UFC 137 will go down Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and it will feature a main event between former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion B.J. Penn and former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz.
It wasn’t too long ago that the original main event between reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Carlos Condit was supposed to headline the card, but a knee injury kept St-Pierre from fighting, which removed both fighters from the card entirely. Penn and Diaz was moved up as a result.
“Because I was moving Condit up, B.J. had to fight somebody, and the thing was that I felt Diaz was having trouble with the pressure of being in the main event,” White said at the pre-fight press conference.
“The funny thing that ends up happening is he’s the main event now anyway, but we’ve been very lucky in [that] this is a fight people want to see, so the fact that GSP fell out doesn’t hurt this event at all.”
“Nick’s been awesome,” White continued. “He’s been great.”
Other pay-per-view bouts include Hatsu Hioki vs. George Roop, Matt Mitrione vs. Cheick Kongo, Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran and Mirko “Cro Cop” Flipovic vs. Roy Nelson.
Spike TV bouts begin at 8 p.m. ET and will feature a lightweight battle between Dennis Siver and Donald Cerrone as well as a featherweight matchup with Tyson Griffin and Bart Palaszewski.
Preliminary bouts can be watched on Facebook. They include Dustin Jacoby vs. Clifford Starks, Chris Camozzi vs. Francis Carmont, Ramsey Nijem vs. Danny Downes and Brandon Vera vs. Eliot Marshall.
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