The unbeatable B.J. Penn was finally beaten. Throughout the fight he never looked like himself. We may never know why, as B.J. has taken the high road, proclaiming that Edgar simply was the better man that night. Penn remains one of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and is likely only one or two fights away from a title shot.

This is limited edition shirt to commemorate Penn’s fight in Abu Dhabi. Much like most RVCA shirts, it forgoes the crazy designs in favor of the simple, sportier look. The back features B.J.’s name, “Jiu-Jitsu” and “The Prodigy” on bars, the same way the text on the front is.

MMA Warehouse has this one for 26.99

For more B.J. Penn gear, check out The 3rd String Store.

While everyone has tried to figure out exactly what Anderson Silva will be doing for his next fight, Dana has been trudging along with plan from before UFC 112. Silva will take on title contender Chael Sonnen next, and it could be as soon as August 7th according to MMA Junkie.

While UFC president Dana White made it very clear he was unhappy with his middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, following a lackluster appearance at this past weekend’s UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi, the exec isn’t hesitating to put “The Spider” back in action.

White announced today during an appearance on ESPN’s “Jim Rome is Burning” that the organization was targeting a fight between Silva and top contender Chael Sonnen.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has since confirmed the UFC is targeting Aug. 7 in Salt Lake City, marking the UFC’s first-ever trip to Utah.

Additional sources close to the promotion informed MMAjunkie.com that the UFC is eyeing EnergySolutions Arena, home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, as a potential host venue for the event.

Bill Colbert, Director of the Pete Suazo Utah Athletic Commission, told MMAjunkie.com that nothing is yet set in stone, but he acknowledged that he has been in discussion with the UFC.

“We’ve heard the date,” Colbert said. “We’ve been speaking to the UFC for some time and encouraging them to come to our state. We’re eagerly awaiting them to make a formal announcement. But I do understand that they’re having discussions with that date in mind.”

It’s not a confirmation, but it’s close. We know the plan for Chael: Put Silva on his back and make him beat him from the ground. It’s amazing what one fight can do to make you beleive that maybe it’s possible.

Who will win this fight? If the lackadaisical, boring Anderson Silva shows up, Chael will win a decision. If Anderson wants to shut Sonnen up, then Silva via complete destruction.

I’ve always said that the internet is a deadly thing. While it allows most of us to access more information than we ever could have imagined, it does put some of us at greater risk, particularly those with any level of fame or infamy.

That’s why I was shocked when I saw that Judge Douglas Crosby, the man who judged UFC 112′s B.J. Penn – Frankie Edgar fight 50-45, had addressed the score on the MMA message board The UG. Bloody Elbow compiled a bunch of his quotes for your viewing pleasure.

So I’m wondering…..Should I tell you how I scored Penn/Edgar, and why, right now, up front? But that seems kinda like the Pope or the King back in the day, just writing down what he wants to say, and having one of his burly churls nail it to the door of the church for everyone to read…It seems a bit…distant, a bit ‘above it all’, don’tcha think? Because God knows I have plenty to say and no shortage of burly churls; no dearth of hulking familiars to do my bidding have I….

Perhaps just announcing my presence is enough for now. Perhaps simply allowing some of you, my faithful friends and fellow MMA devotees, to say what YOU want to say is more….Democratic; more… Enlightened… A behaviour more consistent with a Progressive such as myself

After all, isn’t that my job? Isn’t it incumbent upon me, as a Judge, to make myself available for your criticism? If I take the plane ride, and get to the venue, and score the fights, I have a kind of….Contract with the fans; a contract that specifically allows you to criticize me. And I will be glad to defend the terms of that agreement, even if it means I have to take the weight sometimes… I knew this was coming as I scored the fight. I knew the inescapable inevitability of criticism was waiting back here. I saw the ride; and I bought a ticket

…

So allow me to cast up my accounts with you as equitably as possible, won’t you? Interestingly, I’ve been slightly taken aback by the response my score for the Penn/Edgar fight has engendered…but not in the way (some of) you guys have responded….I kind of expected that. What’s been surprising is how many people, at the event, in the hotel, at the airport, fighters, production staff, etc., have told me how glad they were that I scored the FIGHT, and not the FIGHTERS.

