UFC 94 Penn vs St Pierre – The Ultimate Main Event

It’s been called one of the most anticipated rematches in UFC history and it’s almost here. On Saturday, January 31, Georges St-Pierre and B.J. Penn will battle at 170 pounds in a super fight that spans two weight classes and thousands of miles.

The fight is so big that the UFC has even been airing a weekly “UFC Primetime” show chronicling both fighters’ training routines, with St-Pierre in Montreal and Penn in Hawaii, as they approach what could be the biggest MMA fight of the year.

The Betus oddsmakers have St-Pierre listed as a -175 to +135 favorite over Penn, which makes a lot of sense considering that St-Pierre won their first match in 2006.

Penn still thinks that he won that UFC 58 match, however, and one of the judges thought so as well since St-Pierre only won by split decision. Since that time in which both fighters were pretty evenly matched, both fighters have been on hot streaks.

St-Pierre defeated Matt Hughes twice since his win over Penn and also has beaten stars like Sean Sherk, Jon Fitch, Matt Serra, and Josh Koscheck. He also had a shocking loss to Serra earlier, however.

Penn meanwhile lost his next fight to Matt Hughes but has since defeated top lightweights Joe Stevenson, Jens Pulver, and Sean Sherk in succession. Looking at each fighter’s recent body of work, a slight edge goes to St-Pierre because of all of the top opponents he’s beaten.

Another advantage St-Pierre has over Penn is the fact that he’s used to walking around at a weight conducive to fighting in the UFC’s welterweight class and therefore is likely to have more muscle mass than Penn who has had to gain some weight to move up.

Since their last fight, both fighters have evolved a great deal, with Penn improving greatly upon his one weakness, conditioning, showing it off by outlasting Sherk, one of the best-conditioned fighters in the business.

St-Pierre meanwhile learned an important lesson against Serra and has begun to fight with more of a mean streak in the Octagon, and that has served him well. But the biggest area where St-Pierre has improved since the first fight against Penn is probably his wrestling. St-Pierre has trained a great deal with members of the Canadian National Wrestling Team and has more than held his own. St-Pierre’s strength advantage plus his ability to control the fight against the smaller Penn (an inch shorter but visibly smaller in terms of thickness) will be the difference in this fight.

While Penn is ridiculously flexible and capable of snatching an arm or sinking in a guillotine choke in a flash against just about any fighter in the UFC, the smart money at BetOnline Sportsbook will be on St-Pierre for UFC 94 because of his strong all-around game.

Penn has good takedown defense but in the heat of battle against St-Pierre, one slip-up could lead to a takedown and plenty of punishment by St-Pierre, who should prove that he is one of the most dominant fighters in the world yet again at UFC 94.