UFC 137 is less than a week away and the promotion has to be hoping that the next few days pass with no drama. The card is now on its third main event, BJ Penn versus Nick Diaz.The original main event between St-Pierre and Diaz was scrapped when the vo…
UFC 137 is less than a week away and the promotion has to be hoping that the next few days pass with no drama. The card is now on its third main event, BJ Penn versus Nick Diaz.
The original main event between St-Pierre and Diaz was scrapped when the volatile Diaz missed two pre-fight press conferences. Diaz was then dropped from the main event; replaced by Carlos Condit. That fight was then scratched when St-Pierre injured his knee while training. The injury to St-Pierre then put Diaz back in the main event against BJ Penn, Condit’s original opponent.
Confused? Don’t be, just savor the fact that you will get to enjoy a main event between two of the more aggressive fighters in the welterweight division.You’d be hard pressed to deny that the winner of this fight should be under consideration for an eventual shot at the welterweight crown.
The change in the card’s main event moved the heavyweight bout between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitirone to co-main event status. Kongo, coming off a jawdropping come-from-behind knockout victory over Pat Barry in June, will look to use the momentum of that win to firmly entrench himself in the top 10 of the heavyweight division. Mitrione, who has been brought to this point via a slow and steady pace, will face the biggest test of his young UFC career in Kongo.
Another fight of note will be the heavyweight battle between Mirko Cro Cop and Roy Nelson. Both fighters have looked less than spectacular in their last few outings and will be looking to impress on the October 29 card from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.
Bleacher Report MMA will be your source for news, analysis and opinions on all the fights on the upcoming fight card.
Check back often as the fight card nears for all the UFC 137 information you need.
UFC 137 is less than one week away, and the anticipation is building for the main event matchup between former UFC champion B.J. Penn and former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz.Penn comes into the fight off his draw with Jon Fitch from February. A 23-se…
UFC 137 is less than one week away, and the anticipation is building for the main event matchup between former UFC champion B.J. Penn and former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz.
Penn comes into the fight off his draw with Jon Fitch from February. A 23-second knockout victory versus Matt Hughes preceded that fight in his return to to the UFC’s welterweight division.
Diaz is currently riding a 10-fight win streak with victories over Paul Daley, K.J. Noons, Hayato Sakurai and Frank Shamrock. He fights in the UFC for the first time since 2006.
MMA Interviews recently interviewed a number of MMA fighters on who they think will win the fight.
Stephan Bonnar
B.J.’s tough. He gives everyone a good fight, but I’m leaning towards Diaz. [Diaz will] keep him at the end of his punches as the fight progresses. The longer it gets, the more it’s going to fall into Diaz’s hands, I believe.
Manvel Gamburyan
I’m gonna go with B.J. Penn. Diaz is a better boxer, but B.J. has really good hands. He has good head movement. BJJ-wise, I would say they are even. Wrestling-wise, most definitely I go with B.J. Penn. So anyways, it’s going to be a tough fight, but my pick’s going to be B.J. Penn by decision.
Phil Baroni
We’re going to see how good Nick Diaz is. I think [he] is great. I’m a Nick Diaz fan. I liked Nick Diaz before it was cool to like Nick Diaz. It could be a passing of the guard fight, or it could be B.J.’s just that good and Strikeforce guys aren’t at that level. It’s a pick ’em fight.
UFC 137 was originally supposed to be headlined by a title fight between UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Diaz before he was pulled out due to missing two pre-fight press conferences. UFC contender Carlos Condit replaced Diaz, but St-Pierre recently injured his knee and pulled out of the fight altogether.
The pay-per-view card will also feature a heavyweight matchup between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione.
Other main card bouts include Mirko “Cro Cop” Flipovic vs. Roy Nelson, Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran and Hatsu Hioki vs. George Roop.
Whether you hate to love or love to hate him, Nick Diaz is one of the most interesting fighters in all of MMA. The former Strikeforce champ is known for acting like a thug during interviews. He’s also loved for putting on exciting fights and keep…
Whether you hate to love or love to hate him, Nick Diaz is one of the most interesting fighters in all of MMA.
The former Strikeforce champ is known for acting like a thug during interviews.
He’s also loved for putting on exciting fights and keeping fans entertained.
On Saturday, Oct. 29 at UFC 137, Diaz will face B.J. Penn in a bout that could determine the next no. 1 contender for the welterweight title.
Diaz may be one of the craziest fighters in the UFC.
Here are some reasons why he may also be a genius.
Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, originally slated for UFC 137 next weekend, may never happen, according to No. 1 middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. UFC 137 is now headlined by Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn, the winner of which will be getting the next…
Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, originally slated for UFC 137 next weekend, may never happen, according to No. 1 middleweight contender Chael Sonnen.
UFC 137 is now headlined by Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn, the winner of which will be getting the next shot at the welterweight title, Sonnen said.
“I don’t think this fight [St-Pierre vs. Condit] is going to come back for some time. Listen, if you’re the champion, you remain champion until you lose the title. If you’re the No. 1 contender you absolutely are not ingrained in any type of stone, ” Sonnen told Jon Anik of ESPN’s MMA Live. “As a matter of fact, not only do I believe he [Condit] has lost this opportunity, I believe the winner of Diaz and B.J. Penn will get the next opportunity.”
