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.
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.
The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday. Here’s who will be stopping by for our 105th show.
* Thomas Gerbasi, the author of “UFC Encyclopedia” and the editorial director for Zuffa, will be in studio to talk about his new book and his work on UFC.com and Strikeforce.com.
* Ramsey Nijem will talk about his UFC 137 bout against Danny Downes on Saturday night.
* Featherweight Bart Palaszewski will discuss his move to 145 pounds and his fight against Tyson Griffin at UFC 137.
* “King” Muhammed Lawal will discuss what’s next for him and will help us preview Saturday night’s UFC pay-per-view.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday. Here’s who will be stopping by for our 105th show.
* Thomas Gerbasi, the author of “UFC Encyclopedia” and the editorial director for Zuffa, will be in studio to talk about his new book and his work on UFC.com and Strikeforce.com.
* Ramsey Nijem will talk about his UFC 137 bout against Danny Downes on Saturday night.
* Featherweight Bart Palaszewski will discuss his move to 145 pounds and his fight against Tyson Griffin at UFC 137.
* “King” Muhammed Lawal will discuss what’s next for him and will help us preview Saturday night’s UFC pay-per-view.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
Filed under: UFC, NewsWith less than 10 days before UFC 130, Bart Palaszewski has been forced off the card with an injury and will be replaced by Rafaello Oliveira against Gleison Tibau.
Sources close to Oliveira confirmed his call-up to MMA Fighting…
Sources close to Oliveira confirmed his call-up to MMA Fighting on Thursday night, and the UFC made the announcement official, saying “Tractor” has verbally agreed to the bout.
Oliveira (14-3, 1-2 UFC) has won four straight since his first stint in the UFC, which saw him drop unanimous decisions to Nik Lentz and Andre Winner, with a decision win over John Gunderson. After his loss to Winner at UFC Fight Night 21 in March 2010, he was cut loose by the organization.
Though not yet announced by the promotion, Oliveira had recently signed to fight for the Indiana-based Hoosier Fight Club, sources close to HFC told MMA Fighting. He was scheduled to face former Purdue wrestler Jake Murphy, now training at Greg Jackson’s camp, in August.
This preliminary card bout in Las Vegas next week has made a complete overhaul. The fight was originally scheduled to be Cody McKenzie vs. Palaszewski. When McKenzie was forced out with an injury, Tibau stepped in. And with Palaszewski now out, Oliveira steps in, setting up a matchup of Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts.
Tibau (22-7, 8-5 UFC) is coming off a split decision win over Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 128 in March, giving him three wins in his last four fights.
UFC 130, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, features a main event light heavyweight fight between former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Matt Hamill, plus a heavyweight contenders bout between former champion Frank Mir and Roy Nelson.
UFC 130 airs live on pay-per-view on May 28 at 9 p.m. Eastern. It will be preceded by a pair of fights on Spike TV at 8 p.m. Eastern, as well as three free Facebook prelims.
And if neither pulled out? My God what a beautiful baby!
The fight cards for UFC 130 and UFC on Versus 4 are undergoing some minor renovations. It was announced yesterday that both Matt Riddle and Cody McKenzie have sustained injuries forcing them from their respective bouts.
And if neither pulled out? My God what a beautiful baby!
The fight cards for UFC 130 and UFC on Versus 4 are undergoing some minor renovations. It was announced yesterday that both Matt Riddle and Cody McKenzie have sustained injuries forcing them from their respective bouts.
McKenzie was hoping to get back in the win column after suffering his first professional career loss to Yves Edwards at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 last January, but an undisclosed injury has delayed his return to the cage. Now Gleison Tibau will have the honors of welcoming UFC newcomer Bart Palaszewski to the Octagon. Tibau will look to build on his victory over Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 128. Palaszewski, undoubtedly frustrated at all of the time he’s wasted training guillotine defense, last fought at WEC 53 where he dropped a split-decision to Kamal Shalorus.
Joining McKenzie in the bleachers will be welterweight Matt Riddle, who has also fallen victim to an undisclosed injury. Pennsylvania’s own Charlie Brenneman will add some local flavor to the card as he steps in to face T.J. Grant. Brenneman last competed at UFC Fight for the Troops 2, where he handed Amilcar Alves his walking papers via unanimous decision. Grant comes into this bout off of a loss to Ricardo Almeida at UFC 124, but has thus far maintained a perfect win-loss-win pattern in his six UFC appearances. So, you know, math is on his side.
Filed under: UFC, NewsUltimate Fighter season 12 contestant Cody McKenzie has been forced out of his UFC 130 fight with an injury, and Brazilian Gleison Tibau is likely to step in and replace him in facing veteran Bart Palaszewski.
Ultimate Fighter season 12 contestant Cody McKenzie has been forced out of his UFC 130 fight with an injury, and Brazilian Gleison Tibau is likely to step in and replace him in facing veteran Bart Palaszewski.
The UFC confirmed that Tibau has verbally agreed to the bout.
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. 
By his own admission, 
With less than 10 days before 
Ultimate Fighter season 12 contestant