(These things have been passed around more than Arlovski’s ex-girlfriend.)

Although the UFC only had five weight classes at the time, four years ago today it had seven champions and only two still hold a strap.

BJ Penn (155), Matt Serra (170), Anderson Silva (185), Quinton Jackson (205) and Randy Couture (265) held titles in their respective weight divisions, while Georges St-Pierre (170) and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (265) were the anointed interim champions.

Fun Fact: Anderson Silva is the only champ who still holds the same belt he did then.

Nick Diaz is unquestionably the most gangster fighter in MMA history. This Saturday at UFC 143, Diaz will face Carlos Condit for the UFC’s interim welterweight title. It’s safe to assume that Condit will be body-shotted and called a “bitch” at least once. Here’s a tribute to some of Diaz’s most gangsterish moments, in animated GIF form. Enjoy.

Related: Lock Your Car Door When You See This Crazy Shirtless Mofo

(Tom Lawlor by Flaskpost.)

We’ve seen some bad, bad MMA fan art in our time. (Like, really bad.) So it came as a relief when we recently stumbled upon MMAFanMade, a tumblr account that showcases the best MMA-themed art and artists on the Internet. We decided to cherry-pick some of the site’s highlights, mix in a few old classics, and put ‘em all together in the gallery after the jump. Check it out below, and if you’ve done any MMA-themed artwork yourself, please share links in the comments section. We promise that our criticism will be mostly constructive.

(Watch out for that metal thing? / Props: Maury Povich via ScreenJunkies)

God damn you, ReX13. His running gag this week inspired us to revive an old, dead CagePotato feature, in which we take a moment to recognize some of your efforts in the comments section. Will we forget about this by next Friday? Maybe. Maybe not. All we have is this moment. And now, the eight greatest comments of the week…

ReX13 on “Report: Miesha Tate to Defend Strikeforce Title Against Ronda Rousey on March 3rd” [selected highlights]:
- “If you weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t matter what you said or didn’t say. That’s why you’re getting this attention.” – Miesha Tate
- “Man, Stalin was a real asshole, killing his own people like that.” – Pol Pot
- “Wow, that Bachmann chick is stuck on turbo-crazy. The only reason people are giving her the time of day is because she’s a relatively attractive woman in the Republican party. Does she hear the words that are coming out of her mouth?” – Sarah Palin
- “Goddammit, I’ve spent fifteen years in this neighborhood trying to increase property vaules, and a whole fucking passel of kettles just moved in next door. With their hippity hop music and Tyler Perry movies…..we better get a dog, honey.” – Pot
- “Bobby Flay is kinda a douche, you guys.” – Guy Fieri
- “The Duggars should stop having children. Can they even handle the children they already have?” – Nadya “Octomom” Suleman
- “That Octomom is such an attention whore.” – Kate Gosselin
- “Fuck you, bitch.” – Nadya Suleman

ElDandy on “Video of the Day: Fabricio Werdum Is as Inappropriate as We Are and Fedor Isn’t Impressed“
Fedor’s high priest looks like every dude I’ve ever seen at a Widespread concert.

Fried Taco on “Aw Geez, Now BJ Penn is Calling Nick Diaz a Cheater“:
At least BJ is right about one thing. No one will ever accuse him of being the bigger man.

(“See, where I come from bitching like that will get you backhanded.”)

Well, it didn’t take long for Team Cesar Gracie to return fire on BJ Penn after “The Prodigy” launched a random Twitter attack on Nick Diaz yesterday.

Here’s what they had to say about Penn’s latest bitchfest via a posting made today on Cesar’s official blog, GracieFighter.com.

Say It Ain’t So BJ…

JANUARY 6, 2012

BJ Penn has apparently not come to terms with the beating he received at the hands of Nick Diaz. Below is his latest posting on his Twitter account:

@nickdiaz209 Look how much bigger you are in this pic..I thought you were gonna scrap from the beginning homie? What was that coward fence holding strategy to tire out the smaller man? Street fighter my ass! I made you fight like glass jaw @jonfitchdotnet poser!
I’ll be ready for that weak bs next time we fight!

