Georges St. Pierre

In B.J. Penn’s latest video blog he answers some fan mail and discusses his ongoing case against Georges St. Pierre that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has basically decided to hear, but do absolutely nothing in response to.  Penn seems to be blaming the NSAC’s Keith Kizer, saying he “can’t be trusted” and insisting that he has “no interest in fighting in Nevada or Las Vegas ever again.”

Just to clarify, that’s the UFC’s home base that he’s talking about – the city where the majority of their events are held.  And here the UFC lightweight champ says he doesn’t want to fight there ever again because the commission is made up of a bunch of shady ne'er-do-wells.  This could be a problem.

("Waaaaaaaahhhhhh!")

When BJ Penn said "to the death" before his UFC 94 welterweight championship bout against Georges St. Pierre, we thought he meant fight to the death, not litigate to the death. While the rest of the MMA world has long since lost interest in Penn's claim that GSP enjoyed a vaseline-related advantage during their match in January, Penn himself is working to get the issue moved from Nevada State Athletic Commission hearings to a Nevada court.

During a NSAC hearing on Wednesday, the commission acknowledged receipt of four documents submitted by Penn's attorney Raffi Nahabedian and his mother Lorraine Shin — among them a request for a full accounting of the evidence that Keith Kizer used in deciding not to file a formal complaint with the commission against Georges St. Pierre, and (this one's important) a request for a definitive statement on the commission's decision regarding disciplinary action and/or sanctions to be taken against St. Pierre and his cornermen, Greg Jackson and Phil Nurse.

I spoke to Kenny Florian last week for this SportsIllustrated.com article on the effects of the dreaded “Octagon jitters,” and naturally our conversation turned to his upcoming UFC lightweight title fight against B.J. Penn at UFC 101.  When I asked about Penn’s claims that Florian had warned him of potential “greasing” by Georges St. Pierre before their UFC 94 superfight, Florian did his best to downplay the dust-up.

“I’m not sure what that was.  Maybe it was a miscommunication, after what I had said about Roger Huerta.  Maybe it was head games on his part.  Maybe he genuinely believes that.  I don’t really know.  But I have a lot of respect for B.J.  I think he’s a proud champion.  I think he worked hard for that fight against Georges, and he just wasn’t able to deliver.  That can be hard to deal with.  I think that loss hurt him.”

(Props: MMA Opinion)

Is there any fighter who more closely resembles the animal for which he is nicknamed than Thiago "The Pitbull" Alves?  Just looking at his face makes me want to lock the door and call Animal Control.  He says in this video that he's been working out at Wanderlei Silva's new gym/daycare center in Las Vegas, and plans to return there the week before his title fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 100 to get his weight right.  Alves has had some weight issues in the past, and with a title fight he won't get that extra pound allowance so he'd better be on point.  Something tells me that screwing up a title fight at UFC 100 would be a murderable offense in Dana White's eyes.

Raw Vegas went by Xtreme Couture to talk with Kim Couture about her upcoming bout.  Am I the only one not buying it at all when she claims to be blissfully unaware of the criticism that suggests she's only getting these opportunities because of who she's married to?  Even if she doesn't "go on the computer," the idea must have occurred to her that it's not solely her 1-1 pro record that's landing her on Strikeforce cards.  Whatever you think of Couture though, it's nice to see a woman fighter slam "Cyborg" Santos' woman trouble excuse.  It just doesn't have the same force when we do it, for some reason.

After the jump, American Top Team boxing coach Howard Davis Jr. takes it to the gloves and shows us the hand speed.

To commemorate the DVD release of Never Surrender on April 28th, LionsGate has given us five copies of the flick to give away to you wonderful people. Hit us with the plot summary, IMDb:

So it's kind of like this, but with higher production values and a cast of actual MMA stars (Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Quinton Jackson, and Heath Herring). You know you want to see that. And to score a copy of the movie, all you have to do is come up with an entertaining caption to the photo after the jump...