columnist Vaseline-Gate: Penn Says GSP Uses Too Much Lube; Mandy Moore Says Not Enough
Does anyone else think that Georges St. Pierre should use the Flaming Lips song "She Don't Use Jelly" as his entrance music for his next fight or perhaps for a possible third fight with BJ Penn?
We are a couple of weeks removed from this mega fight which turned into a mismatch, and I have chosen to wait until now to focus on this as I just couldn't believe that such a thing was even coming into play and taking away from GSP's tremendous moment.
It has gone from bad to worse to just plain insane, as not only has Penn's camp filed a formal protest in regards to the bout with St. Pierre but Penn has also gone off on Kenny Florian in regards to pre-fight warnings about GSP.
BJ Penn claims that Kenny Florian sent a text message to someone in his camp and it read that GSP is a big "roider" and a "greaser" with the warning that he had better watch out for him. Kenny Florian denies this vehemently, and there is no way for any of us to prove or disprove either claim and this is bad for all three of the aforementioned men.
Throwing around steroid allegations is not what it once was, especially now given the current climate of sports and the knowledge that so many star athletes have done their very best while using performance enhancing drugs. With the list of baseball players that seems to grow by the day it is likely that just calling someone a steroid abuser will have the effect of leading someone out there to believe this to be true without further proof or any research at all.
MMA is no stranger to steroids, and many have argued that PRIDE fighters have failed miserably in part because of the lax testing in Japan and the stringent testing they must undergo when fighting under the watchful eye of such an organization as the Nevada State Athletic Commission. PRIDE fighters were used to different rules, i.e. a ring rather than a cage, and these are probably the main reasons for so many coming up short, but we all do have to wonder if steroids were ever a part of anyone's success.
Georges St. Pierre dominated BJ Penn at UFC 94, and in a way that not many imagined could be done. This was a super fight and one in which Penn was given more than a fair chance to win, but many actually predicted he would get the job done and GSP flat out annihilated him before Penn's corner smartly stopped the fight. This was a one-sided beating, and given the size difference between the two men along with the impressive physique that St. Pierre sports it does lead some to wonder if in fact he was aided by more than grease on his skin and perhaps some anabolic agents injected under them.
At this point it seems as if everyone is willing to blame the grease for at least having some effect on the fight, and Dana White even told the Canadian Press today what he thinks of "Vaseline-Gate" by saying:
"Do I think he got greased? Yeah, I do. Absolutely, 100 percent, I think that guy was rubbing grease on him. Do I think Georges was trying to cheat? Absolutely not at all, but that corner man was rubbing grease on him . You cannot do that."
White went on to even say that he felt that this greasing was "no different" than the illegal hand wraps that boxing's Antonio Margarito was discovered with prior to his bout with Shane Mosley. In that particular instance it should be noted that both Margarito and his trainer, Javier Capetillo have had their licenses revoked for at least one year by the California State Athletic commission. White's deeming of both instances to be similar was summed up by his saying, "you put another fighter at a disadvantage, which is very dangerous," and while I will agree with him that both instances put one fighter at a disadvantage I will also argue that Vaseline on a fighter's body is a hell of a lot different than plaster of paris on a boxer's handwraps. Vaseline causes someone to have an unfair advantage and one man to not be able to get a grip, but the illegal handwraps can cause someone to possibly get killed in there. When it comes to fairness it is a fact that both acts are wrong, but when it comes to placing them on the same level I simply cannot agree with White.
When White as asked if the corner man and not GSP was cheating he said, "I think he was. I do. I think he absolutely, positively knew that he was rubbing grease on him. I do. Nobody can tell me different. I watched the tape a million times."
White did say that it was unfortunate that this has taken away from a dominant performance by Georges St. Pierre by stating, "He didn't have to put grease on him. ... Georges St. Pierre was winning the fight, he was dominant in the standup and on the ground. To have a fight or a fighter like St. Pierre tainted over a stupidity, I hate it. It sucks."
However he said this and then quickly brushed off any talk of a rematch by declaring BJ Penn will be remaining at 155 lbs., before making the remark that "Size matters in this sport. It didn't a few years ago, but it does now."
While this is most definitely true in that when you have two men of comparable skill and one is bigger that the bigger man will almost always enjoy an advantage, it is of my opinion that going back to size could lead to more unfounded and possibly unwarranted speculation of steroid use by Georges St. Pierre.
