UFC 94

dew22 said:

I don’t think so...................

You can either believe what you saw. A grown man rubbing Vaseline on the chest, shoulders, head & back of an MMA participant, and go where common sense leads you, or you can believe it was an inadvertent side benefit of a voodoo ritual, as the GSP camp has claimed.

Click to expand...

Well, after rewatching the video at least half a dozen times, I'm not convinced there was any cheating going on. As the matter of fact, I'd love for you to explain to me what you saw in detail and see if it differs from what I saw?

All of the controversy was based around what happened at the beginning of the 2nd round. Yes at the 9:25 mark you see one of the trainers wiping Vaseline on GSP's face with the first three fingers of his right hand as he dabbed it off of the back of his left hand. At 9:34 you do see him rub the front half of his shoulders once(left hand-right shoulder, right hand-left shoulder), in a single downward stroke with both hands, but I suspect that was done inadvertently to wipe away some of the water GSP had poured onto his head not 2-seconds earlier and to calm him. At this point he continues to work the existing Vaseline already present on his face, into his features.

At 9:43 you see him rub the outside of his shoulders once in a single downward motion and then press on the centre of his chest with the palm and fingers of his right hand (after already having worked the Vaseline off of them and into his face), and massage and brush the remaining water off of his back (which is apparently when the Vaseline was applied) with the left.....but here's the important part.....it was all done with the palm and fingers of his left hand. The remainder of the Vaseline in question was on the back of his hand. So tell me....how did it go from the back of his hand, to his back when we clearly see him rubbing GSP down with his palm and fingers?

I admit, there may have been some small measure of transfer onto the front of his left shoulder and chest, and quite possible even a smaller amount to his shoulders and back that may have been left over from massaging it into his face, but if there was any it was a miniscule amount at best. The way they're making it sound, is like the greased him down like a shaved hog at a drunken Red Neck barn dance. You'll get as much slippage from water and sweat as you would that tiny bit of transfer. And besides....a little transfer is to be expected the way these guys roll around on the mat.

I suspect someone from the Penn camp saw this and blew it out of proportion to get the officials riled up because Penn wasn't dominating quite as they expected. Every round after than, the officials were in there toweling GSP off.

I mean....at one point before they entered the second round, BJ Penn's trainer is seen with his hand on his shoulder giving him advice. When the round starts BJ walks away with a shiny substance on his left shoulder. Should we be suspect of that too? I didn’t see them pour any water on his head? What was on that ice pack? Why weren’t they toweling BJ Penn off after the break? Controversy works two ways after all

The bottom line is that the Penn camp is grasping at straws. You can bet if the fight had gone the other way, we wouldn't have heard a peep from them. GSP was the more skilled competitor and he dominated....that's all there is to it. No amount of Vaseline on your body is going to help if you don't brink your A-game...and Penn didn't, which is why he lost. End of story!