Michael Rome is wrong

Michael Rome of Bloodyelbow.com wrote a piece, eviscerating B.J. Penn for potentially filing a complaint against George St. Pierre. 

First off, it needs to be stated that there was a clear violation of the rules on Saturday night. No one is denying that George St. Pierre's body did not have vaseline on it. A fact that caused protest and anger on the part of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the legal body governing the fights on Saturday night, a body that has the right to overrule or sanction a fighter for violating the rules. Penn would be wholly in his rights and justified to file a complaint considering that a cornerman for St. Pierre was greasing his body with vaseline, whether intentional or not. Michael Rome seems intent on ignoring this fundamental fact of the evening. 

The result of a dominating victory by St. Pierre is not in question, and the NSAC would be foolish to overturn the victory if a complaint was filed. Remember the NSAC wouldn't even overturn the Anthony Johnson poked in the eye loss so there is no way they would overturn this fight. What a filed complaint would deal with is whether the rules were violated by St. Pierre's camp, which they were. Of course Penn has the right to protest when a fighter or fighter's corner breaks the rules. This is not the equivalent of "attempting to burn down the entire sport to protect Penn's image."

Penn's recent actions indicate that he felt he lost the fight so thoroughly that it didn't matter that St. Pierre's body compensation was unnaturally altered by the application of vaseline. Personally I think most people, except the most die hard Penn-acolytes, see this as an obvious result, but it doesn't change the fact that a rule was broken.

Rome does correctly point out that it is absurd to think that this fight hinged on the application of vaseline and that a protest could irrevocably damage Penn's legacy. As well as the oddity of so many fighters now stepping forward over vaseline. But those issues don't deal with the fundamental fact that St. Pierre's corner broke a rule intentionally or not.   

Now before I am flamed horribly for this post I would like to point out I picked GSP to win and I bet on him to win. Also, I think that the vaseline did not alter the outcome of the fight. But the question is whether a rule was broken and whether Penn has the right to file a complaint. In this case as well as other historical cases the injured party always has the right to protest.