LAS VEGAS – It was one of the most bizarre back stories in UFC history, and on Saturday night Nick Diaz and BJ Penn were rewarded for making the fight live up to the hype.
Diaz and Penn were given Fight of the Night honors at UFC 137 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center for their three-round slugfest in the main event. Diaz and Penn each got bonus checks for $75,000 for their performances in the fight, which Diaz dominated in the standup game for a unanimous decision win – and prompting Penn to announce his retirement.
Also picking up bonus checks for their performances were Donald Cerrone for Submission of the Night and Bart Palaszewski for Knockout of the Night. Cerrone’s submission was the only one on the 11-fight card.
Penn was the clear fan favorite early in the fight, but as Diaz continued to pepper him with shots to the face, the crowd seemed to turn in favor of Diaz – or at least in favor of hoping to see an exciting finish after seeing seven decisions leading up to the main event.
Though Diaz couldn’t finish the two-time UFC champ, he left his face battered and bloodied. After the fight, Penn said the fight would be his last.
“It’s probably the last time you’re ever going to see me in here,” Penn told Joe Rogan. “That’s it. I’ve got another daughter on the way – I don’t want to go home looking like this.”
Diaz, who was supposed to face Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title on the card until he was removed from the fight for missing two press conferences, now is back in line to likely face the winner of St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit. That fight won’t take place until St-Pierre recovers from a knee injury suffered in training earlier this month.
“It feels good to be back fighting,” Diaz said. “In the second round, I turned it on and tried to take him out. He started going on defense in Round 3. Things would have been different if there were five rounds. I would have taken him out for sure in the fourth. BJ is one of the best there is, and not that many would go out there and take all those punches.”
Cerrone continued his blitz up the UFC’s lightweight ladder, submitting Dennis Siver with a first-round rear naked choke. That win gave Cerrone six straight and four straight in the UFC – all in 2011 after moving over from the WEC. Siver’s four-fight winning streak was snapped with the loss.
Palazewski was the card’s biggest underdog winner. Fighting in the UFC for the first time, and back in action for the first time in 10 months, Palaszewski stunned Tyson Griffin with a hook, then battered him with lefts and rights until one big right put Griffin on the canvas.
After the fight, Palaszewski, a former WEC and IFL standout, said he believes he broke both of his hands landing the shots that ended the fight.
LAS VEGAS – It was one of the most bizarre back stories in UFC history, and on Saturday night Nick Diaz and BJ Penn were rewarded for making the fight live up to the hype.
Diaz and Penn were given Fight of the Night honors at UFC 137 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center for their three-round slugfest in the main event. Diaz and Penn each got bonus checks for $75,000 for their performances in the fight, which Diaz dominated in the standup game for a unanimous decision win – and prompting Penn to announce his retirement.
Also picking up bonus checks for their performances were Donald Cerrone for Submission of the Night and Bart Palaszewski for Knockout of the Night. Cerrone’s submission was the only one on the 11-fight card.
Penn was the clear fan favorite early in the fight, but as Diaz continued to pepper him with shots to the face, the crowd seemed to turn in favor of Diaz – or at least in favor of hoping to see an exciting finish after seeing seven decisions leading up to the main event.
Though Diaz couldn’t finish the two-time UFC champ, he left his face battered and bloodied. After the fight, Penn said the fight would be his last.
“It’s probably the last time you’re ever going to see me in here,” Penn told Joe Rogan. “That’s it. I’ve got another daughter on the way – I don’t want to go home looking like this.”
Diaz, who was supposed to face Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title on the card until he was removed from the fight for missing two press conferences, now is back in line to likely face the winner of St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit. That fight won’t take place until St-Pierre recovers from a knee injury suffered in training earlier this month.
“It feels good to be back fighting,” Diaz said. “In the second round, I turned it on and tried to take him out. He started going on defense in Round 3. Things would have been different if there were five rounds. I would have taken him out for sure in the fourth. BJ is one of the best there is, and not that many would go out there and take all those punches.”