Are you guys with me on that, even just a little? Can you understand what I mean by that? May I also mention that I forgive you? For your anger, your insults, and your crassness? NOT all of you….You know who you are. Yes; YOU: Over there, with the purple Nikes on, waiting for the spaceship in the tail of comet to come take you to a world where everyone agrees with you….and YOU over there…the one who thinks his heroes never lose…. So yes, I forgive you. I started this thread knowing that a percentage of you would behave the way you have. I knew you would when I scored the fight as well. I forgave you then. And even as I forgave you, I prepared myself to defend your right to criticize me, and make myself available for that criticism. Isn’t that something I kind of…started out by saying?
…

All of that being said….. I’ve mentioned numerous times on other threads that the scoring criteria exist for a reason, just like the 10-point “must” system exists for a reason; and that the scoring criteria are guidelines within which Judges arrive at a decision on a round-by-round basis. It is a Judge’s obligation to interpret the fight and use the criteria as guidelines. But a fight is an observed event that does require interpretation, observation, wisdom. And, in my considered opinion, Edgar dictated the tone of the fight, successfully implemented and executed a strategy, landed better strikes, and basically outworked Penn.

And that is an interpretation by a ringside observer with an understanding and appreciation of MMA, who has Judged numerous (hundreds) of fights. I re-watched the fight in my hotel in Abu Dhabi and saw nothing that would influence me to score it any differently. I support and encourage your right to criticize my scoring. And I forgive you for your attacks of both a professional, and, regrettably, personal nature.

Yes, it is long for a summary, but if you click through and read the full thing, it’s TWELVE pages long. So, let’s look at what he says here. First off, he is a least somewhat of a human being, because he points out that he does welcome the criticism. That’s a good thing.

As for the bad things, there are plenty. First, he still defends his score which is completely indefensible. B.J. Penn definitely won both round one and three without question. Second, he points out being at cageside for the event making a difference, but then points out that he watched a replay and didn’t think that a whole lot was lost in translation. Third, and most importantly, he basically took the road of saying “Well, I’m an MMA judge trained to look for certain things, and you are just cretins who like to complain.” I’m paraphrasing there, but that’s what he basically said.

While I understand that these guys do go through training, I can’t help but feel like we still have a better understanding of what wins a fight than some of these judges. Crosby points out “octagon control” and “outworking” the opponent as sources of Edgar’s victory, which are both legit reasons. However, if you look at effectiveness rather than control, there is no doubt that Penn is the man who was more effective throughout that fight. Again, not taking anything away from Frankie, because I didn’t think he would get out of round two, and love him as a fighter with all my Tri-State fandom, but Penn should have won that fight.

And once again, if you have any level of fame, don’t let people goad you into shit like this. You always wind up looking bad.

The fallout from Anderson Silva’s embarrassing performance in Abu Dhabi is far from over. People have been suggesting solutions from all across the interweb. Some have suggest putting Silva’s next fight on free TV to deny him pay-per-view bonus money. Some have suggested him putting him up against Frank Mir or Cain Velasquez as punishment. While none of those options are perfect, there is one that makes no sense me: Silva cutting to 170 to fight Georges St. Pierre.

While a Silva-St. Pierre fight would still be a huge moneymaker, isn’t this doing nothing but rewarding the Brazilian champion? People have long talked about how Silva needs a challenge to keep him entertained, and that’s what St. Pierre would do. If that is the case (which by the way, it isn’t. Silva just does not care what the fans think) why would you give the bratty child the lollipop that he is crying for?

Photo Courtesy of UFC.com

As for the fight, even I, the world’s staunches St. Pierre defender, would probably take Silva, assuming that he fights like he did before he became an asshole. It would take a lot of GSP to take Silva down, and unless the weight cut completely sucked him out, he would likely body lock GSP and be able to do damage. If GSP chose to stand with a full bore Silva, it would end terribly for the entire country of Canada.

