Dana White: Penn-St. Pierre “Needs To Happen” But “Don’t Hold Your Breath” On Silva-St. Pierre
UFC President Dana White was questioned in a recent interview with ESPN The Magazine about the much-talked about “superfights” between the champions of two different weight classes, most notably BJ Penn, the UFC’s lightweight champion, versus Georges St-Pierre, the promotion’s welterweight champ, and St-Pierre versus Anderson Silva, the UFC’s dominant middleweight champion.
White openly discussed the potential matchups and makes it clear which bout we can expect to see in the near-future and which one we will not. Here’s a snip from the interview:
The Mag: What will BJ Penn do: stay at 155 or move up to 170 for a rematch with St.-Pierre?
DW: BJ has become one of the most well-rounded, most amazing fighters I’ve ever met. He used to be just a jiu-jitsu guy. Now his wrestling is second-to-none. His standup is (freaking) amazing. Even boxing guys say they like his hands. The kid is unbelievable. The only thing he lacked was so he was so (freaking) good, so talented, that he always came up with these crazy schemes to move up to heavyweight and do all this crazy stuff. It took years to reel him in and convince him to focus on being a 155-pounder. This kid is so focused and fired up right now. It’s going to be fun to see what he does.
The Mag: So what do you think he will do?
DW: Penn against GSP is a huge fight. I think that fight needs to happen.
The Mag: How do you feel about those kind of superfights between different weight classes?
DW: I don’t like it. I like guys to stay at their weight classes and dominate. I don’t want guys moving up and down.
The Mag: So the dream matchup of Anderson Silva against GSP, maybe at a catch weight…
DW: Don’t hold your breath on that one.
Tags: Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre
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YEAH THAT WON’T HAPPEN BUT I DON’T SEE PENN AND GSP HAPPENING TILL MAYBE NEXT YEAR. PENN AS DOMINATED LW. BUY GSP AS YET TO. THERE ARE ALOT OF GOOD FIGHTERS LINED UP BUT I DON’T SEE THEM BEATING GSP. SO MAYBE SOONER THEN LATER. I THINK GSP IS STILL GONNA TAKE PENN
I hope they keep this as a non-title fight (as they do in Japanese superfights) and allow each fighter to meet in the middle on weight. So 162.5 should be the weight of both fighters. This way the UFC loses nothing and has much to gain by giving the fans what the want. BTW I’m with BJ on this one. I love them both but I think B.J. is more well rounded after that rout of Sean Sherk who I had the pleasure of meeting 2 weeks ago. He was still beat up and you could tell he was very humbled. Great guy though!
So you’re tellin me Dana isn’t gonna cash in on GSP vs Spider? Yeah right, If they each win a few more fights in a row that would be the biggest fight in mma history $$$$$$!
In my opinion…the GSP vs Silva wont happen bc Silva is dana’s golden boy…his golden ticket… and he knows that if the spider fought gsp, he would lose! He is protecting Silva just like Elite is protecting Kimbo…now im not saying they would rig the fight so Silva would win… but deep down, Dana thinks that GSP could beat silva…and he doesnt want his pound for pound best get beat by someone not even in his weight class…but hey, i could be wrong…thats just my opinion……bc as you can see…he doesnt care about penn and gsp and them moving around…just when silva is involved!
Jason, do you really think Dana is protecting Silva?…you can’t be serious! Everyone that has followed UFC at all knows that Dana doesn’t believe in protecting fighters. If he has to protect you then he doesn’t want you fighting in the UFC. In less than 2 year time, Dana has thrown Silva in 6 of the toughest match ups he could throw at him (Leben, Franklin 2x, Marquardt, Henderson). Well at least on paper they appeared to be tough fights, but Silva just made them look easy – FINISHING EACH FIGHT and only went into the 2nd round 2 out of the 6 fights. If you think Dana is afraid to put Silva in with GSP you’re out of your mind or just not thinking about this properly. Dana isn’t protecting him, the guy has cleaned out the division putting away 5 of the top ten guys in the division and one of them got put away twice (Franklin).