At some point it is up to those around you to protect you from yourself. To take you aside and let you know you are wrong and help save you from your folly. Unfortunately for Penn he is surrounded by “Yes Men” that are unwilling to do that. The outcome will be predictable, resulting in a fighter that will never push himself to the fullest and will always have excuses for his losses.

(The “Shaka” is apparently the new “Fingers crossed behind the back.”)

Not that we’re totally surprised by it, considering his history of playing the blame game, but it looks like BJ Penn has switched from feeling sorry for himself after announcing his retirement following his UFC 137 decision loss to Nick Diaz to making excuses why he lost the fight.

Penn randomly today tweeted the following at Diaz, who is preparing for his Super Bowl weekend UFC welterweight interim title fight with Carlos Condit in a few weeks.

“@nickdiaz209 Look how much bigger you are in this pic..” he wrote, referring to the photo above. “I thought you were gonna scrap from the beginning homie? What was that coward fence holding strategy to tire out the smaller man? Street fighter my ass! I made you fight like glass jaw @jonfitchdotnet poser! I’ll be ready for that weak bs next time we fight!”

As co-host of the Opie & Anthony radio show on SiriusXM, comedian Jim Norton has become the designated punching bag for visiting MMA stars. He’s been choked, he’s been kicked, he’s had his foot twisted 180 degrees by Brock Lesnar. And considering what a sick, depraved bastard Norton is, you have to wonder if he enjoys it on some level. Here’s everything we could collect from Jim Norton’s MMA-related body of work. All videos courtesy of opieradio.

Guest: BJ Penn, 4/14/10
Technique: Armbar
In Jim’s words: “That is fuckin’ horrible…Besides the fact that your arm is ready to be ripped out, it puts pressure on your fuckin’ — it stretches you both ways, I didn’t realize it did that.”

(Corissa Furr drinks Blue Moon? I drink Blue Moon! OMFG, #soulmates.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- More Details Emerge on Mystery MMA Fighter Who Thwarted Chicago Carjacking (MMA Mania)

- BJ Penn Column: The Never-Ending Evolution of Mixed Martial Arts (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Jon Jones: Less Like Jordan, More Like Tebow (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Alistair Overeem Leaves Xtreme Couture (5th Round)

- Tito Ortiz Wants His Last Fight To Be A Rubber Match With Forrest Griffin (FightLine)

- The Top Ten Train Fights in Train Fight History (MiddleEasy)

- Bellator Moving To Friday Nights On MTV2 In 2012 (MMA Convert)

- On Second Thought: Michael Bisping’s Wise U-Turn on Fighting Anderson Silva (Fight Opinion)

- Jon Jones Thinks Rashad Evans Has a Suspect Chin (MMAFighting)

- Check Out This Original UFC 1 Ad From 1993! (The Fight Nerd)

- Anthony Johnson on Vitor Belfort Fight: Somebody’s Getting Carried Out on a Stretcher (Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com)

- WWE Network Set For April 1 Launch (MMA Payout)

(Smiling in the presence of a woman? Automatic one-point deduction. / Photo via Sherdog)

As sort-of hazily defined by Nick Diaz back in January 2010, the Unified Rules of Stockton is an alternate MMA scoring system in which the winner of the fight is the guy who would have won if the match had continued indefinitely, and the loser is the guy who looks more fucked up afterwards. Under Stockton Rules, only the final round is scored, and holding onto top position without doing damage actually counts for negative points.

The more commonly used ten-point-must system keeps things nice and uniform, and doesn’t require judges to predict the future. But as we’ve seen time and time again, the fighter who has more points on the scorecards isn’t always who you would call the “winner.” So which notable UFC fights would have different results if the scoring system was a little more gangster? Let’s get an obvious one out of the way first…

DAN HENDERSON vs. MAURICIO “SHOGUN” RUA
UFC 139, 11/19/11

(Video courtesy of IronForgesIron)

Nick Diaz has quickly become one of the most polarizing figures perhaps behind only Chael Sonnen in the sheer even number of fans and haters, but it looks like some facets of the Stockton native’s act may be more calculated than we thought.