Cerrone continued his blitz up the UFC’s lightweight ladder, submitting Dennis Siver with a first-round rear naked choke. That win gave Cerrone six straight and four straight in the UFC – all in 2011 after moving over from the WEC. Siver’s four-fight winning streak was snapped with the loss.
Palazewski was the card’s biggest underdog winner. Fighting in the UFC for the first time, and back in action for the first time in 10 months, Palaszewski stunned Tyson Griffin with a hook, then battered him with lefts and rights until one big right put Griffin on the canvas.
After the fight, Palaszewski, a former WEC and IFL standout, said he believes he broke both of his hands landing the shots that ended the fight.
Filed under: News, ProEliteIt’s nothing short of a soap opera script.
Less than 24 hours after main event heavyweight Andreas Kraniotakes was denied a license to fight Tim Slyvia in the ProElite 2 main event on Nov. 5, Sylvia has his new opponent.
Less than 24 hours after main event heavyweight Andreas Kraniotakes was denied a license to fight Tim Slyvia in the ProElite 2 main event on Nov. 5, Sylvia has his new opponent.
After his fight with Pedro Rizzo was scrapped due to an injury, and Kraniotakes wasn’t approved by the Illinois State Professional Athletic Commission just Wednesday, Sylvia’s new opponent will be … Andreas Kraniotakes.
In a somewhat surprising reversal, the Illinois commission, according to sources close to ProElite, took another look at the fight and decided to grant Kraniotakes a license after all. In a story first reported by MMA Fighting, the commission had initially denied Kraniotakes a license because of a lack of sanctioned fights on his 12-4 record, many of which have taken place in his native Germany, which has only a short history with legalized mixed martial arts.
Sources told MMA Fighting that ProElite had indeed lined up a replacement fighter for Slyvia on Wednesday and anticipated that new opponent being approved by the Illinois commission on Thursday for a fight on just nine days notice. Now that won’t be necessary, and Sylvia-Kraniotakes is back on.
In addition, HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon took to his Twitter feed on Thursday to say the fight would indeed remain as the main event of the show, which will take place at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill., on Nov. 5. The main card will air live on HDNet. MMA Fighting first reported last month that the card moved from Atlantic City to the Quad Cities area in western Illinois and would feature a main event between Sylvia and Rizzo with a co-main event of Andrei Arlovski vs. Travis Fulton.
But less than two weeks ago, Rizzo pulled out of the fight with an injury and Kraniotakes, who has cracked the Top 100 heavyweights in the world in some rankings, was tapped as the replacement.
Early Thursday, Kraniotakes, who has been training for the Sylvia fight in San Diego, took to his official website to voice his disappointment in being pulled from the card.
“?Eventually, the commission wouldn’t give me a license for some reasons no one understands,” Kraniotakes said. “I think the people making those decisions probably don’t know anything about the sport. I did everything I could do, my management did everything it could do, ProElite did everything it could do to make the fight happen. But the commission just said no.”
Perhaps everything that could be done eventually was enough, even if it is a day later.
A message asking for comment left for the Illinois commission’s director of athletics, Ron Puccillo, was not immediately returned on Thursday.
Filed under: UFC, NewsOne of the most feared strikers in mixed martial arts history has gotten a little reflective in what is likely the twilight of his career.
That doesn’t mean he’s thinking about retirement, necessarily, though. Mirko “Cro Cop” Fi…
One of the most feared strikers in mixed martial arts history has gotten a little reflective in what is likely the twilight of his career.
That doesn’t mean he’s thinking about retirement, necessarily, though. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic said Wednesday that when he’s ready to call it quits, he won’t leave any doubts.
But ahead of his fight with Roy Nelson at UFC 137 on Saturday, Cro Cop, who has lost two straight, said a loss to the Season 10 “Ultimate Fighter” winner would be nothing short of a “disaster.” And that thought is all he needs right now to get up for the fight.
“The biggest motivation? I lost two fights in a row, and if it happens that I lose the fight, I would be the unhappiest man on the planet, believe me,” Cro Cop told media members after a light workout at the UFC Training Center in Las Vegas. “After so much training and fights (in my career), to lose three fights in a row would be a disaster for me. But I will survive – even if it happened, I will survive. I have two kids I have to live for. But it would be a disaster. That’s why I trained really hard, and I will do my best to beat him.”