As far as GSP goes, he is AWESOME and he’s one of my favorite fighters along with Silva, but GSP has as to at least dust of the top 2 or 3 guys at 170lbs (Fitch, Alves if he beats Hughes, and Maybe the Davis-Swich winner) before Dana feels a need to make the fight happen. GSP needs to prove he can be a dominate champ at 170 in order to create a demand for the fight. There are still enough challenges at 170 right now so Dana isn’t even thinking about that match up yet. Besides if/when GSP proves to be a dominate champ, GSP-Penn would make a more since at this point because it would be a rematch of 2 of the top 5 P4P guys and we know BJ can be effective at 170lbs being that he’s fought there before. We do not know if GSP can be effective at 185lbs because he’s never fought there. No if GSP beats BJ, now that creates a HUGE demand for the Silva-GSP match up.
Lastly, even if they did the GSP-Silva match up and GSP one, Dana could care less about loosing Silva has the best P4P fighter anymore because if GSP beats Silva, that would make GSP the best P4P fighter in the world and Dana would still have the fighter that the world considers as the best P4P fighter working for him in the UFC. Think about it, Liddell was the P4P guy prior him loosing did that mess Dana up, no because now he has Silva as the P4P.
penn would kick both these guys ass, yes i did just say penn would beat gsp and silva. now penns head is screwed on there is NO ONE out there who could take him (if the weights are the same)
I think someone as athletic as gsp would beat anderson..gsp is a diverse wrestler and i think anderson would have problems stopping his takedowns. I dont think it would be a great fight gsp would win but it would go all 5 rounds in my opinion. I agree with JOHNBOY penn is unstoppable. Sherk is a dominant wrestler and he tryed to take peen down once realised he couldnt and didnt bother again. Anderson v Rampage – Perfect matchup
johnboy you are a crazy guy penn is good no doubt about that he lost to gsp due to conditioning which doesnt seem to be the case anymore and gsp looked great against serra ( or did serra look that crapy) so that fight would be close i will give you that.
with silva he is like everyother dominate champ liddel, hughes, franklin. his time will come when he falls and it might be to a guy like ryo chronan with some crazy falling sissor heal hook but it will happen. so that is something we can look forward to depite being a lame O with no conditioning I though i better trained travis lutter had the best shot but as you can tell it looks like his wife and kid trained him for the franklin fight. i do like the great nate to give another shot he as some awesome jits and I think thats what it will take to beat silva cause striking he sits on another level.
i do like the no title superfight idea you know what they should do is just remove dec vitorys and make it knock ( or tko) out or tapout that would be sick and rock mma entire world.
serra was crap mate haha, ive doubted BJ so many times and hes always proved me wrong so im never going against him again the guy is an animal, dont get me wrong gsp is class but i think bj is just that little bit better, cardio was my only problem with him and now thats sorted i cant see anyone getting close to him, but every1 has there own views most people think im prob talking crap haha
Ok, whoever said Silva vs Rampage, that would be interesting, but I don’t think Spider could get him in he clinch. Rampage is too big and strong. Ofcourse i’m probably wrong, but that’s my 2 cents.
Yes i REALLY think he is protecting him bc of how much he talks about Silva about how he is the greatest…etc…now if he throws him in with someone not in his weight class and that guy makes him look like a fool, that makes Dana look bad in a way….GSP would beat Silva…and not barely, like he beat Penn…but he would beat him handily….GSP is the top p4p fighter in the world….look at the people he has faced (and beaten) vs the spiders opponents….its no contest….and if you dont think Dana cares about stuff like this…then you are easily sucked into his sales talk like others…..
Since this is a make a wish post
BJ vs GSP is ok
GSP versus Filho at a catchweight if Filho ever gets straight sound like more fun
Would prefer BJ vs Hughes 3
with Tyson vs Faber rematch co mainevent after
Faber fought say Gamburyan(sp?) and then Huerta at 155.Its time Faber got paid cause he’s earned it.
Silva destroyed Franklin in the clinch and he could still be at 205 he is a massive 185.
Why wont the UFC introduce a 145 division??
Look at all the quality fighters in the UFC that arn’t big enough for 155 that could cut a bit of weight and make it a far more exciting than the WEC’s 145 division.
