October 29, 2011 was the day that Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans were waiting sometime to see! A few months ago, Dana White, UFC President, announced that Nick Diaz would fight George St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on this day. In order to compliment such a stellar main-event, Dana White added another great fight to be the co-main event of the UFC 137 card - B.J Penn vs. Carlos Condit. Dana White has said on record several times, "if only Nick Diaz would play the game just a little he'd get his shot" at stardom. What Dana meant by that statement is; he will get his UFC Title Shot, only if Nick Diaz would do all the press and attend all the press conferences/telephone calls and other PR events that would promote the fight; hence, the "if only."
Then come a month or so before UFC 137, Nick Diaz failed "to play the game just a little" by not attending a press conference; and like Dana White stated clearly - "if only he would play the game a little, he would get his title shot", in which he didn't so Nick Diaz was pulled from the main event against Georges St. Pierre (GSP). Many fans then wondered, who would replace Nick Diaz and give GSP an exciting fight? Dana White answered the question by promoting Carlos Condit to the main event. Then the fans wondered again, what about B.J Penn's opponent? Once again, Dana White answered the call by demoting Nick Diaz to co-main event to fight his 'friend' Nick Diaz. So the UFC 137 Main event is GSP vs. Carlos Condit and the co-main event is B.J Penn vs. Nick Diaz until a few weeks before UFC 137 on October 29, 2011.
Both, Nick Diaz and B.J Penn, are familiar with each other; so much so, that they call each other friends. B.J brought in Nick to train for his fight against Kenny Florian. Even years before this, Nick Diaz has said that he posters of B.J on his wall, when he was going up in the ranks as an amateur cage fighter. So one can imagine the difficulty in creating this match-up. In order for this fight to happen, both fighters talked about it and agreed that it was beneficial for their careers, so the fight was signed and set for UFC 137.
Nick Diaz is known not to fight but to 'scrap.' He belongs to a group of cage fighters known as the 'Scrap Pack' which includes Jake Shield, his brother Nate, Gilbert Melendez and a few others. His fighting style is extremely high pace due to his very high endurance (Nick does triathlons, when he doesn't train) and high punch count. In addition, he has world class Ju-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie. As for, B.J, he too has world class Ju-Jitsu which he learned under Ralph Gracie. B.J is considered to have the best boxing in MMA by many experts and pundits but what people fail to realize that Nick Diaz also has great boxing because he trains his boxing with Olympic Gold Medalist, Andre Ward. In addition, B.J goes by the motto of 'Just Scrap' which is similar to that of Nick Diaz. The only difference between both fighters is the reach advantage and the endurance levels that Nick Diaz has over B.J; all other qualities, both are equal. With everything said and done, this main event will be a very exciting one, in which both fighters will go in the cage and 'scrap it out.' Which fighter has more 'scrap' in them? The bad boy from the "scrap pack", Nick Diaz or will it be B.J living up to his motto of 'Just Scrap?'
Here is the full UFC 137 card:
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| L to R: Nick Diaz and Dana White |
UFC 137 had yet another change to its card, when GSP opted out of the event with an injury he sustained during training. So now the question that was asked throughout MMA was - who will Carlos Condit fight? Many people were speculating that John Fitch would fill in the void but that never transpired. Carlos Condit had the option to still fight on the card or wait till GSP heals and fight him then. Carlos opted to wait to fight GSP, so then many asked who will fight in the main event of UFC 137? As always, Dana answered the question by promoting the co-main event of Nick Diaz vs. B.J Penn to the main-event slot and Mirko "Cro Cop" vs. Roy Nelson as co-main event. The main event at UFC 137 was shuffled more times than a deck of cards at a casino; however, after all the setbacks the card has been set in motion for October 29, 2011
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| B.J. Penn vs. Nick Diaz |
Both, Nick Diaz and B.J Penn, are familiar with each other; so much so, that they call each other friends. B.J brought in Nick to train for his fight against Kenny Florian. Even years before this, Nick Diaz has said that he posters of B.J on his wall, when he was going up in the ranks as an amateur cage fighter. So one can imagine the difficulty in creating this match-up. In order for this fight to happen, both fighters talked about it and agreed that it was beneficial for their careers, so the fight was signed and set for UFC 137.
Nick Diaz is known not to fight but to 'scrap.' He belongs to a group of cage fighters known as the 'Scrap Pack' which includes Jake Shield, his brother Nate, Gilbert Melendez and a few others. His fighting style is extremely high pace due to his very high endurance (Nick does triathlons, when he doesn't train) and high punch count. In addition, he has world class Ju-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie. As for, B.J, he too has world class Ju-Jitsu which he learned under Ralph Gracie. B.J is considered to have the best boxing in MMA by many experts and pundits but what people fail to realize that Nick Diaz also has great boxing because he trains his boxing with Olympic Gold Medalist, Andre Ward. In addition, B.J goes by the motto of 'Just Scrap' which is similar to that of Nick Diaz. The only difference between both fighters is the reach advantage and the endurance levels that Nick Diaz has over B.J; all other qualities, both are equal. With everything said and done, this main event will be a very exciting one, in which both fighters will go in the cage and 'scrap it out.' Which fighter has more 'scrap' in them? The bad boy from the "scrap pack", Nick Diaz or will it be B.J living up to his motto of 'Just Scrap?'
Here is the full UFC 137 card:
Pay Per View:
Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn
Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Roy Nelson
Hatsu Hioki vs. George Roop
Jeff Curran vs. Scott Jorgensen
Spike TV:
Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver
Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski
Facebok stream:
Eliot Marshall vs. Brandon Vera
Danny Downes vs. Ramsey Nijem
Chris Camozzi vs. Francis Carmont
Dustin Jacoby vs. Clifford Starks
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