Cro Cop (27-9-2, 4-5 UFC) was knocked out by Brendan Schaub in the third round at UFC 128 in March, and before that, he was knocked out by a Frank Mir knee at UFC 119 in September 2010. It’s just the second time in Cro Cop’s long career that he has lost back-to-back fights. The first came in his first stint with the UFC with a now-legendary knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga followed by a decision setback to Cheick Kongo.
Nelson (15-6, 2-2 UFC) is in similarly dangerous territory with two straight losses of his own – unanimous decision defeats at the hands of Mir in May and top heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos in August 2010. And though the famously portly Nelson may still joke about being the UFC’s resident husky heavyweight, Cro Cop, a 2-to-1 underdog in the fight, said his opponent’s threat is no laughing matter.
“He’s a dangerous guy,” Cro Cop said. “But people in my country will say, ‘If you beat him, you beat a fat guy.’ If I lost to him, they would start laughing at me. But he’s a super dangerous guy who can knock out anyone today. Some people might be tricked by his body – but he’s a dangerous guy.”
If Nelson proves to be too dangerous for Cro Cop, if the fight goes the way the bookmakers expect it to and he does watch an opponent’s hand get raised for the third straight time, it will be family he falls back on should he decide to hang up the gloves.
“I don’t expect too much from life,” Cro Cop said. “I don’t like to start saying stuff about philosophy, but life is nothing. What is life? Who can guarantee, from us here, that we’ll wake up tomorrow morning? No one. You could just die, you know? Just like that. So I don’t expect too much from life. I just want my kids to be happy – my family and I to be happy as much as I can. That’s all.”
With philosophical waxings about life and death, one might assume Cro Cop is already planning on the likelihood of a loss, followed by retirement. But the former Pride Open-Weight Grand Prix champ doesn’t see things going down that way – especially after training virtually nonstop, he said, since his loss to Schaub.
“When I decide to stop fighting, I will say it loud and clear,” Cro Cop said. “I have many reasons – (I’m) 37, I have two kids, 70 fights behind myself. I have a long and successful career and I can be proud of myself. I started in a small village in Croatia in my old garage as a self-made fighter. After my last fight, I came home and took a long break – about 12 hours – and then I started training. I’m a professional and I can’t let my body get extra weight. I don’t think my fans would appreciate that.
“I really like Roy. He’s a nice guy, and we’ll just shake hands. But this is just a business, and I want to beat him just like I expect him to want to beat me.”
Cro Cop and Nelson fight on the main pay-per-view card of UFC 137, which takes place Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The main event features a welterweight contenders bout between former champion BJ Penn and former Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz.
ProElite’s second fight card since returning to the major mixed martial arts landscape has hit another snag.
Just 10 days after main event heavyweight Pedro Rizzo had to pull out of his fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia with an injury, Rizzo’s replacement, Andreas Kraniotakes, now also is off the card.
Sources close to ProElite on Wednesday told MMA Fighting that Kraniotakes’ fighter license was not approved by the Illinois State Professional Athletic Commission, which oversees MMA in the state. That leaves ProElite scrambling for a replacement to fight Sylvia on what will be less than 10 days notice for ProElite 2 at the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill., on Nov. 5.
According to sources close to the event, the reason behind the state commission’s refusal to approve Kraniotakes stems from a lack of sanctioned fights on his record. Though the German heavyweight is 12-4, the bulk of his 16 career fights have come in Europe, leaving him without any sanctioned fights in the United States for the commission to base its decision on.
ProElite is said to have a replacement fighter lined up to face Sylvia, and attempted to present that fighter to the Illinois commission on Wednesday – only to find the board had closed up shop for the business day. A decision on Sylvia’s new opponent is expected Thursday, which will give him nine days to prepare for the fight – and Slyvia nine days to prepare for what will be his third opponent since signing on for the event.
Kraniotakes, who had come to the States to train in San Diego leading up to the fight, said he is unsure what his next move will be, but he’d like to get a fight in 2011.
