Thoughts on Georges St. Pierre's greasing

It probably wouldn't have made a difference in the fight, but George St. Pierre's greasing scandal does shed new light on watching BJ Penn's high guard slipping off of St. Pierre's back and shoulders all through round two. Even if it wasn't intentional, somebody should've stopped St. Pierre's cornerman from rubbing the Vaseline all over his body. Sweat and Vaseline don't just wipe off easily, and even the slightest amounts could make all the difference between getting a sweep or submission. I don't doubt that BJ Penn knew he was going to be taken down in the fight, and to prepare I'm sure he practiced his high guard/rubber guard. It's a little suspect that the parts of St. Pierre which were accidentally "greased" (his back and shoulders) were the parts which would've best nullified Penn's ground game.

I still do believe it was an accident and that it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the fight, but cheating is cheating. Sean Sherk was crucified for maybe accidentally taking steroids (he passed a polygraph and other samples in his test group had false positives). For some reason St. Pierre is getting a pass simply because we like the guy. And, yes, we do like the guy. Let's just be honest here and not blind ourselves to the fact that Vaseline was applied to his chest, back, and shoulders. Whether or not it was intentional doesn't really matter. If they accidentally slipped a brass knuckle into his glove it's still cheating. If Kobe Bryant showed up to an elementary school basketball game with a jetpack would we just look the other way and say it was okay because he would've won anyway?