B.J. Penn vs Georges St. Pierre - Will It Happen Anytime Soon?

After the conclusion of UFC 84, all people could talk about was two things - Tito Ortiz and the possibility of a Georges St. Pierre - B.J. Penn match-up.

Many people have been touting these "super" matches recently - just about a month ago, there was a strong rumor circulating the Internet that Georges St. Pierre might consider jumping up to take on Anderson "Spider" Silva.

The allure of such a match is easy to see - two strong fighters in their respective divisions do battle in a "mega" match that generates millions of dollars in PPV buys. Fans get to see their "dream" match, and the owners of the UFC print money giving it to them.

The problem is, that things are not this simple.

First off, Dana White has publicly stated that he wants his title holders to "clean out" their divisions before he would even entertain the possibility of them jumping up or down in weight class to have a "mega" fight.

For Georges St. Pierre, this would mean at least 3-4 successful title defenses. He just reclaimed his welterweight title at UFC 83, and is set to make his first defense against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. If St. Pierre successfully defends against Fitch, then he may have future defenses against the winner of the Hughes / Alves match-up at UFC 85, or possibly even a "rubber" match against Matt "The Terror" Serra. These are all matches that Dana White wants to see before he would even entertain a "super" fight against B.J. Penn.

For B.J. Penn, he just made the first successful defense of his lightweight title at UFC 84 against Sean Sherk. Penn is fanatical about cementing his legacy as one of the best fighters ever, so he has been vocally excited about the prospects of fighting Georges St. Pierre. The two fought at UFC 58: USA vs Canada, with St. Pierre winning via split decision. However, the UFC again want to see Penn "clean out" his division before having him jump up to fight St. Pierre. This means a title defense against the winner of the Kenny Florian vs Roger Huerta fight at UFC 87, and possibly a title defense in the future against someone like Mac Danzig.

Both St. Pierre and Penn are newly crowned champions, and the UFC want to see them successfully defend their titles numerous times before seeing them fight each other. Strong champions mean strong business for the UFC - the last thing that they want to see is someone winning a title, only to drop it to move up to another division. This creates weak divisions and lower viewer interest - just look at the heavyweight division in the UFC right now for an example of that. People don't want "interim" champions and dropped titles - they want strong champions who successfully defend, time after time, like Anderson "Spider" Silva. This creates strong divisions, which creates strong fan interest.

We are probably at least a year to 15 months away from seeing a Georges St. Pierre / B.J. Penn "super" fight.

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