“I thought this was the moment in my career where all the suffering and the hard stuff I’ve put into it, all the training and all the work, finally paid off,” Kraniotakes said. “And now I stand here and don’t really know what to think. It’s kind of tough for me. I don’t really know where to go from here, but I know this eon’t hold me down.”
ProElite has not yet announced its third event, though it is not likely to take place this calendar year. Its first event since folding up shop in late 2008 took place in August in Hawaii, and a return to the Aloha State would seem possible – and may prove to be an easier road to getting Kraniotakes a license than in Illinois, a state commission that has not been without trouble in the past.
In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that the commission’s No. 2 official was put on administrative leave so the state could investigate complaints he used his position to benefit, in part, political campaigns run by his wife and his brother’s work as a boxing judge.
Last month, MMA Fighting was first to report Sylvia in the main event of ProElite 2 against Rizzo on a card that was moved to the Quad Cities area of western Illinois from its original planned home in Atlantic City. Sylvia, a Maine native, has lived in the Quad Cities for years, training with the Pat Miletich team during his UFC run as heavyweight champion.
But just 10 days ago, Rizzo had to pull out of the fight with an injury and Kraniotakes was tapped as his replacement. Though Kraniotakes is largely unknown outside of Europe, he is ranked in the Top 100 of some MMA heavyweight lists.
Slyvia (29-7) has won five of his last six. In August, he beat Patrick Barrentine (9-6) on a show in Rockford, Ill., a fight which was approved by the Illinois commission.
ProElite 2 features a co-main event between former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski and Travis Fulton, a veteran of more than 300 career fights. BJ Penn‘s brother Reagan meets Evan Cutts, and former UFC fighter Waylon Lowe fights Floyd Hodges. In addition, a ProElite heavyweight tournament gets underway with four quarterfinal bouts, including one featuring NCAA wrestling standout Mark Ellis (1-0).
By his own admission, Bart Palaszewski took the road less traveled to the UFC.
When the WEC merged into its big Zuffa brother last fall, most of its mainstays ported over to work for the new boss, same as the old boss – but with a lot more notoriety. And Palaszewski was no exception.
The fact it has taken him nearly a year for his long-awaited first fight in the promotion makes him stand out, though. Along the way, he lost 10 pounds and a big chunk of his hearing, but he promises he’ll be wearing a big grin Saturday.
“I’m just going to put a big smile on my face,” Palaszewski told host Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour” on Monday. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I took the road less traveled – 50 fights to get to the UFC ” but I wouldn’t change anything. I want to put on a helluva show and prove to (UFC president) Dana (White) and everyone in the UFC that I’m worthy.”
Palaszewski (34-14, 4-3 WEC) was scheduled to meet Cody McKenzie at UFC 130 in May. But an injury chased McKenzie from the fight, and soon after Palaszewski also had to pull out of the fight. That was to be his first fight in six months, after a tough split decision loss to Kamal Shalorus at the WEC’s final event in December.
The Poland-born Palaszewski, who trains at Jeff Curran‘s gym north of Chicago and was a mainstay on the Midwest fight circuit before becoming a star in the IFL, self-diagnosed himself with a concussion. But that wasn’t the case.
“I thought I had a concussion, so we pulled out (of UFC 130) with a concussion,” Palaszewski said. “But I had MRIs done and CT scans and they couldn’t find anything. So they sent me to an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I had a bad inner ear infection that attacked the nerve that controls your balance.”
Turns out it was the mother of all ear infections, and after the virus went to work on the nerve in Palaszewski’s left ear he was left with 30 percent hearing loss – for the rest of his life. Though Palaszewski joked that means he doesn’t hear as much of his wife’s complaining, he acknowledged “it wasn’t too fun the first few weeks.”
But there was an upside to pulling out of his May fight, and that was a chance to heal up and make the decision to drop from lightweight to featherweight, the division he’ll make his UFC debut in at UFC 137 on Saturday in Las Vegas against Tyson Griffin.
Rather than having to make a tough cut to 145, Palaszewski said he was able to make a smart cut and scale back his training and fighting schedule for the first time in, well, ever.