Jason dont you get it man, Dana looses nothing by either guy winning or loosing. Dana’s in a Win-Win situation in that if GSP wins, that shows the world just how great of a fighter he really is and Dana would still be happy because again, he has the best P4P fighter working for him in UFC. Not matter who wins a fight between GSP and Silva, Dana is still the winner!
And for whoever said that GSP’s wrestling is on another level and that he would take Silva down easily is forgetting that they said the samething about Hendo who is an Olympic level wreslter and look what happened. Not only that, you are forgetting that Silva is more than comfortable being on his back because of his strong JJ, just ask Lutter!
Then who the hell is going to challenge Anderson Silva?
Are there any Silva fights scheduled that will be worth a damn?
gsp will kill penn! penn is good but i think he has his hands full with gsp! if gsp dominates this title defense beats bj and hughes wins two in a row…gsp should beat hughes and fight silva…ya silva should defend his title, beat okama…defend it against the winner of henderson, franklin!!! and o course yaa the worse and my least favorite fighter of all time bisping will get his shot cause he is winning fights against guys who are no names!! get that guy a real fight i want to see franklin knock him out! but i say in two years gsp vs silva!!! way better fight then bj vs gsp!
spiderdaman..no there really isnt at 185 he needs to fight 205 to get a good oppenent like a wanderlei or a liddell…for god sakes the guy is all around the best fight pound for pound in the world
Silva is p4p the toughest guy on the planet right now. That’s THAT! There is no argument until another fighter dominates in the same fashion. GSP and Penn are bad ass but still working their way into domination of their divisions. Penn is very close to domination after he beats Flroian or Huerta and whoever in between. I think GSP is close but that loss to Serra did not make him invincible, it showed he is not an Anderson Silva.(yet) GSP vs Penn is much better for now. What about Gonzaga vs Tyson Griffin?
If Penn vs GSP 2 happens, GSP will win again
If GSP beats Fitch in August they should have him defend against Alves in November or December. They could also have BJ defend against the winner of Florian-Huerta in November or December. If both GSP and BJ win there title defenses, they should make the GSP-Penn 2 for March of April. It would be HUGE!!!!
GSP-Penn 2 would be for the GSP’s WW Title (170lbs). Winner would then face Andersen Silva!
Who wins if Filho cuts to WW should Dana scrap WEC higher divisions as rumored.
Filho is overated to me. He is one dimensional. All he has is BJJ. His BJJ is WORLD CLASS, but the rest of his game is primitive in my opinion. He does have some really heavy hands, but he hasn’t learned how to properly use them yet.
I think he is bored as Middleweight which is why I threw it out there. He doesn’t really have the frame for LHVT and comes in as a shorter heavier middle. If he was at WW he would have to cut the muscle which gives him his speed back and the challenge of GSP would give a reason to keep his hands up. My theory is he has the boxing skill hes just head hunting(or looking for the power shot) because there is no challenge for him. If Sonnen beats him its the drugs that did it to Filho. Watch the Horn Sonnen fights Filho (straight) should win on the ground.
Dietrich I agree with you bro… WEC should be the UFC lighter weight brother. They can still use them as a farm for Lightweight and WelterWeight…but no need for anything higher since they are both carrying top talent now. Either way the UFC owning so many shows is beginning to bug me…that’s why I’m so desperate for another promotion to ‘make it’ in the business. More competition WILL better the sport. Dana White’s “UFC only” attitude is getting to be ridiculous. Just my $0.02.
from a sherdog post
group of investors led by Dana White have agreed in principle to purchase the UFC from Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for an undisclosed amount. Included in this investment group is WWE’s Vince McMahon who will now own a minority stake in the company. They also have plans on taking the company public by years end.
At the press conference also expect Dana to announce that with the help of McMahon, who has extensive connections in the New York State Athletic Commission, they were able to get the UFC sanctioned in New York, and plan on having a show sometime in the winter at Madison Square Garden. That is all I have right now.
GSP would beat penn easy.If penn moves up anyway hes not gonna have the same conditioning.Rush would put him down and destroy him.