Instead, Dana White’s first suggestion should come to fruition. He should make Silva’s next fight at 205 on a preliminary undercard. He should be forced to take on a mediocre James Irvin type fighter with no win bonus, no pay-per-view money, and no eligibility for fight of the night or other bonuses. This would Silva what life on the otherside of the fight game is like, and may make him realize that he should stop wasting his prime acting like a jackass.

Then, we would see what happens when he takes on Chael Sonnen. If he fights like an idiot, then I have no answer for you. He’ll have alienated pretty much every fan that he has, maybe he can just walk away and Dana won’t even care.

Let’s not positively reinforce Silva’s stupidity by giving him what he wants. Instead, let’s do like we would to our kids and simply ignore it, and him, until he learns that he is not bigger than the sport.

Dana White constant calls Anderson Silva the number one fighter in the world. He points at all the things that he can do, and suddenly it’s hard to argue with him. However, after his performance at UFC 112, I have to say that I no longer care if he is the world’s best. I want him to sack up and fight whoever the UFC wants to put in front of him, or I want him to go away.

I am not an over-reactionary person, but I don’t understand how anyone can remain a fan of Silva. Three of his last four fights have been the worst main events in this history of MMA. Against Cote, the fight ended in an injury, but Silva really put in a half assed performance throughout most of that fight. Against Leites, people blamed that fight on Leites not engaging. I didn’t really buy it back then. If Silva is as good as his gesturing and trash talk makes us believe that he is, then he should pushed the fight and made Leites engage him. Yesterday, there was no excuse. Yes, Maia was trying to take the fight to the ground, but after he realized that he couldn’t he actually stood with the world’s best striker and still tried to fight!

Silva showed up for a ten minute fight. After that, he did his best Floyd Mayweather impression and ran away. How bad was it? Dan Mirgliotta actually threatened to take a point away from Silva for running. When is the last time you saw that? How bad was it? Dana White left cageside in the fourth round to make sure he didn’t run in the cage and strangle Silva.

The worst part? After the fight, at the post fight presser when Silva refused to admit that he basically didn’t want to fight. He talked about how Maia had disrespected him and how he was out to teach Maia a lesson. What lesson? How to properly look like an idiot in front of people who paid 60 bucks to watch you fight? Does anyone really believe that Demian Maia, who is one of the quiet guys in the game, really offended Silva in some way. He spewed bullshit for 15 minutes of reporters asking him what his problem was.

I really don’t feel like paying to watch Silva anymore if he is going to do this. Anderson, please listen to me. If you have no interest in fighting anymore, just retire. No one will hold it against you. No one will think any less of you. What will make people hate you is barely showing up. Pretending like you want to fight and then putting on piss poor performances like this one.

If you do want to fight, come back and kill Chael Sonnen. If Dana does put you on the undercard, shut up and knock the loudmouth the hell out. Don’t speak, in any language, and just do your job. Remind people why they wanted to see you fight in the first place. Then, maybe we could talk.

Right now, I suggest that you do some serious thinking about what you want to do.

Anderson Silva (25-4; #1 Middleweight) vs. Demian Maia (12-1; #6 Middleweight)

The Fighters: What’s not to love about Anderson Silva?  The man is a bad ass and he knows it.  Silva hasn’t even come close to losing in the UFC, he’s undefeated since coming to the UFC and is rapidly approaching the all time wins mark.  Silva of course is a devastating muay thai fighter but it’s his head movement and clinch work that make him so devastating.  I could go on gushing about Silva’s striking all day but the other aspects of his game have become underrated and they deserve some love.  Silva is a giant middleweight and even when he moves up to 205 he still looks like the biggest guy in the ring.  While his fights don’t usually go the distance he seems to have a very good gas tank and doesn’t wear down.  His wrestling is above average but he rarely has to use it.  His BJJ game is legit but again he rarely has to showcase it.  One needs to look no farther then Silva tapping out BJJ Black Belt Travis Lutter to see how dangerous he can be.