“Sometimes you sit down and think ‘ring rust, ring rust.,'” Palaszewski said. “But at the upper echelon, you can’t be fighting every three months. That’s insane. So this was the beginning of me slowing down a little bit. Between IFL and WEC, we kept a pretty busy schedule. I was fighting almost every month, so I never could make the (145) cut (before now).”
Palaszewski doesn’t get a walk-through for his first UFC fight, but Griffin (15-5, 8-5 UFC) is the kind of win that could put him on the map with a larger audience. The former lightweight stalwart, had just two losses – to former and current UFC champs Sean Sherk and Frankie Edgar – before a recent three-fight slump. He broke out of that skid in June with a majority decision win over Manny Gamburyan in his UFC featherweight debut.
Palaszewski said he believes Griffin’s drop to featherweight has made him more dangerous, and he knows Griffin’s wrestling base is something he’ll have to watch for. But he seems up for the challenge.
“There’s a couple things we’ve changed and added to my game that are going to give him a hard time and go from there,” Palaszewski said. “Since I fought Kamal, I’ve been working on wrestling. He took me down a couple times, but I stuffed him a couple times and I was super happy with that. All through this year, up until the McKenzie fight, I was working my wrestling a lot.”
But takedown defense, ring rust, weight cuts and even how much less of his wife he can hear now will go out the window, he hopes, for a few seconds when Bruce Buffer announces his name.
“I’m stoked. I should be probably be nervous, because it’s big time,” Palaszewski said. “I’m one of the lucky four fighters on Spike that night, and it should be more pressure on me because of that. But I’m just turning it into positive energy. I just want to get on the scale, make weight, get some good food in me and put on a good show the following night.”
Palaszewski and Griffin fight on the Spike TV-broadcast preliminary card of UFC 137 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The UFC 137 main card features a main event welterweight contenders bout between former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn and former Strikeforce 170-pound champ Nick Diaz.
By his own admission, Bart Palaszewski took the road less traveled to the UFC.
When the WEC merged into its big Zuffa brother last fall, most of its mainstays ported over to work for the new boss, same as the old boss – but with a lot more notoriety. And Palaszewski was no exception.
The fact it has taken him nearly a year for his long-awaited first fight in the promotion makes him stand out, though. Along the way, he lost 10 pounds and a big chunk of his hearing, but he promises he’ll be wearing a big grin Saturday.
“I’m just going to put a big smile on my face,” Palaszewski told host Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour” on Monday. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I took the road less traveled – 50 fights to get to the UFC ” but I wouldn’t change anything. I want to put on a helluva show and prove to (UFC president) Dana (White) and everyone in the UFC that I’m worthy.”
Palaszewski (34-14, 4-3 WEC) was scheduled to meet Cody McKenzie at UFC 130 in May. But an injury chased McKenzie from the fight, and soon after Palaszewski also had to pull out of the fight. That was to be his first fight in six months, after a tough split decision loss to Kamal Shalorus at the WEC’s final event in December.
The Poland-born Palaszewski, who trains at Jeff Curran‘s gym north of Chicago and was a mainstay on the Midwest fight circuit before becoming a star in the IFL, self-diagnosed himself with a concussion. But that wasn’t the case.
“I thought I had a concussion, so we pulled out (of UFC 130) with a concussion,” Palaszewski said. “But I had MRIs done and CT scans and they couldn’t find anything. So they sent me to an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I had a bad inner ear infection that attacked the nerve that controls your balance.”
Turns out it was the mother of all ear infections, and after the virus went to work on the nerve in Palaszewski’s left ear he was left with 30 percent hearing loss – for the rest of his life. Though Palaszewski joked that means he doesn’t hear as much of his wife’s complaining, he acknowledged “it wasn’t too fun the first few weeks.”
But there was an upside to pulling out of his May fight, and that was a chance to heal up and make the decision to drop from lightweight to featherweight, the division he’ll make his UFC debut in at UFC 137 on Saturday in Las Vegas against Tyson Griffin.
Rather than having to make a tough cut to 145, Palaszewski said he was able to make a smart cut and scale back his training and fighting schedule for the first time in, well, ever.
