UFC 137 Undisputed III — Whatever… with everything leading up to this Ultimate Fighting Championship card, I would have called it “UFC 137 More Drama than my baby’s mama”. Let’s see, Nick Diaz is in, no wait, he is out,
UFC 137 Undisputed III — Whatever… with everything leading up to this Ultimate Fighting Championship card, I would have called it “UFC 137 More Drama than my baby’s mama”. Let’s see, Nick Diaz is in, no wait, he is out, whoops no-no-no he is in, OK no he missed a flight, no he missed a conference with the press, OK well it doesn’t matter now, Dana White says he is out so he is out.
So the UFC brings Carlos Condit up out of training to fight the champion. Ok cool —that should be an OK fight, but hold on to those horses, that isn’t going to happen either because Georges St. Pierre has suffered a knee injury (which training injuries do happen), so he is out.
Carlos Condit wants the belt, so if GSP is out then so is he. Now our drama fest has no headline fight, but wait again, we still have Nick Diaz who has been training his you-know-what off getting ready for the championship.
Let’s bring Nick Diaz back in to headline against, oh, B. J. Penn, and to make it interesting since B. J. Penn hasn’t been training for this caliber of fight. Lets have B. J. go from his normal 155 Lbs he usually fights at and take him up to oh let’s say 170ish. OK here we go, now we are ready for a good fight card, but wait — your asking “Is Nick Diaz really good enough for B. J. Penn and has B. J. Penn been training, or has he taken one of his trademark breaks?”Well I can’t answer for Mr. Penn, but Nick Diaz has not lost a fight since 2007 and that was a first round TKO to K. J. Noons, in which Diaz paid him back in 2010 by beating him in a 5 round decision, retaining his Strikeforce belt, in which he relinquished (not lost) when he moved back to the UFC.
I am sure there was plenty more drama on this fight card before the fights ever started but the only other pre-fight drama I thought I would mention was the fact that Tyson Griffin failed to make weight. Any of you who have wrestled, boxed, done MMA or any other sport that requires a weigh-in knows this is a slap in your opponents face. This fight did go on, but at a catch weight of 148 Lbs, and as a result $8,500 of Griffin’s purse was awarded to his opponent Bart Palaszewski, who by the way KO’d Griffin 2:45 into the first round.
I know by this point you are saying, stop, please stop the insanity, but no it doesn’t end there. Let’s move on to the end of the fights, in particular starting with the Roy “Big Country” Nelson vs Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. After Cro Cop suffers his third loss in a row, last two by KO, this one by TKO, to many punches to the face and head area, in his after fight, still in the ring interview, he retires. This guy is 27-10 with 20 of his wins coming by either TKO or KO, that is impressive. Maybe he should step down to a smaller purse — but retire, I say no. Oh did I tell you what his purse was for this fight?In his loss to Roy Nelson he received $75,000 — not a bad pay day.
Now on to the second after-fight drama I was talking about, this one involves both fighters Nick Diaz and our very own B. J. Penn. Nick Diaz just pulled off a spectacular victory over Penn when Diaz called out St. Pierre, suggesting that the champion was in fact not hurt, but rather simply afraid to fight. Then after falling into Nick Diaz’s fight game plan (yes I said it, Diaz actually had a fight game plan), Penn suffers a defeat via a 3 round Unanimous Decision, and he too retires. B. J. got whooped, and helped Diaz set a new UFC record for significant strikes landed in a fight with 178, while connecting with 257 of 436 strikes in total.
B. J. the Prodigy is only 32 years old, a former two-division champion, and the only reason he lost is before the fight he didn’t do his trademark, which involves him punching the crap out of his own face, punches hard enough to knock most men out. Well he didn’t do it, I called it, and as a matter of fact my wife noticed it and called it as well. B. J. , fighting out of Hilo Hawai‘i received a nice little check in his loss to the tune of $150,000 – not bad for a day in the office and I know he has the capability to continue at the highest level but in the 145 Lbs weight class. I for one am not ready to see B. J. “The Prodigy” Penn retire. I just want to see the highly trained, highly skilled B. J. at his best once again.
After all is said and done, who was the biggest winner of the night?Well Nick Diaz of course, not only bringing in the largest purse of the night in $200,000 but he also secured a title fight against current champion GSP. Yeah I guess calling out the champion worked, as GSP went to Dana White and asked for the fight to happen. GSP is 22-2 with a loss to Matt Hughes in 2004 (which he has beaten twice since then), and one loss to Matt Serra in 2007 (which he paid back in 2008 with so many viscous knees to the body that Serra had to quit in the second round).
So with all this said, is it hard to be a fight promoter, keep the fighters healthy, happy, and trained to the highest level and put on a show that folks will pay to see?Heck yes it is. So next time you see our local promoters, Vance Pascua, Kipi Akana or John Rivera, please give them a BIG thank you for all they do for our local fighters and of course us, the fans.