This is entirely unfair until proven otherwise, but in this climate it is becoming such a common occurrence for an athlete to be busted for steroids that it at least makes sense to wonder. We have to wonder because for so long and on so many occasions we have found out that the super athletes were in fact helped out by injecting Superman's cape into their buttocks but telling everyone else that they simply take "supplements" and eat properly. So many athletes have been found guilty or busted for having lied about the use of steroids that even if GSP would outright say this isn't true it would cause many to brand him not only a cheater but also a liar.
I hope Georges St. Pierre is above using steroids, and I feel strongly that he is not a fighter who needs to use Vaseline in order to win a fight, but I really expected more from BJ Penn and am saddened that he is so adamant about blaming his loss on everything but the fact that he was utterly dominated. There would be no shame at all if BJ Penn would say that he felt the Vaseline aided GSP but followed this up by saying he got beaten by the better fighter on this particular night and accepted his defeat rather than try to pretend as if it didn't count.
By no means am I a diehard fan of Georges St. Pierre, and it should be noted that I picked BJ Penn to be the winner in this bout, but I have the utmost respect and admiration for St. Pierre's skill set. If I wanted to swing from GSP's nuts it would be impossible to do because of the amount of Vaseline that is surely on them, but I have no interest in doing so and never have been such a follower of him in the past. I just hate it when questions surround a fighter's victory and the Rich Franklin-esque black eye that this puts on the sport immediately upon such accusations of improprieties.
The only time that Georges St. Pierre has ever needed a substantial amount of lube to dominant someone who is beneath him was probably during a few trysts with his rumored girlfriend Mandy Moore, and not during his fight with BJ Penn. Penn would have preferred St. Pierre had done him dry at UFC 94, and since we will never see a third fight between the two we will never know just what could happen if this were the case.
BJ Penn will fight Kenny Florian next, and it is likely that his recent comments about the text message was just a way to stir the pot and create some heat between he and his opponent as a means of hyping the fight. Penn is no stranger to hyperbole, and he may be working to create some sort of feud with Florian, but his flippant remarks do little of this and more of casting a larger shadow over UFC 94.
BJ Penn is a world class athlete with natural gifts that have, for the most part, exceeded his work ethic and a love for drama that seems to be bigger than that which he has for combat. I would welcome the opportunity for he and St. Pierre to have a third fight as a way of tying up loose ends, erasing doubts and leaving us with something better to talk about when we look back on their fights rather than Vaseline and allegations of cheating. Size does matter, and regardless of lube or no lube it was painfully evident during this fight; and the great smaller man in Penn was just outgunned by the larger equally great man in St. Pierre. It is just a shame that this huge event and what should have been a celebration of St. Pierre's impressive victory has instead become a pissing match and protest.
Had Penn won this bout would he have still gone forward and said anything about the use of Vaseline by St. Pierre's corner? Probably not, and while Vaseline may or may not have aided St. Pierre it was not a jar of this petroleum jelly that made Penn's face look like he was sporting a Grimace mask, but rather the fists of his opponent. Regardless of who you were cheering for in that fight it is always nice when a fighter's body parts do all of the talking, and there is no talking about what was rubbed on them on possibly injected underneath.
BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre are two of the greatest fighters in the world, and they have fought two times with both being memorable in their own rights, but it is an absolute shame if the lasting and lingering memory is that of cheating. That would be the most unfair thing of all and would cheat St. Pierre of a victory that he deserves to be lauded for, over an opponent who should be applauded for even taking the chance at jumping back up to welterweight.
We should be excited for GSP to be defending his belt against Thiago Alves, and the same should go for the prospect of seeing Penn back home in the lightweight division and defending his belt against Kenny Florian. There is so much good ahead for both fighters that its just awful to have to speak of either man as a cheater or a whiner. There is enough cheating and whining in every other sport, and while I hope MMA becomes considered on par with the other major sports it would be awful if it suddenly becomes full of everything which is bad about the others.
Regardless of what happens in the upcoming days it is certain that this victory over Penn will always have an asterisk beside it for Georges St. Pierre, and I just see no way that this will ever just be forgotten. What is unfair is that we will remember this fight for all of the wrong reasons. Vaseline may have put one hell of a shine on the body of St. Pierre but it removed all of the luster from this fight. Even if no one takes the victory away from GSP it is likely that BJ Penn will never fully let him have it, and the defining moment shall forever be defiled.
FAVOR: Would you help MMATorch by taking a short survey to create demographic info for our ad company? CLICK HERE
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
