UFC 94
UFC 94: St-Pierre vs. Penn 2 was a mixed martial arts pay-per-view event promoted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on January 31, 2009. The card featured five televised MMA bouts, as well as five un-aired preliminary bouts. It was the second UFC event of 2009 and took place on the weekend of Super Bowl XLIII.
The main event featured the UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St-Pierre, defending his title against UFC Lightweight Champion and former UFC Welterweight Champion B.J. Penn. This represented the first time two current titleholders competed against each other in the UFC. The contest was heavily promoted, featuring a publicity tour to Canada and Hawaii, as well as the introduction of UFC Primetime, a preview show that cost $1.7 million to produce. The co-main event of the evening was a battle between two undefeated light heavyweights sporting 13–0 records in Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva.
Background
The main event featured the UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre defending his championship against UFC Lightweight Champion B.J. Penn in a fight contested at the UFC welterweight limit of 170 pounds. The fight represented the first time two current title holders faced off in the UFC. Penn also sought to become the first fighter in the UFC to concurrently hold two championships in two separate weight classes. The UFC 94 main event was met with a high level of anticipation from both the media and the fans. Sherdog called the fight between St-Pierre and Penn the most anticipated bout of 2009, and NBC Sports described it as one of the most anticipated fights in MMA history. In an article previewing the fight, Dave Meltzer discussed the over-usage of exaggerations to promote contests in combat sports, but argued that the January 31 match between St-Pierre and Penn was "one of the true epic matches in the history of the sport." The fans voiced their opinion in a poll conducted by Inside MMA, where 45 percent of the viewers voted the match up between St-Pierre and Penn as the most anticipated fight to take place between December and February. The poll also featured Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski, Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson, and Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson.St-Pierre is a fighter with very strong wrestling, and trains with the Canadian Olympic team. His conditioning, strength and athleticism have also been identified as strong attributes. He became the undisputed UFC Welterweight Champion by winning the interim-championship against Matt Hughes at UFC 79, and successfully unifying the championship against Welterweight title holder Matt Serra at UFC 83 in Quebec, St-Pierre's home province. St-Pierre's fight prior to the UFC 94 event was a successful title defense against Jon Fitch at UFC 87 via unanimous decision, where he won every round on the judge's scorecards. Penn is a fighter noted for his outstanding jiu-jitsu, as he is the first non-Brazilian to win the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship at the black belt level. His other notable strengths include boxing, and wrestling/takedown defense. Penn captured the vacant UFC Lightweight Championship by defeating Joe Stevenson at UFC 80. The belt was vacant as a result of the California State Athletic Commission stripping then-champion Sean Sherk of the title for testing positive for anabolic steroid Nandrolone, or more commonly known as Decadurabolin, following a title defense. Penn entered the UFC 94 fight following a successful title defense as well, with a 3rd-round TKO of former champion Sean Sherk at UFC 84. St-Pierre and Penn had fought once before in a welterweight number one contenders match at UFC 58 on March 4, 2006, where St-Pierre won in a very evenly matched contest by split decision.
Image:GeorgeStPierre.jpg|thumb|left|St-Pierre had defeated Penn in a previous bout; a split-decision at UFC 58.
Promotion for the St-Pierre and Penn contest began in November 2008, with UFC President Dana White, and the two main event fighters embarking on publicity tours in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Honolulu, Hawaii. The fighters answered various fan questions, and signed autographs. In an effort to further promote the contest, the UFC introduced UFC Primetime, a three-part series that cost $1.7 million to produce. UFC Primetime detailed the final preparations of St-Pierre and Penn's before their fight. Spike aired the half-hour episodes on the final three Wednesdays leading up to the fight, beginning on January 14, 2009 and concluding on January 28, 2009. Camera crews spent twenty five days with each fighter rather than the three days for a standard UFC Countdown preview show, and episodes aired shortly after they were filmed. The episodes were aired quickly to provide weekly updates on each fighter's current status. After the first episode aired, it was reported by MMAjunkie.com that B.J. Penn was unhappy with his portrayal in the program, and wanted to withdraw from the project. Penn made a subsequent appearance on TapouT radio to discuss this report and confirmed that he has taken issue with his portrayal on the show. He was adamant that he would not continue to allow filming unless his portrayal changed. In the end, UFC Primetime proved to be a ratings success, as it was announced by Spike that the program was the most watched UFC preview show ever, drawing 1.4 million viewers for its first episode. The second episode averaged 825,000 viewers, while the third episode drew 662,000 viewers.