An interesting take from the always-expressive Sonnen.
One just has to look at the situation Rashad Evans got himself into when he chose to wait for then-light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua to come back from knee surgery back in 2010 to see the position Condit might be putting himself in by waiting for St-Pierre. Evans is still waiting for that shot at the belt.
After having injured his own knee, Evans’ former training partner Jon Jones has beaten Rua to become the UFC light heavyweight champion. In fact, Jones has already defended his title against Quinton Jackson, the man Evans defeated to obtain No. 1 contender status back in May 2010.
After recently injuring his hand Evans has once again been forced to forgo another title shot as former champion Lyoto Machida is now Jones’ next challenge at 205 pounds for UFC 140 in Toronto.
The situation for Condit is a little bit different from Evans’ in the sense that Rua was looking at six to eight months of recovery time and St-Pierre is only looking at six to eight weeks.
Sonnen does have a point, though: The fight game is like a revolving door. One can be the No. 1 contender one day and be out of the UFC the next.
It’s doubtful Condit will be out of the UFC anytime soon, but practice in this sport is as grueling as the competition, and injuries can strike at anytime. By choosing not to fight at UFC 137 Condit is taking a risk. Should he sustain an injury while waiting for St-Pierre he could find himself going a very long time without a paycheck to foot the bills and possibly forgoing his title shot against St-Pierre.
Josh Koscheck tweeted that he was ready to replace St-Pierre and fight Condit at UFC 137, but that fight never came to fruition.
Obviously, choosing to stay active and taking another fight against a guy like Koscheck instead of waiting for St-Pierre poses its own risks, the obvious one being, what if Condit were to lose? St-Pierre certainly won’t be defending his belt against somebody coming off a loss—this is the UFC, not Strikeforce, ladies and gentlemen.
Whether or not the winner of Diaz vs. Penn leapfrogs Condit for the next shot at St-Pierre’s belt is a hotly debatable topic, but only if Diaz beats Penn in convincing fashion. Should Penn win or Diaz squeak out a decision, Condit’s title shot should be safe for the time being.
St-Pierre has already fought and beaten Penn on two separate occasions. In their second showdown at UFC 94, St-Pierre beat Penn so handily through four rounds that Penn’s corner was forced to throw in the towel before the start of the fifth.
St-Pierre is simply too big and too strong of a wrestler for Penn to deal with and a third bout between these two simply doesn’t make sense at this point in time.
Diaz, on the other hand, was the original opponent for St-Pierre at UFC 137 until the often mercurial fighter decided to play “hooky” with the UFC by not fulfilling his media obligations. UFC president Dana White was forced to demote him to the co-main event against Penn.
With St-Pierre’s injury, things have come full circle and Diaz finds himself main eventing UFC 137 once again and the fan interest in an eventual title fight between St-Pierre, and Diaz hasn’t dissipated one bit.
Should Diaz beat Penn in convincing fashion this coming Saturday, one would have to imagine Condit will be sweating a little bit because fans will undoubtedly be demanding the Diaz vs. St-Pierre fight. Anyone who knows White knows he wants to put on the fights fans want to see and this may be to the chagrin of Condit.
Condit doesn’t have to worry too much, though, because even if Diaz gets the first shot at St-Pierre, there is no doubting the fact that Condit will be getting the next shot thereafter. The only question is, how long would he have to wait and would he have to take a fight in between?
Condit finds himself in a bit of a hard place, but choosing to wait until after the new year for St-Pierre to heal up is probably his best bet. One can never know these things though until everything plays out—hindsight is always 20/20, right?
Leon Horne is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and is part of the B/R MMA interview team. Follow @Leon_Horne.
Anything can happen in a fight, even unexpected things that shock the MMA community so much that they instantly become part of MMA lore.There are many of these unanticipated, unpredictable, “crazy,” moments in mixed martial arts, and some of them don’t…
Anything can happen in a fight, even unexpected things that shock the MMA community so much that they instantly become part of MMA lore.
There are many of these unanticipated, unpredictable, “crazy,” moments in mixed martial arts, and some of them don’t even pertain to events that happened in the cage (or ring as it may be)!
So what are some of the craziest moments in the history of mixed martial arts? Read and find out!
Anything can happen in a fight, even unexpected things that shock the MMA community so much that they instantly become part of MMA lore.There are many of these unanticipated, unpredictable, “crazy,” moments in mixed martial arts, and some of them don’t…
Anything can happen in a fight, even unexpected things that shock the MMA community so much that they instantly become part of MMA lore.
There are many of these unanticipated, unpredictable, “crazy,” moments in mixed martial arts, and some of them don’t even pertain to events that happened in the cage (or ring as it may be)!
So what are some of the craziest moments in the history of mixed martial arts? Read and find out!
UFC 137 is less than a week away and the promotion has to be hoping that the next few days pass with no drama. The card is now on its third main event, BJ Penn versus Nick Diaz.