Penn Pre-St. Pierre: "I am the real champion!"
Mike Sloan Mar 1, 2006
All hail the return of the true UFC welterweight champion. Or so
B.J. Penn (Pictures) would have you believe. The
welterweight Penn is set to make his eagerly awaited return to
action inside the Octagon on Saturday versus Georges St. Pierre
(Pictures).
“Yes, I am the real UFC welterweight champion,” a proud Penn declared to Sherdog.com. “I feel as though this will be my first defense of the title. I don’t care what anybody says: Matt Hughes (Pictures) is just a paper champion. Hughes is not the true champion. I am. He was given that belt. I am going to annihilate St. Pierre and then for my second defense, I will allow Hughes the chance to fight me for my title.”
“Hughes is a great fighter, don’t get me wrong,” he added. “But he
is not the real champion. I am the real champion. I look forward to
proving to the world why I am the best and why I am the real
champion.”
Penn isn’t the only person who agrees that the Hilo, Hawaii native is the real champion in the welterweight division. Former UFC middleweight contender Matt Lindland (Pictures), who has been training with Penn for his upcoming bout against St. Pierre, insists that Hughes’ title is only material.
Anybody who follows the sport of mixed martial arts, particularly the Ultimate Fighting Championship, knows full well what happened between Penn and Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, after the Hawaiian took the title from Hughes on January 31, 2004.
Following the fight, Penn and Zuffa butted heads on multiple issues. Penn’s fight contract with Zuffa expired and he expected to re-sign with the company, have a string of fights lined up and earn more money.
But when nothing immediately happened, he opted to defend his title as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter outside of the Octagon. Penn craved a showdown with American Muay Thai star Duane Ludwig (Pictures) and wound up duking it out with him inside the confines of a K-1 MMA-ROMANEX ring. From there, things became quite sticky as a stipulation in UFC contracts deemed any fighter who became a champion in the organization would automatically come under a new contract.
Penn sought legal action against the UFC, verbal confrontations ensued and the court battle was ignited. Just weeks before the parties were to go to trial, the UFC settled out of court. And Penn eventually signed a new lucrative contract with Zuffa. Once that occurred, according to Penn, everything settled down between “The Prodigy” and the UFC.
“There isn’t any bad blood between me and Dana White anymore,” the Hawaiian sensation professed. “He’s an alright guy in person and he has actually been receiving a lot of flack lately. He’s a good guy but I don’t want to get into detail about our court case [that was settled]. It’s legal stuff. We have a great case and it’s over, so there is really no point in really going into details. That’s behind me and I’m sure it’s behind Dana, too. All I know is that [Dana and I] sat down, had a few conversations and we agreed that I’d come back to the UFC. And I am back to defend my title and then hopefully allow Matt Hughes (Pictures) to fight me for my title.”
But in order for Penn to square off against Hughes again he must first get past the extraordinarily talented St. Pierre.
Penn-St. Pierre is the chief support bout of UFC 58’s main event between UFC middleweight king Rich Franklin (Pictures) and St. Pierre’s teammate David Loiseau (Pictures). Amid all the real/fake champion talk involving Hughes, one must not think that Penn is looking beyond St. Pierre.
“St. Pierre is a really good fighter, but I think it will be the experience of B.J. that will win the fight,” stated Renato Verissimo (Pictures), one of Penn’s main teammates. “St. Pierre has fought some tough guys like Sean Sherk (Pictures) and Frank Trigg (Pictures), but he hasn’t fought anyone on the level of B.J. He has fought at 170 for a long time, where B.J. has fought everywhere and beat some great guys. He beat Renzo Gracie (Pictures), Rodrigo Gracie (Pictures) and Takanori Gomi (Pictures), plus Matt Hughes (Pictures). B.J. has done it all and he is ready for anything. Let’s hope that St. Pierre is equally as ready because it should be a great fight.”
Lindland agreed with that notion and stated that he couldn’t begin to think of a way in which St. Pierre would be triumphant.
“St. Pierre looks like a guy who can become great,” admitted Lindland. “From what I’ve seen of him, the guy is fantastic. He’s strong, elusive and has a ton of skills. But I don’t think he can win against B.J. St. Pierre is good, don’t get me wrong, but he has lost to guys that B.J. submits in the first round. The fight should be good, but I just don’t see how B.J. can lose. I just don’t.”
Penn stated that this recent training camp has been a tremendous success, probably the best he’s ever had in his career, a prime example of his concern with St. Pierre’s talents.