“Sometimes you sit down and think ‘ring rust, ring rust.,'” Palaszewski said. “But at the upper echelon, you can’t be fighting every three months. That’s insane. So this was the beginning of me slowing down a little bit. Between IFL and WEC, we kept a pretty busy schedule. I was fighting almost every month, so I never could make the (145) cut (before now).”
Palaszewski doesn’t get a walk-through for his first UFC fight, but Griffin (15-5, 8-5 UFC) is the kind of win that could put him on the map with a larger audience. The former lightweight stalwart, had just two losses – to former and current UFC champs Sean Sherk and Frankie Edgar – before a recent three-fight slump. He broke out of that skid in June with a majority decision win over Manny Gamburyan in his UFC featherweight debut.
Palaszewski said he believes Griffin’s drop to featherweight has made him more dangerous, and he knows Griffin’s wrestling base is something he’ll have to watch for. But he seems up for the challenge.
“There’s a couple things we’ve changed and added to my game that are going to give him a hard time and go from there,” Palaszewski said. “Since I fought Kamal, I’ve been working on wrestling. He took me down a couple times, but I stuffed him a couple times and I was super happy with that. All through this year, up until the McKenzie fight, I was working my wrestling a lot.”
But takedown defense, ring rust, weight cuts and even how much less of his wife he can hear now will go out the window, he hopes, for a few seconds when Bruce Buffer announces his name.
“I’m stoked. I should be probably be nervous, because it’s big time,” Palaszewski said. “I’m one of the lucky four fighters on Spike that night, and it should be more pressure on me because of that. But I’m just turning it into positive energy. I just want to get on the scale, make weight, get some good food in me and put on a good show the following night.”
Palaszewski and Griffin fight on the Spike TV-broadcast preliminary card of UFC 137 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The UFC 137 main card features a main event welterweight contenders bout between former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn and former Strikeforce 170-pound champ Nick Diaz.
Nijem told host Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” that it was his pride that got in the way, and that, along with a Ferguson left, saw his dream of being a TUF champion go out the window.
“It wasn’t nerves as much as my pride got to me a little bit,” Nijem said of his knockout loss to Ferguson. “Tony’s a really good striker, hits hard and has good head movement. People said, ‘You’ll get knocked out if you stand with him,’ and the critics were right on that. I just learned from that to play to my strengths and not play to their strengths.”
Nijem (4-2, 0-1 UFC), who trains at The Pit Elevated camp in Utah along with TUF 11 champ Court McGee, made his reputation in the TUF house as a fun-loving competitor who would go to just about any length for a laugh – including disrobing, leading to his “Stripper Ramsey” nickname catching on. He said bringing a relaxed attitude to his fight game should help him get back in the win column – but if it doesn’t, he can live with it.
“I’m a much better fighter when I’m just out there having fun,” Nijem said. “As long as I’m just out there for the right reasons, I’ll be successful and won’t have any regrets after the fight. If I execute my game plan and still lose and have fun, that’s all I can expect out of myself.”
Nijem fought at welterweight on Season 13 of TUF, but for his UFC 137 fight Saturday against Danny Downes (8-2, 0-1 UFC), he drops back to lightweight. It’s a weight he believes will be beneficial to him because of his size.
The Palestinian-American fighter, who wrestled collegiately at Utah Valley University, said 155 will be a tough cut for him, but one he thinks will pay off. He fought at lightweight once before moving to welterweight for a shot at the UFC in the spring during his TUF season.
“I was fighting at ’55 before I went on the show, kind of bouncing around between (lightweight and welterweight),” Nijem said. “I just feel my size can make up for my lack of experience in the ring. ’55’s a pretty big cut for me. If I was on the show at ’55 the season before, I don’t think I would’ve performed as well. ’70 was a good opportunity for the show, and be able to drop back down to ’55 after.”
Against Downes, Nijem faces an opponent also in search of his first UFC win. The Duke Roufus-trained fighter lost a unanimous decision to Jeremy Stephens at the TUF 13 Finale in June after going 1-1 in the WEC before the merger.
Nijem said he knew from seeing Downes’ fight against Stephens that he might be hard to finish, but believes his skill set can top Downes’.