Demian Maia is a fighter who is attempting to become more then just a BJJ expert.  Maia is an impressive 6-1 in the UFC with his lone loss being a quick and violent KO at the hands of Nate Marquardt.  Maia is astute enough at wrestling to get most of his opponents down and when he does he usually ends up with a submission.  Maia also has a knack for effectively pulling guard which seems to be a dying skill in MMA.  Five of Maia’s six UFC victories have come by submission and four earned him submission of the night.  In his last fight against Dan Miller it seemed Maia kept the fight standing almost to prove a point and to work on his striking.  While his striking looked much better against Miller it mainly consisted of simple one-two’s.

Breakdown:  Maia is an interesting challenge for Silva but does he stand a chance?  While the hype around this fight centers around “if Maia can get him down he can submit him” my question is; why do you think that’s a certainty? Anderson Silva has only been submitted twice in his career.  One loss was to a fluky scissor heel hook and the other was almost 7 years ago.  Silva is no slouch off his back.  Of course that’s assuming Maia can consistently get Silva down.  Marquardt and Henderson couldn’t so see no reason to assume Maia could.

While Maia is billed as a ground wiz even he had to work hard to tap someone the caliber of Jason McDonald.  Silva will be able to keep this fight standing and will be able to turn Maia’s face into pulp.  We can only hope that this fight doesn’t turn into Silva/Leites II.

Prediction: Anderson Silva Via Destruction Round 2

B.J. Penn (15-5-1; #1 Lightweight) vs. Frankie Edgar (11-1; #9 Lightweight)

The Fighters: BJ Penn is utterly unstoppable at 155.  It’s almost not fair at this point.  Maybe we should have him fight with one arm tied behind his back just for shits and giggles.  Penn has defended his title three times and none of the fights were remotely close.  He took out Sherk with a knee after he was done toying with him.  He went 4 rounds with Kenny Florian, who has looked utterly dominant in his own right, as if he was silencing his critics.  Cardio? I’ll show you cardio!  Diego Sanchez?  By the time B.J. was done with him it looked like he fought an Axe Murderer (no not Wanderlia Silva, literally an Axe Murderer.)  B.J. might have the best boxing in MMA and with his naturally heavy hands his jab is as strong as some peoples hooks.  He could sit and cut you up with his jab all day but if feels like he can easily take you down and submit you with whatever limb he chooses.  When making a list of the top pound for pound fighters in MMA. B.J. Penn has to be at or near the top.

Frankie Edgar is a great fighter in his own right.  Coming from the local New Jersey circuit Edgar shocked everyone by beating Tyson Griffin in his UFC debut.  Now 6-1 in the UFC, Edgar is ready for a title shot.  Edgar is a solid wrestler and has very fast hands of his own.  His boxing looked super crisp in his last fight against Matt Veach.  The biggest knock on Edgar is his size.  While he might have the strength of a 155 pounder, he has the body of a 145 pounder.  Ultimately that natural disadvantage might end up holding him back.

Breakdown: Anything you can do B.J. Penn can do better.  Sure, Edgar has a better chance standing with BJ Penn then Florian or Sanchez did but do we really think Edgar is going to be the first person to KO Penn?  The fact that BJ can match Edgar skill for skill and is naturally blessed with a skull made of iron makes it hard to see this fight ending any way other then in Penn’s favor.

Prediction:  B.J. Penn via Rear Naked Choke Round 4

Matt Hughes (43-7) vs. Renzo Gracie (13-6-1)

The Fighters:  Matt Hughes is one of the greatest champions in UFC history.  Hughes reign at 170 from ’02-’06 is really a mirror image of what GSP is doing now.  If Mark Coleman is the Godfather of Ground and Pound then Matt Hughes must be his godson.  Naturally gifted by what Hughes calls farmers strength, he was able to use his wrestling and top control to beat down his opponents.  Unfortunately as Hughes got older the sport evolved.  Wrestling just wasn’t good enough.  Hughes boxing never evolved past it’s most basic form.  When guys like Alves and GSP could defend his take downs he was left a fish out of water.

