BJ Penn

[SleepingTalon]

Even if he is training much harder than everyone says, he makes himself appear to embody the typical UFC douchebag attitude when he constantly talks down about the best in the world. He is one of the best in the world, but it seems to me like a lot of people turn away from guys like Penn who just run their mouth. He obviously has a lot of balls to step up, but if you're ill equipped like he was you don't portray yourself in that manner. And he was ill equipped. He's amazing and could stay on top of his division for a while, but he got man handled. Straight up. When he talked all the shit about Sherk and Pulver, he delivered. It was ok then because those two guys aren't even close to GSP. Why can't fighters be respectful? GSP won more than the fight, he clearly has twice the class as well.

Apparently you fail to understand that this is a business. With Pulver, there was history, so nothing needed to be said. They built a whole season of TUF around their fight. With Sherk, BJ didn't talk shit. He stated the truth. Sherk did in fact get busted for steroids, FACT. Either way, they both did what they had to do to hype the fight and make it big. After the fight was over, BJ even said during his post fight interview that he said what he said to hype the fight. The same thing with the GSP fight. There is no drama between the two guys, and they have no ill will towards each other, so it has to be CREATED. This is how you make money. BJ understands this. If you have 2 guys sucking each others dicks in every interview saying "oh he's so great, I think he's so awesome, it's gonna be a great fight, and blah blah blah", then no one will give a fuck. The Primetime series, much like every countdown show, was aimed at people who buy into the shit they see on TV...which apparently is most the people in this thread. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the UFC follows the WWE's business model. You CREATE stories, and CREATE stars, with the only difference being that MMA isn't predetermined.

[alpine_aw11]

Apparently you fail to understand that this is a business. With Pulver, there was history, so nothing needed to be said. They built a whole season of TUF around their fight. With Sherk, BJ didn't talk shit. He stated the truth. Sherk did in fact get busted for steroids, FACT. Either way, they both did what they had to do to hype the fight and make it big. After the fight was over, BJ even said during his post fight interview that he said what he said to hype the fight. The same thing with the GSP fight. There is no drama between the two guys, and they have no ill will towards each other, so it has to be CREATED. This is how you make money. BJ understands this. If you have 2 guys sucking each others dicks in every interview saying "oh he's so great, I think he's so awesome, it's gonna be a great fight, and blah blah blah", then no one will give a fuck. The Primetime series, much like every countdown show, was aimed at people who buy into the shit they see on TV...which apparently is most the people in this thread. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the UFC follows the WWE's business model. You CREATE stories, and CREATE stars, with the only difference being that MMA isn't predetermined.

The point comes down to a question. Who do you want to be, the guy who talks a ton of shit and loses, or the guy who stays fairly repectful, and then comes in and beats some ass. It's as simple as that. Shit talking does not equal performing well, and a fight like this doesn't need to be hyped up with it. As if anyone would lose interest in Penn vs. GSP because there wasn't a lot of shit talking going around. I don't care that I've never met him, he makes himself look like a complete asshole, that's his problem.

[SleepingTalon]

The point comes down to a question. Who do you want to be, the guy who talks a ton of shit and loses, or the guy who stays fairly repectful, and then comes in and beats some ass. It's as simple as that. Shit talking does not equal performing well, and a fight like this doesn't need to be hyped up with it. As if anyone would lose interest in Penn vs. GSP because there wasn't a lot of shit talking going around. I don't care that I've never met him, he makes himself look like a complete asshole, that's his problem.

Yeah, you don't understand at all. This fight needed to be hyped. Neither of them was a PPV draw. Neither are household names. This wasn't Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesnar, Tito Ortiz, or Randy Couture.

It's not about losing interest, it's about drawing the casual fan. That has to be at the expense of someone, and it was BJ. Your shelf life in this game isn't huge. You gotta make money while you can. GSP understands this, as he even stated HIMSELF in the post fight press conference that "BJ was just hyping the fight and making it as big as he could". It worked very nicely too. As I can tell they drew your "emotional investment" in the fighters involved.