An open letter to Mr. Dana White

Dear Dana White,

You are a great businessman. You have taken the UFC to heights that nobody else could have taken them to. Not in the same time, not in the same way. Anyone who doesn't believe in you is a fool.

And the best part of who you are is that you are always 100-percent honest and real with everyone about everything. You know what you want, you have always done it your way. By hook, by crook, by convincing, by demanding. It is Dana White's way or the highway.

But Saturday night wasn't the time or place. You overshadowed your huge 20th anniversary show by buying into a controversy that wasn't so controversial. And you overshadowed the perhaps retirement of arguably the greatest UFC fighter ever. And why? What is your reason?

Because Georges St.Pierre owes you something? Because you need to placate Johny Hendricks' ego with something other than your always go-to "don't leave it in the hands of the judges," belief. Sure, you said that same thing to him post fight, but your conviction didn't support that stance. Not one bit.

And, before we get into the meat and potatoes, about that 20th anniversary? What a huge night! But your spit on Royce Gracie and Rorian Gracie, on Dan Severn and Chuck Liddell, on Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture, on Art Jimmerson and Ken Shamrock....and so, so many others, but letting your hotheaded opinionated self overshadow the event itself. An epic event just because of the magnitude of the anniversary of a sport that was once so dead in the water.

But really, let's strip this down to bear bones Mr. White, let's talk about GSP. You have said, and recently, how he is the biggest draw in the history of your company. Save for an experienced young man losing to Matt Hughes and the most unlikely upset in the history of combat sports to Matt Serra, the man sports a career that is blemish free. He has his haters because he doesn't finish fights. But again, save for a round with Jake Shields and a pair with Carlos Condit (that was more like a solitary kick), he has had no real push until Saturday night. Finish or not, he has systematically picked apart every contender he has been fed from Jon Fitch to Dan Hardy to Nick Diaz.

We will, to save whining, say that he is “arguably” the greatest fighter in the history of your already storied promotion. He has earned you, Frank and Lorenzo millions and millions and millions of dollars. So

what does he really owe you? Hasn't GSP always given you what you wanted? Fight who you want, when you want it, set a record rehab pace coming back from a torn ACL to fight for you. Georges St. Pierre has done everything for the UFC.

On top of all of this is now the report that alleges that St. Pierre wants to take the time off because of an unplanned pregnancy with a woman AND that his father is terminally ill and dying.

So when, if not now, is GSP's turn to be selfish? Anderson Silva has made a mockery at times of the UFC, Jon Jones made you CANCEL a card. Cancel. Not postpone. Cancel. And still, 'Rush' can't take some time away because of an unplanned child and dying father? That is pathetic Dana. If you had a dying father, would you be at a show? Why expect more from GSP than you would expect from yourself?

You are not qualified, nor even slightly allowed to make mental health decisions for Georges St. Pierre. Whether these new rumors are true or not, if GSP is struggling, then he is struggling and the level at which he struggles is not up to you. I don't care if its a dying dad or his favorite Tim Horton's closed. I don't care if it's an unexpected child or he stubbed his toe. GSP's personal life if GSP's personal life and quite frankly sir, it is none of your business.

And don't try to put it on us as fans by saying that Georges St. Pierre owes the fans an immediate rematch with Johny Hendricks. Why should he? Because it was close? Then why didn't Alexander Gustaffson get an immediate rematch against Jon Jones? Pick a precedent and follow it, don't be so fickle. Because true fans, not just Johny Hendricks fans, know that GSP owes us nothing. You say he owes you and the UFC and the fans because you want to cash in on a pay day, nothing more and nothing less and we all know that.

You don't want Hendricks as your Welterweight champion any more than you want Chris Weidman as your Middleweight champion. He's got a boring personality, he's bland and he's not marketable. The best thing he does is knock people out quickly and who oh who is going to pay $60 to watch him headline a pay per view when the main event, if he wins, will end in 23.6 seconds. All you want is the pay day of the immediate rematch. GSP doesn't owe you anything, you just want to take.

As a fan of the sport, I can tell you that GSP has already given us enough. If he never came back, I wouldn't blame him. If he walked away with your belt and your PPV revenue, I (as one of the UFC's truest fans) wouldn't care one bit. Would I be sad that I don't get to see the greatest of all time perform anymore? Sure. But does GSP owe me more than the years of entertainment that he has already provided? No sir.

