Who Would Dana White Want To Win at UFC 94?
January 28, 2009
Now that everybody has made the pick of their favorite fighter in the Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn Welterweight Championship fight. Let’s try to put ourselves in the shoes of the UFC president Dana White.
Dana has been promoting this fight as the super fight that everyone wants to see.
He has certainly shown a lot of enthusiasm for the fight which he began promoting last October.
Having an expensive Primetime Show of Penn and St. Pierre 24/7 has added to the prefight hype and ratcheted the level of excitement to an all time high for a UFC event.
Though both fighters have cooperated, the tension on both fighters must be incredible.
Penn was even forced at one point to reconsider and state that he wanted to pull the plug on the show because of the way he had been portrayed in an interaction with White.
At this point it may have been resolved, although until I see the last show tonight, I will not know for sure if BJ will be participating in the third episode.
Overall, in looking at the “big picture,” whose win would be the most beneficial to Mr. White and the UFC organization?
Now opinions may differ on this, as they usually do, so I expect to have feedback on this subject. I welcome it, because I love to turn things like this over in my mind to see every side, every option. Fortunately the readers are never shy about commenting on these issues.
From my point of view, having Georges prevail and continue to be the title holder would have these advantages:
Georges fights four times a year without complaint.
If he wins, Thiago Alves will be his next challenger for the WW title.
Just as many people are willing to bet that Alves will be the one to strip Georges of his title as there were betting Jon Fitch would or that BJ Penn will.
When you are the man on top there is a target on your back, as Georges and his camp well know.
Should he defend his title and leave Thiago in the dust, then the way would be paved for the biggest super fight of them all to determine the p4p best fighter in the UFC.
That would be a face off between Georges and the soon to retire Anderson Silva.
Such a fight would doubtlessly pull in increased revenues and unparalleled interest from all MMA fans worldwide.
If Dana wanted to put on a fight in Brazil, this would be the one to choose.
Since Anderson will be fighting in Montreal this spring, turnabout would be fair play, although it would definitely be a disadvantage to Georges. But what an opportunity for an organization desiring to go global.
Since Fedor Emelianenko will most likely never agree to come to the UFC, this fight would be the best to decide the nagging question of p4p supremacy before Anderson retires.
What would be the advantages to B.J. Penn winning the fight?
Bj does not like to fight more than perhaps two times a year, eight months apart.
Would his next fight be with Alves or long suffering Ken Florian who is at this time waiting in the wings to contest the Lightweight title?
No matter which came first, that would bring BJ to his two fights for the year.
A super fight with Anderson Silva has already been nixed by Dana White, so maybe a super fight could be arranged with the WEC 155# belt holder and BJ.
I really don’t know, except that it won’t be Anderson or anyone else above 170lbs.
Unfortunately, at this point my imagination has stalled and I can think of no more options, so now it is up to the readers to fill in the blanks.
OK guys, go for it!
Will Arshavin Make an Impact This Season? Or Will Next Season Be His Time?
January 28, 2009
It now seems that Arsenal have at least an 85 percent chance of adding talented Russian Andrei Arshavin to their youthful squad.
The Zenit midfielder, who has expressed great interest in joining Arsenal, looks set to join the Gunners by the start of February. The Russian is no doubt extremely talented and versatile. He will bring great depth and experience to the Arsenal squad, and he will fit into Cesc Fabregas or Theo Walcott’s role perfectly.