“BJ is looking terrific,” Verissimo claimed. “He is focused and has probably had the best training so far. He is very happy when he trains. Very relaxed. We brought in some top guys like Matt Lindland (Pictures) to help us out and I think B.J. is ready for anything that happens.”
“I am feeling really good for this fight and I feel great about coming back into the UFC,” Penn quipped.
“B.J.’s looking real good right now,” Lindland added. “I trained with B.J. for about eight days and he’s incredible. The guy just keeps improving every time out. I worked with him before for when he was training to fight Matt Hughes (Pictures) and he is almost a completely different fighter now. The guy is amazing. I’ve never seen someone who can keep improving constantly. To be a champion and keep improving is amazing.”
No matter how well Penn has performed during training, however, he still has to face St. Pierre, a fighter who is on the verge of greatness. Fresh off of a spectacular demolition of powerhouse Sherk and a slick submission over the durable Trigg, the Canadian expects to challenge Hughes after the Penn fight, a move he hopes will allow him to avenge the only blemish on an otherwise spotless professional ledger.
Many are predicting that St. Pierre is the future of the sport and are putting their reputations on the line by predicting his victory. St. Pierre is actually a slight favorite in the vast majority of the sports books taking wagers on MMA, a surprising circumstance considering Penn’s immense talents and legendary career.
“I put money on him to win and not just because I have been training with him,” Lindland said. “I don’t see how anyone can think St. Pierre stands a chance against him. So, I laid some money down and with B.J. being the underdog, this should be some easy money for me.”
Both Lindland and Verissimo predicted “The Prodigy” would triumph over St. Pierre via vicious ground-and-pound. But Penn was more reserved.
“I don’t have any predictions about this fight,” he said. “I am not going to say if I’ll knock Georges out or submit because I don’t know. All I know is that I will win. Believe me. But I can’t sit here and predict exactly how I’ll do it. That’s not my style. I don’t like guys who sit back, talk trash and make these wild predictions. I just don’t do that.
“But I will say this, however, Georges is a great guy. You probably will never meet a nicer, more genuine guy than Georges St. Pierre (Pictures). He is friendly, doesn’t have a bad thing to say about anyone and is very humble. He has fun doing this and he enjoys everything about this sport, at least that how he seems to me. Georges is a great guy. Just a good human being. He’s a very good fighter, too, and it should be a good test for me. I look forward to fighting him.”
“Yes, I am the real UFC welterweight champion,” a proud Penn declared to Sherdog.com. “I feel as though this will be my first defense of the title. I don’t care what anybody says: Matt Hughes (Pictures) is just a paper champion. Hughes is not the true champion. I am. He was given that belt. I am going to annihilate St. Pierre and then for my second defense, I will allow Hughes the chance to fight me for my title.”
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Penn isn’t the only person who agrees that the Hilo, Hawaii native is the real champion in the welterweight division. Former UFC middleweight contender Matt Lindland (Pictures), who has been training with Penn for his upcoming bout against St. Pierre, insists that Hughes’ title is only material.
“Let’s face it, B.J. is the true champion of the UFC, not Matt Hughes (Pictures),” Lindland said. “This is nothing
against Matt at all, but he is not the true champion. He may hold a
belt around his waist, but we all know that B.J. never lost his
title and that he is true welterweight champion. I love Matt Hughes (Pictures) and he is a tremendous warrior,
but he isn’t the real champion. People may get mad when they read
this, but it’s true.”
Anybody who follows the sport of mixed martial arts, particularly the Ultimate Fighting Championship, knows full well what happened between Penn and Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, after the Hawaiian took the title from Hughes on January 31, 2004.
Following the fight, Penn and Zuffa butted heads on multiple issues. Penn’s fight contract with Zuffa expired and he expected to re-sign with the company, have a string of fights lined up and earn more money.
But when nothing immediately happened, he opted to defend his title as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter outside of the Octagon. Penn craved a showdown with American Muay Thai star Duane Ludwig (Pictures) and wound up duking it out with him inside the confines of a K-1 MMA-ROMANEX ring. From there, things became quite sticky as a stipulation in UFC contracts deemed any fighter who became a champion in the organization would automatically come under a new contract.
Penn sought legal action against the UFC, verbal confrontations ensued and the court battle was ignited. Just weeks before the parties were to go to trial, the UFC settled out of court. And Penn eventually signed a new lucrative contract with Zuffa. Once that occurred, according to Penn, everything settled down between “The Prodigy” and the UFC.
