If you haven’t heard much talk about UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz around the water cooler at work lately, don’t be too alarmed—you’re not the only one.
Saturday’s event at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas has been through more changes than a Saturday Night Live set, changes that extend far beyond the withdrawal of Georges St-Pierre.
The bouts were originally scheduled to take place on October 15th at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, though problems with syncing up dates and broadcasting rights left Dana White to walk alone…all the way back to Sin City.
Then came the usual rash of injuries and back-outs that tend to reshape UFC events. Sam Stout was the first to go, taking his “Hands of Stone” to make way for Donald Cerrone to “Cowboy” up against Dennis “The Menace” Siver in a lightweight bout.
The middleweight match between Tim Credeur and Brad Tavares has since morphed into a dust-up with Dustin Jacoby and Clifford Starks on account of “unknown reasons” for Credeur, and injuries for Tavares.
Of greater import, though, is the kerfuffle that has befallen what was supposed to be a fight for the UFC Welterweight Championship. Nick Diaz had been in place to fight titleholder Georges St-Pierre, but was pulled from the fight by Dana White after failing to show up for a series of promotional appearances. White replaced Diaz with Carlos Condit, who was supposed to fight B.J. Penn, and then put Diaz up against Penn.
Confused yet?
A knee injury forced St-Pierre to withdraw from his title defense against Condit, thereby leaving Condit to back out as well and open the way for Penn-Diaz to jump into the top spot on the fight card at UFC 137.
So there you have it, folks. A fight card without a championship on the line at a different date, time and place than originally expected. Don’t get me wrong, these bouts still figure to be entertaining, with excellent matchups all around.
But if you’re looking for the intensity of a real title fight, you’ll just have to wait for November 12th, when Cain Velasquez defends his Heavyweight Championship against Junior dos Santos on Fox.
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