Kizer: Penn yet to file UFC 94 appeal, St. Pierre's corner could face action
While the utter domination of B.J. Penn by Georges St. Pierre during the two champions' UFC 94 main-event bout can not be questioned, the tactics implemented by the Canadian's team between rounds of Saturday's fight has left the group open for disciplinary action.
Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer today told
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that an improper application of Vaseline to St. Pierre's back by his cornermen has already merited a stern warning from the commission, and further actions may follow.
"There was no need for it," Kizer said of the incident in question. "It was disturbing. Where it goes from here, if anything, I don't know."
Immediately following the end of Saturday's UFC 94 bout, reports of an impending appeal to be filed by Penn's camp began to surface. Kizer said that although nothing official has been filed by Penn or his camp, the NSAC was already well aware of the improprieties in question.
Kizer and his team actually began dealing with the possible application of Vaseline to St. Pierre's back and shoulders during the match.
"The first round, one of the inspectors that was on the outside of the cage came over to me and said it looked to him that when the cornerman, who I think in that case was Phil Nurse, put the Vaseline on Georges' face then rubbed his shoulders -- which you see the guys rubbing the other guy's shoulders to help him out -- he didn't wipe off his hands between doing that. I said, 'Well, I'm going to watch very closely after this round.'"
Kizer watched intently to see if the questionable actions would be repeated as the second round came to a close.
"At the end of the second round I watched, and then another cornerman who I believe was Greg Jackson, he put the Vaseline on Georges' face, and then he put his hand on his back to do the breathing thing they always do," Kizer said. "As soon as I saw that, it looked like there was still some Vaseline on his hand. Not a lot, but still some.
"Tony Liano and I immediately yelled at him, and I don't think he heard us because of the noise. So I actually went into the octagon, and I said, 'Take your hand off of his back. What are you doing?' We wiped it down. We made sure it was wiped down after the third round as well. This was after the second when I was in there. I was very upset. I don't know if they were doing it intentionally or not. Either way, they shouldn't have done it."
Once KIzer left the octagon after the second round, he alerted additional commission and UFC representatives of the improper actions.
"I came out of the octagon and explained to the commissioner what I saw," Kizer said. "I also motioned towards (UFC President) Dana (White) and (UFC co-owner) Lorenzo (Fertitta) so they'd know what I was doing in there. After the fight, actually both Mr. White and Mr. Fertitta both commented on how they're not sure whether those guys need to corner any other UFC's ever again. I leave that to them from a company standpoint. We'll deal with it from a commission standpoint."
Kizer admits he's still uncertain whether the corner was simply careless in their actions or if they had hoped to gain an advantage by making St. Pierre's back slippery through the application of the Vaseline.
"It wasn't necessary," Kizer said. "It definitely wasn't fair to Mr. Penn. I don't think it was even fair to Mr. St. Pierre.
"His cornerman should have been more careful if it was an accident. If it was intentional that's even worse. Just very, very disturbing."
Some observers believed Penn's camp's complaints following the bout were a simple example of making excuses for a loss. Kizer revealed the concerns from Penn may have actually started at the conclusion of the opening round.
"I found out this morning -- I talked with another inspector of mine -- he said that apparently B.J. Penn had complained to the inspector in his corner after either the first or second round that he though maybe Georges was a little slippery," Kizer said. "I found that out this morning. At the same time he was complaining we were actually handling the situation in Georges' corner. It's just unfortunate."
Kizer said that the amount of Vaseline he saw applied didn't seem terribly excessive, but that no amount of the substance should have ever been involved.
"It wasn't like [St. Pierre's cornerman's] hand was covered in Vaseline, but he went directly from the face to the shoulders," Kizer said. "By itself it's not a problem, but if there was still some Vaseline residue on, which there very well could have been, you've got to be more careful than that.
"Again, I don't know if that was a trick they were trying to play on us or not, but regardless it's improper. We took the action we did after the second and third round."
Kizer said it isn't necessary for Penn's camp to file an official claim in order for the NSAC to issue further penalties, but that the Hawaiian's representatives are more than welcome to press the matter if they see fit.
"If they do file something, we'll obviously deal with it in due course," Kizer said. "Whether or not the commission wants to do anything on their own initiative, other than what we've already done, obviously, in giving them a very, very stern warning, (I don't know).
"Anytime you have disciplinary action it could involve a suspension, it could involve a fine, it could involve a revocation. But it's a little premature to be talking about that."
Kizer said that although the cornermen could face further disciplinary actions, there was no reason to believe the outcome of the fight would be overturned.
"They can definitely file a complaint against the cornerman," Kizer said. "But that's probably it. I don't know. We'll see. I don't see any basis to protest the decision, but you can definitely complain against the actions of the cornerman.
"My understanding is there's four ways you can overturn a decision. There's a scoring error. There's some sort of collusion, you know, someone paid off a judge, etc. The third is a positive drug test, and the fourth is the referee misinterpreted the rules. For example if you had the old boxing rule of three knockdowns in a round and after the third knockdown the referee says, 'Hey the fighter's fine. He can continue,' and he ends up winning the fight, you can overturn it then because the referee misinterpreted the rules. So I don't see any basis here.
"The example I give is Gaylord Perry of the (San Diego) Padres back in the day was known for putting Vaseline on the ball. The umpires did their best. Let's say it's the eighth inning and his team is up 10-0, he's throwing a shutout, and they find out on some pitch that he put Vaseline on the ball. They take action against him, but that wouldn't invalidate the rest of the game. Although you could argue maybe he used it on every pitch and got this 10-run lead.
"But again, the Penns have the right to file whatever they're going to file, and we'd look into it and see if there is any basis for whatever they asked for."
While the matter remains unresolved for now, Kizer said the NSAC has already dealt with the matter as best it can up this point.
"We wiped [St. Pierre] down very, very hard," Kizer said. "And even after the end of the third round, even though there was no touching of his back with Vaseline, we still wiped him down again after that round, too, just to be safe. You do the best you can to make it back to an even playing field and go from there.
"And I did tell the cornermen that if we ever see this again, that's it for them. I don't know the outcome of this specific incident, but we definitely gave them a warning that if we ever see that happen again that's probably the last time they'd be cornering in Nevada. As far as cornering in the UFC elsewhere, I'll leave that to the owners of the UFC."
Kizer also said it was a shame that such a dominating performance by the UFC's welterweight champion may always have an asterisk beside it in many fans' minds.
"It's just an unfortunate incident," Kizer said. "No fight needs it, especially a fight of this caliber.
"The fans can make their own conclusions on what they felt from their aspect. They saw what I saw for the most part based on some of the .gifs (small video clips) out there showing what happened.
"This may have tainted [St. Pierre's] victory in the eyes of many fans, and it's his cornerman's fault for that. It doesn't take away his victory, but it does take away from his victory in the eyes of many fans, I believe."