The co-main event featured a bout between two top contenders and undefeated light heavyweights, Lyoto Machida and Thiago Silva. The two were originally scheduled to meet at UFC 89, but a back injury forced Silva to withdraw from the contest. UFC President Dana White indicated in the pre-fight press conference that Machida would receive a title shot with a victory, while Silva would need to defeat Machida and win one more contest before earning the same opportunity. Machida is a fighter who prefers to counter-strike, and combines Shotokan Karate, sumo wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu to form his own style. Silva is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, but prefers to fight standing. Machida entered the UFC 94 fight following a unanimous decision victory over former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz at UFC 84, where he won every round on the judge's scorecards. Thiago Silva entered the contest with 1st-round TKOs over Antonio Mendes at UFC 84, and Houston Alexander at UFC 78.
The event also featured the return of two more fighters from injury, in Karo Parisyan and Stephan Bonnar. Parisyan, a judo standout, had to withdraw from a scheduled fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 88 with a back injury just one day before the fight. His opponent for UFC 94 was undefeated South Korean welterweight Dong Hyun Kim. Bonnar, a light heavyweight, was to take on Matt Hamill at UFC Fight Night 13, but a left knee injury during training forced him out of that bout. His opponent, the 21-year-old Jon Jones was a national amateur wrestling champion and coming off a unanimous decision victory over Andre Gusmão at UFC 87, where he took the fight on three weeks notice. Rounding out the main card was a lightweight contest between the winner of the fifth season of the UFC's reality television series and MMA competition The Ultimate Fighter, Nate Diaz, and contender Clay Guida. The Ultimate Fighter is a single-elimination reality series featuring fledgling professional MMA fighters competing for the title of The Ultimate Fighter, and a six-figure, multi-fight contract with the UFC. Diaz is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt under Cesar Gracie, and Guida is noted by MMA journalist Sam Caplan as one of the UFC's most highly regarded fighters. The two were expected to fight in December 2008, but the fight failed to materialize due to a foot injury to Guida.
Event
The card consisted of ten mixed martial arts bouts all sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and contested under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. All bouts consisted of three five-minute rounds except for the main-event championship match between St-Pierre and Penn which was five five-minute rounds. Five of the bouts were part of the non-televised preliminary card. The reported attendance was 14,885 with a total gate of $4,290,020. The UFC announced on January 14, 2009 that the event was completely sold out, however MMAjunkie.com noted that at the time of announcement, it was still possible to find single tickets. The reported buyrate of the pay-per-view was 800,000.Preliminary card
The event's five preliminary fights all went the full three rounds, ending in decisions. In the first bout of the evening, Dan Cramer became the first fighter to be successful in a professional mixed martial arts debut at a UFC pay-per-view event since Marcio Cruz at UFC 55. In his fight with Matt Arroyo, Cramer executed a takedown and attempted punches on the ground while avoiding the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown-belt's submissions during the first two rounds, while the third and final round saw Arroyo taking Cramer's back on the ground and unsuccessfully going for a rear naked choke. Two of the three judges scored the bout 29–28 for Cramer while the remaining third judge saw it 28–29 for Arroyo, giving Cramer the split-decision victory.In the second bout of the event, Jake O'Brien rebounded from two TKO losses in a row with a split-decision win over Christian Wellisch. O'Brien, a former wrestler at Purdue University, was able to take Wellisch down and control his opponent on the ground but was hurt on the feet in the first and second rounds. The judges saw it 29–28, 28–29 and 29–28 in favor of O'Brien. This was both fighters first fight at light heavyweight after dropping down from heavyweight.
In one of the two bouts being awarded "Fight of the Night" bonuses, John Howard defeated Chris Wilson by split decision in their welterweight contest. Howard was able to take down Wilson in all three rounds where he scored with ground-and-pound and once went for a rear naked choke. Wilson had some success on his feet, but Howard landed the harder strikes. The contest was scored twice 29–28 for Howard and once 28–29 for Wilson.
The only lightweight bout on the preliminary card saw Thiago Tavares defeating Manny Gamburyan by unanimous decision. Tavares went for ground-and-pound after takedowns, while the smaller Gamburyan tried to push the pace on the feet but was unable to counter Tavares' more powerful strikes. All three judges scored it 29–28 in favor of Tavares.
In the last fight on the preliminary card, American Kickboxing Academy's Jon Fitch faced Akihiro Gono. The bout saw Fitch continually taking down Gono and landing with ground-and-pound punches on the downed opponent. Fitch came close to submitting Gono in the first and second rounds when he went for a rear naked choke and an armbar respectively, but he was unable to finish the Japanese fighter. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Fitch, two scoring it 30–27 with one judge seeing it 30–26 giving Fitch the unanimous decision victory.