Sherk Not Stripped; Penn-Stevenson For Interim

According to UFC President Dana White, Sean Sherk will not be stripped of his Lightweight title, but BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson will have the opportunity to fight for an interim belt.

Yahoo! Sports reported this:

White had vowed to strip Sherk of the title, but said Friday that he no longer plans to do so.

"The way this whole thing has been handled has been a mess," White said.

He said Penn and Stevenson, who said he learned on Tuesday that he and his wife will have another son, will fight for the interim title as the main event of UFC 80 in Newcastle, England, likely on Jan. 19.

The winner of that bout would then presumably face Sherk once Sherk's status is defined by the commission.

White said heavyweights Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum would meet in the co-main on UFC 80.

This is an excellent move by Dana White. It would have been a mistake to let an entire division become stagnant for a year simply because the President felt the appeal was not handled properly. Instead, White has correctly decided to allow Sherk to keep his belt, while matching up the two most viable LW contenders in the UFC: Penn and Stevenson.

White has been known to let champions enjoy long layoffs due to injuries, scheduling difficulties, and a number of other excuses. One only needs to look at the current state of the Welterweight belt, which was defended once at the beginning of the year and once at the end. Compare this to the Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, and Middleweight belts which have already had their two defenses this year.

Luckily, White did not make the same mistake this time around. The booking of this match shows that he is committed to having the best fighters face the best fighters in what is the premiere MMA organization today.