“There isn’t any bad blood between me and Dana White anymore,” the Hawaiian sensation professed. “He’s an alright guy in person and he has actually been receiving a lot of flack lately. He’s a good guy but I don’t want to get into detail about our court case [that was settled]. It’s legal stuff. We have a great case and it’s over, so there is really no point in really going into details. That’s behind me and I’m sure it’s behind Dana, too. All I know is that [Dana and I] sat down, had a few conversations and we agreed that I’d come back to the UFC. And I am back to defend my title and then hopefully allow Matt Hughes (Pictures) to fight me for my title.”
But in order for Penn to square off against Hughes again he must first get past the extraordinarily talented St. Pierre.
Penn-St. Pierre is the chief support bout of UFC 58’s main event between UFC middleweight king Rich Franklin (Pictures) and St. Pierre’s teammate David Loiseau (Pictures). Amid all the real/fake champion talk involving Hughes, one must not think that Penn is looking beyond St. Pierre.
“St. Pierre is a really good fighter, but I think it will be the experience of B.J. that will win the fight,” stated Renato Verissimo (Pictures), one of Penn’s main teammates. “St. Pierre has fought some tough guys like Sean Sherk (Pictures) and Frank Trigg (Pictures), but he hasn’t fought anyone on the level of B.J. He has fought at 170 for a long time, where B.J. has fought everywhere and beat some great guys. He beat Renzo Gracie (Pictures), Rodrigo Gracie (Pictures) and Takanori Gomi (Pictures), plus Matt Hughes (Pictures). B.J. has done it all and he is ready for anything. Let’s hope that St. Pierre is equally as ready because it should be a great fight.”
Lindland agreed with that notion and stated that he couldn’t begin to think of a way in which St. Pierre would be triumphant.
“St. Pierre looks like a guy who can become great,” admitted Lindland. “From what I’ve seen of him, the guy is fantastic. He’s strong, elusive and has a ton of skills. But I don’t think he can win against B.J. St. Pierre is good, don’t get me wrong, but he has lost to guys that B.J. submits in the first round. The fight should be good, but I just don’t see how B.J. can lose. I just don’t.”
Penn stated that this recent training camp has been a tremendous success, probably the best he’s ever had in his career, a prime example of his concern with St. Pierre’s talents.
“BJ is looking terrific,” Verissimo claimed. “He is focused and has probably had the best training so far. He is very happy when he trains. Very relaxed. We brought in some top guys like Matt Lindland (Pictures) to help us out and I think B.J. is ready for anything that happens.”
“I am feeling really good for this fight and I feel great about coming back into the UFC,” Penn quipped.
“B.J.’s looking real good right now,” Lindland added. “I trained with B.J. for about eight days and he’s incredible. The guy just keeps improving every time out. I worked with him before for when he was training to fight Matt Hughes (Pictures) and he is almost a completely different fighter now. The guy is amazing. I’ve never seen someone who can keep improving constantly. To be a champion and keep improving is amazing.”
No matter how well Penn has performed during training, however, he still has to face St. Pierre, a fighter who is on the verge of greatness. Fresh off of a spectacular demolition of powerhouse Sherk and a slick submission over the durable Trigg, the Canadian expects to challenge Hughes after the Penn fight, a move he hopes will allow him to avenge the only blemish on an otherwise spotless professional ledger.
Many are predicting that St. Pierre is the future of the sport and are putting their reputations on the line by predicting his victory. St. Pierre is actually a slight favorite in the vast majority of the sports books taking wagers on MMA, a surprising circumstance considering Penn’s immense talents and legendary career.
“I put money on him to win and not just because I have been training with him,” Lindland said. “I don’t see how anyone can think St. Pierre stands a chance against him. So, I laid some money down and with B.J. being the underdog, this should be some easy money for me.”
Both Lindland and Verissimo predicted “The Prodigy” would triumph over St. Pierre via vicious ground-and-pound. But Penn was more reserved.
“I don’t have any predictions about this fight,” he said. “I am not going to say if I’ll knock Georges out or submit because I don’t know. All I know is that I will win. Believe me. But I can’t sit here and predict exactly how I’ll do it. That’s not my style. I don’t like guys who sit back, talk trash and make these wild predictions. I just don’t do that.
“But I will say this, however, Georges is a great guy. You probably will never meet a nicer, more genuine guy than Georges St. Pierre (Pictures). He is friendly, doesn’t have a bad thing to say about anyone and is very humble. He has fun doing this and he enjoys everything about this sport, at least that how he seems to me. Georges is a great guy. Just a good human being. He’s a very good fighter, too, and it should be a good test for me. I look forward to fighting him.”
