Here's an interesting quote I found whilest grazing the intertubes:

"I've made it very clear to Chuck. Very clear. It's not about money, it's not about this, that. Chuck is one of my good friends. Chuck (has) cemented his legacy in the UFC and in the fight game. I'm not even saying if he wins, unless he looks incredibly impressive (in Montreal) - I mean, he's going to have to go out there and dazzle me, for me to want Chuck to still fight. I love him, and I don't want to see what I saw in his last fight ever again."

So what exactly does this all mean?

It's a good piece to read, but at the same time, it is a little vague. "For me to want Chuck to still fight." There are8 letters missing from that line: IN THE UFC. Dana could just be talking as a friend and saying, "Hey, if you get killed out there again, then maybe it's time to hang up the gloves?" This is the equivilent of taking your drunk friend home from the pub before he starts hitting on the fat chick.

Nonetheless, it still spells the possibility of seeing the end of Liddell in the UFC. But fortune is smilling upon our mohawked man, for on this day, he does battle with Shogun "I can't breathe" Rua.

This much is for sure, the loser of this fight, never steps foot in the octagon again.

I realise that this is a few weeks late, but I needed some time to collect my thoughts on this topic. Lets start from the beginning.

The event: UFC 94: Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn, 5 rounds for the Welterweight Title. St. Pierre completely crushes Penn up to the 4th when Penn's corner has the Doctor stop the fight. A day later the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) files a complaint that St. Pierre's cornermen applied vaseline to his shoulders and back. UFC President Dana White even came out and stated that he saw this happen(and without dropping a F-Bomb too). Now as of me writing this no word has been released about what happens with the outcome of the fight, but the NSAC has changed some rules only allowing 1 trainer in the cage between rounds. If this does hold true then the fight would more then likely be ruled a "No Contest".

Now for my thoughts on the matter. I've seen the video of the greasing. GSP's Cornerman applies the vasoline to his face then begins to rub his shoulders and back. What happens after that is some Athletic Officials come over and wipe of the areas. After seeing the videos I don't feel that anything was done on purpose. I don't think any of that would have made a difference. GSP is just naturally more stronger then BJ Penn. He would've just been able to muscle his way out of Penn's guard anyway. What time that was spent on the ground, GSP was in side control using ground and pound on Penn.

I think that St. Pierre is getting unfair criticism on the subject. I've seen some websites calling his victory an "asterisk victory". That is just wrong. St. Pierre is not at fault for any wrong doing that may or may not have taken place. For any other funny business look no further then the influx of fighters that have come out since the scandal claiming that St. Pierre was greased during their fights. Matt Hughes, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, and Matt Serra just to name a few. If Matt Hughes is going to use this as an excuse for his slump, then everyone who has beat him recently must've been greasing. If you saw the Matt Serra rematch then you would know that the only time that fight went to ground was when St. Pierre was savaging him with knees to the side of his body.

I pose this question to you: If there was a problem, then why did these guys wait(for some of them a year or 2) until now to complain?

Excuses, I think. Excuses for being crushed for the new Pound for Pound king, Georges St. Pierre.

In what has to be one of the most shocking moves in the past few months the UFC released Jon Fitch on Wednesday. Reports say that his release is due to his refusal to sign an agreement that states that his likeliness would remain exclusive to the UFC and THQ for the upcoming UFC 2009 Undisputed game. FItch had this to say about the hulabaloo:

"I had two fights left on my contract, but they always put a clause in the contract that if you lose a fight, they're able to release you at any time after a loss, that's pretty standard with any organization, but it's pretty incredible that they'd go to those lengths for something like this, over a video game. The video game agreement that they have that they wanted us to sign was basically we don't get anything for it. We get free publicity and promotion from the game, which is great, no problem. The problem is it's a lifetime exclusive contract. That means we would never ever be able to work with any video game companies other than the one the UFC provides. They basically kicked the door open, guns blazing, pointed it in our face and said, 'Sign this or you're going to pay'".

UFC president Dana White told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that the UFC will no longer be doing business with American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, which is where Fitch trains at. Due to this the UFC also cut AKA fighters Cain Velasquez, and Christian Wellisch. Josh Koscheck is rumored to be cut after his December 10th fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida. When speaking to Yahoo Sports, White had this family friendly piece to say about the situation:

"We're looking for guys who want to work with us and not against us, and frankly I'm just so [expletive] sick of this [expletive] it's not even funny, Affliction is still out there trying to build its company. Let him go work with them. Let him see what he thinks of those [expletives]. [Expletive] him. These guys aren't partners with us. [Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them."

For anyone that doesn't watch The Ultimate Fighter, yes, the president of a multi-million dollar company talks like that.

Jon Fitch is 8-1 in the UFC. That one blemish on his record is from welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, and that was the first time that St. Pierre had gone a full 5 rounds in a title defense. There's a line in here that troubles me, "...but they always put a clause in the contract that if you lose a fight, they're able to release you at any time after a loss,". Here's what bugs me, they release Jon Fitch after a possible fight of the year fight, yet Brandon Vera, a man who's 1-3 in his last 4 fights, still has a job...

Logic!

[UPDATE]: mmamania.com is reporting that all is well and Jon Fitch(along with the other fighters reportedly on the chopping block listed above) is not only back in the UFC fold, but will fight at UFC 94 reportedly against Akihiro Gono. Fitch told mmarated.com this:

"Communication kind of broke down with Dana (White) so we talked with Lorenzo. (I) just got off the phone with him and we came to an agreement. We're going to move ahead and I'll be back in the UFC. We're going to sign off on the video game and I'm back. It was never even about the agreement or the contract. It was the approach that we felt Dana was being a little bit hot-headed and was threatening us right off the bat. It didn't seem like a professional way of doing things."

Dana White almost single handedly put a gaping hole in the welterweight division. Only time will tell if he'll take his [expletive] foot out of his [expletive] mouth, maybe even learn a thing or two about this [expletive].