Renzo Gracie is part of the legendary Gracie family.  While it will be exciting to see Renzo in the UFC cage and while he’s a much better fighter then Royce Gracie, I’m not sure this signing isn’t 10 years too late.  At 43 years old, Gracie has been fighting on the Senior Circuit lately.  He’s on a 3 fight win streak but against predominately older fighters.

Breakdown:  Don’t get me wrong, I love Renzo Gracie.  He’s wildly entertaining, has a school in NY and my BJJ coach is a Renzo Gracie purple belt.  However I just don’t see him having a chance in this fight.  Hughes is bigger and much stronger (Renzo has admitted as much saying his next fight will likely be at 155.)  While Renzo’s BJJ is top notch, Matt Hughes is no slouch.  If Hughes trained with a GI he’d probably be a black belt and unless Hughes gets super duper lazy or I can’t see him being tapped.

Prediction: Matt Hughes via TKO Strikes Round 3.

Terry Etim (14-2) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (13-4)

The Fighters: Terry Etim has a 5-2 UFC record but when inspected closely it’s not as pretty as it would seem. Other then Sam Stout, Etim lacks a quality UFC victory. Much like his other British counterparts Etim has a very aggressive striking game complemented by a high level submission game. Etim has won 3 submission of the night awards. Where Etim struggles is against wrestlers, specifically working off his back.

Dos Anjos is 2-2 in the UFC and has rebounded with two wins after losing his first two fights. Dos Anjos is primarily a grappler who relies on his BJJ and wrestling. His striking game is still a work in progress.

Breakdown: Etim’s biggest problem in this fight will be take down defense. Dos Anjos top game should nullify any attempt of guard work from Etim. If Dos Anjos can take down Etim at will and avoid mixing up the strikes with him it’s easy to see him grinding his way to a unanimous decision.

Prediction: Dos Anjos Via Unanimous Decision.

Mark Munoz (7-1) vs. Kendall Grove (11-6)

The Fighters: Munoz is a decorated college wrestler who found MMA at a later age.  Munoz was a two time All-American at Oklahoma State and won a title as a senior in 2001.  Munoz lost his UFC debut, at 205 pounds, to Matt Hammil.  Since then Munoz has moved to a more natural weight of 185 pounds and has won two fights in a row.  Besides his obvious wrestling skill Munoz is blessed with natural power and is currently a purple belt in BJJ.

Kendall Grove is a former TUF champ whose had mixed success in the UFC.  Grove is 6-3 in the UFC and always seems to falter when taking a step up in competition.  Grove somehow manages to cram his 6’6 frame into a middleweights body and it gives him many unique advantages.  Few middleweights are going to be able to match his reach advantage and Grove has shown to have a very dangerous guard.

Breakdown:  Being 6’6 is both a blessing and a curse.  Grove has struggled when matched with wrestlers who can take him down while keeping themselves out of harms way, a perfect example is the Ricardo Almeida fight.  Where Grove can succeed against a strong wrestler is by using his submission offense.  Look at the Sherdog.com play by play of his fight against Jake Rosholt:

Rosholt clinches and trips Grove to the canvas. Grove pops back up and defends the clinch with a trip of his own. Grove begins to work his right hand from the guard of Rosholt. The wrestler scrambles to his feet and gets the top position following a fast takedown. With 1:30 left in the opening frame, Rosholt advances to the mount position. Grove momentarily gives up his back, but gets to half guard for his effort. Grove uses nice footwork to get full guard. Grove slaps on an omaplata and transitions beautifully to a triangle choke. Rosholt taps quickly at 3:59 of round one.

With his wrestling ability Munoz will be able to control this fight. If he wants to keep it standing he can, however he would find himself out of his element. Can Munoz keep himself out of trouble if he ends up in Kendall’s guard? That will be the key to this fight. Will it can go either way I like Munoz’s chances to keep himself out of trouble and earn a win.

Prediction: Munoz Via Unanimous Decision.