“Danny is a tough opponent – he’s the kind of person you can never count out,” Nijem said “He’s in shape, he hits hard and he’s there to fight. He’s not easy to finish. But I feel I’m a better fighter, more explosive, more athletic and I’ll be bigger the day of the fight. I’m obviously the better wrestler and grappler. This is a winnable fight for me, but Danny’s tough and I’m … getting ready for a three-round grind.”
Nijem and Downes fight on the preliminary card of UFC 137 on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Their lightweight fight will be one of four prelims that will stream live on the UFC’s Facebook fan page.
UFC 137 is headlined by a welterweight contenders bout between former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz. That fight became the main event when welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre had to pull out of his title fight against Carlos Condit with an injury last week.
Nijem told host Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour” that it was his pride that got in the way, and that, along with a Ferguson left, saw his dream of being a TUF champion go out the window.
“It wasn’t nerves as much as my pride got to me a little bit,” Nijem said of his knockout loss to Ferguson. “Tony’s a really good striker, hits hard and has good head movement. People said, ‘You’ll get knocked out if you stand with him,’ and the critics were right on that. I just learned from that to play to my strengths and not play to their strengths.”
Nijem (4-2, 0-1 UFC), who trains at The Pit Elevated camp in Utah along with TUF 11 champ Court McGee, made his reputation in the TUF house as a fun-loving competitor who would go to just about any length for a laugh – including disrobing, leading to his “Stripper Ramsey” nickname catching on. He said bringing a relaxed attitude to his fight game should help him get back in the win column – but if it doesn’t, he can live with it.
“I’m a much better fighter when I’m just out there having fun,” Nijem said. “As long as I’m just out there for the right reasons, I’ll be successful and won’t have any regrets after the fight. If I execute my game plan and still lose and have fun, that’s all I can expect out of myself.”
Nijem fought at welterweight on Season 13 of TUF, but for his UFC 137 fight Saturday against Danny Downes (8-2, 0-1 UFC), he drops back to lightweight. It’s a weight he believes will be beneficial to him because of his size.
The Palestinian-American fighter, who wrestled collegiately at Utah Valley University, said 155 will be a tough cut for him, but one he thinks will pay off. He fought at lightweight once before moving to welterweight for a shot at the UFC in the spring during his TUF season.
“I was fighting at ’55 before I went on the show, kind of bouncing around between (lightweight and welterweight),” Nijem said. “I just feel my size can make up for my lack of experience in the ring. ’55’s a pretty big cut for me. If I was on the show at ’55 the season before, I don’t think I would’ve performed as well. ’70 was a good opportunity for the show, and be able to drop back down to ’55 after.”
Against Downes, Nijem faces an opponent also in search of his first UFC win. The Duke Roufus-trained fighter lost a unanimous decision to Jeremy Stephens at the TUF 13 Finale in June after going 1-1 in the WEC before the merger.
Nijem said he knew from seeing Downes’ fight against Stephens that he might be hard to finish, but believes his skill set can top Downes’.
“Danny is a tough opponent – he’s the kind of person you can never count out,” Nijem said “He’s in shape, he hits hard and he’s there to fight. He’s not easy to finish. But I feel I’m a better fighter, more explosive, more athletic and I’ll be bigger the day of the fight. I’m obviously the better wrestler and grappler. This is a winnable fight for me, but Danny’s tough and I’m … getting ready for a three-round grind.”
Nijem and Downes fight on the preliminary card of UFC 137 on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Their lightweight fight will be one of four prelims that will stream live on the UFC’s Facebook fan page.
UFC 137 is headlined by a welterweight contenders bout between former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz. That fight became the main event when welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre had to pull out of his title fight against Carlos Condit with an injury last week.
LAS VEGAS – It was one of the most bizarre back stories in UFC history, and on Saturday night Nick Diaz and BJ Penn were rewarded for making the fight live up to the hype. 
One of the most feared strikers in mixed martial arts history has gotten a little reflective in what is likely the twilight of his career. 
ProElite’s second fight card since returning to the major mixed martial arts landscape has hit another snag. 
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