And for you to expect more is just cheap and pathetic. Your antics this time don't amuse any UFC fans and I think that you need to know that. That is if you truly have our best interests and opinions at heart.

Sincerely,
A UFC Fan

UFC 111 Quick Picks

UFC Predictions (100-102, 104-110, UFC on VERSUS) 58-58-1 - last card: 7-4

PRELIMS
Matthew Riddle vs. Greg Soto
~Riddle needs to win to bounce back from a tough first loss. And though Soto doesn't want his first, Riddle has developed into a very mentally tough fighter.
Matthew Riddle by Unanimous Decision

Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal
Drwal by 2nd Round TKO

Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman
Wallace by 1st Round KO

Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
Brown by 2nd Round Submission

Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
~If ever there was a man with a chip on his shoulder, it's Nate. Bad news is Chip+Good Fighter will probably equal a long night for Markham...metaphorically.
Diaz by 1st Round TKO

MAIN CARD
Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek
Miller by Unanimous Decision

Ben Saunders vs. Jon Fitch
~What a hard fight to pick. Saunders is clearly crazy for wanting to get into the cage with Fitch on NO notice. Crazy can always help someone in the Octagon and I see how it has been beneficial to Saunders' career. However, taking a fight with Jon Fitch while you haven't been training for Jon Fitch is questionable. Even worse than that, Fitch has been training for a fight with Thiago Alves, a man prone to potentially taking your head off. I admire Saunders' guts. But this will be the best Fitch we've ever seen.
Fitch by 2nd Round KO

Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes
Pellegrino by Split Decision

Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
~Win and get Brock. Motivation enough.
Mir by 2nd Round KO

Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
~Hardy is top notch (if its 2012 and St. Pierre has either retired or traded up to Middleweight). This says quick picks so let me be quick. Hardy puts up a good effort...not good enough.
St.Pierre by 3rd Round TKO

> UFC 100 Predictions

>PRELIM FIGHTS
Matt Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty
Who cares? Its a pretty irrelevant fight that hopefully sets a good tone for the evening. -Grice by TKO in Round 2

CB Dollaway vs. Tom Lawlor
Very different styles collide and CB is just too much more disciplined.
-Dollaway by submission in Round 3

TJ Grant vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Grant steps in for Jonathan Goulet, who was originally scheduled for this fight. A fighter change always makes things interesting and in this case, I think that Grant is smart enough to avoid Kim's sharp elbows.
-Grant by unanimous submission

Jon Jones vs. Jake O'Brien
Jones is way stronger than O'Brien, that's all that matters.
-Jones by TKO in Round 1

Mac Danzig vs. Jim Miller
There have been no Ultimate Fighter winners more dissapointing than Danzig, who is boring and subpar at best. He'll be lucky if Miller gives him any room. Miller's loss to Gray Maynard will be offset as he dominates Danzig.
-Miller by unanimous decision

Mark Coleman vs. Stephan Bonnar
At the Ultimate Finale of the Griffin/Rampage season, Kendall Grove (a (TUF alum) fought the late Evan Tanner (a former world champion) in a match Grove labeled as "loser leaves town." This is the sequel. Fortunatly for Bonnar, who TWICE stood toe to toe with Forrest Griffin, Coleman is too old and not going to have the conditioning he needs.
-Bonnar by TKO in Round 2

>MAIN CARD
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan Belcher
This could become a slugfest with fight of the night potential even with the four other blockbuster main card fights. If Akiyama is smart, he won't let it become so because he can submit so much better than Belcher, a man who is much closer to one dimensional. Ground fight goes to Akiyama but I don't think he's smart enough to take it there.
-Belcher by unanimous decision

Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago
Thiago is 11-0 in his career, but only 1-0 in the UFC. And while he may be strong, very strong, knocking out Josh Koscheck isn't the most rare thing in the world. Fitch on the other hand doesn't care and I can all but guarantee that. He has the best chin in MMA and he'll take all that Thiago has to offer and give it back ten fold. My money is on my hometown boy.
-Fitch by split decision

Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson
Bisping's a striker, Henderson's a wrestler. The difference? Henderson can't defend striking as well as Bisping can defend wrestling. If the swing, eventually Bisping will catch Henderson but I don't know if Hendo can catch "The Count." On the ground, Bisping has improved his scrambling so well that Henderson may keep him down, but can he do anything with him while they are down there? It doesn't matter who Hendo has beaten, all that matters is this fight. It will be a classic but Henderson will go all out and that's comendable. I'd rather be a winner than commeded. Hendo stays close and fights, Bisping sticks and runs out of the line of fire. Call it what you will, I'll call it smart. Henderson will take Mike down, so the Brit was wrong. But he was right somewhere, he's gonna be the first to kncok Hendo out. The last time a fighter who has won The Ultimate Fighter, then gone on to coach the show later in their career, fought the guy they coached against, he won. Bisping is the new Griffin and fittingly he gets the next fight with Anderson Silva after Griffin fights him at 101.
-Bisping by TKO in Round 3

Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves
Haven't I already said that hammering on Josh Koscheck isn't that big of a deal? Ok, so Alves is much better than Paulo Thiago but still Koscheck isn't a high placed reference point. Alves is a heavy hitter and if he lands a couple good, quick shots then GSP could be in trouble as we learned in the first Matt Serra fight. But its a lot easier to get surprised by Serra than Alves, who is well, well known for his heavy hands and power. GSP has seen every side of ever style and lived to talk about it and even laugh down at it after he beat it's ass.
-GSP retains by unanimous decision

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir
Let's throw out that Lesnar doesn't even deserve to be in this spot and he got fast tracked because of his name. I am not sure how Lesnar thinks it is ok to talk that match trash when what he's done in the UFC is get dismantled by Mir, take 3 full rounds to beat Heath Herring (and who hasn't beat Heath Herring) and stop a very aged Randy Couture coming off an extended leave. If Lesnar wins, I will give him credit but there will still need to be a rubber match down the line. Until he wins, he's just a slightly more talented Kimbo Slice, ready to be exposed yet again. While most count Lesnar as the favorite- and yes he does have heavy, heavy hands- I see the fight as a lose/lose for him. If he goes to wrestler mode, we've seen what can and likely will happen. Frank Mir is just too good at BJJ no matter how much Brock has worked on his BJJ defense. Any position he wrestles Mir into, Frank can submit him. So how about just kick boxing? Well, Brock can't kick and Frank can. And no matter how much damage Brock's fists did in the first fight, Mir just...and let me make sure this is stressed...TKO'D NOGUEIRA!! Brock's too cocky, too angry and will make mistakes.
-Mir by submission in Round 2 to become the Undisputed champion

> Diego proves himself legit

I don't care what anyone else says, including the judges in tonight's split decision...Diego Sanchez is legit.

I don't mean he was just legit tonight in his mostly one sided slugfest with Clay Guida.
I don't mean he is just legit at his semi-new home of the 155 weight class.
I mean he is legit as one of the world's best pound-for-pound fighters.

On tonight's Ultimate Finale Live, Diego opened up running through Guida like a machine. He swung and swung and swung until he busted Clay up and probably broke his nose. Then Diego delivered a vicious head kick that put Guida on his ass and forced commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg to proclaim what a "great chin" Guida had for taking that kick. Great chins are nice and all, but the only way you ever find out who has one is if they are taking shots.

Me personally, I don't know what kind of a chin Diego Sanchez had tonight. Because even when he was not controlling the fight, only in the second round, he was landing cutting elbows from the bottom that made Guida bleed like a stuck pig.

Now, Diego is likely on to challange the winner of this Fall's BJ Penn/Kenny Florian title fight and both of those guys should be worried for the Lightweight division's real top dog. Penn is solid, but aging. Florian is GREATLY improved from the guy Sanchez toppled for the original Ultimate Fighter crown. But neither is as explosive, hungry, deep and relentless as Diego Sanchez. Right now, I may only rank Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva as people who I know could beat Diego (taking into consideration they are close in weight class and/or Diego's non-fighting weight...I know he wouldn't fare well against heavyweights but only because they are so much bigger).

In the latest edition of Fight! Magazine, they have a new reader poll for the Top 10 Pound-for-Pound fighters. Next month, Diego should be on it. I question the additions to this list of Frank Mir (9) and even Fedor Emelianenko (2), the second of which doesn't even face the stiffest competition in his weight class seeing as how Affliction is weak.

He has won four straight, is 10-2 in the octogon and is now coming off two straight Fight of the Night performances. The man is legit and I feel bad for whoever has to stand in his way next.