While making a rare media appearance on HDNet’s Inside MMA last night Diaz told hosts Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten that his callout of UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre wasn’t a spur of the moment decision he made after beating BJ Penn at UFC 137. He explained that he was pretty sure he’d get his previously promised title shot if he chose his words carefully for his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan and that he was happy that St-Pierre took the bait.

If you’re like me, when you see that Joe Rogan or Mike Goldberg are about to launch into one of their interview segments during the Spike prelims, you likely use the opportunity to grab a beer, take a piss, or switch over to Comedy Central to re-watch the end of last week’s Workaholics episode (the exception to this is of course,when Jason Mamoa is around). Because let’s be honest, who wants to listen to Dana White scream over a blaring DMX song about how great the upcoming card that you can’t afford is going to be?

But in the case of last weekend’s ProElite 2-Big Guns event, Michael Schiavello’s interview with B.J. Penn felt like the first breath after awakening from a seven year coma. Penn, who has apparently mastered the technology behind Wolverine’s healing powers, showed few signs of the damage Nick Diaz inflicted upon him just over a week ago. At the event to support his brother Reagan, “The Prodigy” discussed how retiring had been on his mind for some time:

This week’s Ask The Potato is too hot to handle.

Ask the Potato is back and as credible as ever- which is almost an accomplishment worth bragging about. This week, while coming up with the smartass quips that you’ve come to expect from us, we noticed that even some minor celebrities have taken notice of this feature and submitted their own questions. Naturally, we’re handling this development the way you would expect us to. We’re placing their questions before your (somewhat) serious questions in order to address people with more clout than you. Just remember, guys: We didn’t sell out: We bought in.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

(Video courtesy of YouTube/AudreAuditore)

If you’ve seen the latest TV spot for the soon-to-be-released Assassin’s Creed: Revelations game, you may have done a double take when you saw a character that looked an awful lot like BJ Penn.

Don’t worry, you aren’t going nuts. Penn appeared in the commercial sandwiched between Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose and the game’s protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

(Chael Sonnen whips Erik Koch’s ass at UFC Undisputed 3, later denies he used cheat codes. / For more photos, visit the “Chael Sonnen, Rampage Jackson and Chuck Liddell Test Out UFC Undisputed 3” gallery on Lowkick.blitzcorner.com)

This week’s featured stories…

- BJ Penn: A Lesson in Greatness (MMA Convert)
“When last we saw BJ Penn, the Hawaiian legend was battered and bloody and seemingly adamant about his UFC 137 appearance – a hard loss to Nick Diaz that left his eye purple and swollen – being his last trip into the Octagon. Then, days later, came the post on Penn’s website, saying he would take some time off and see where it goes from there. Which leaves us with what? A former welterweight and lightweight champ on the cusp of retirement? A warrior in the waning years of his career? Or simply a fighter who needs some time to reassess his place in the sport? I’d say definitely all of the above. Which isn’t to say Penn is washed up; he is, and will always be, one the best MMA has ever seen.”

- Joe Rogan: If NASCAR’s Not a Monopoly, UFC Isn’t Either (And They Should Buy K-1) (Fight Opinion)
“The people who own K-1, they owe a lot of money, man. They want to start fights but they want to not have to pay all the fighters that they owe money to and they owe just fucking untold millions of dollars to fighters that they haven’t paid. So, they’re in a bad financial situation but it’s because they didn’t promote it correctly. If someone like the UFC came along, if Zuffa came along and picked up K-1 — they’re not interested in it, I’ve talked to them about it — but if someone like that did, if Mark Cuban did or someone with balls and a lot of money who loves the sport, God damn that’s a gold mine. It’s a God damn gold mine. Mark Cuban, go do it! You already got Michael Schiavello working for you.”

- Gameplans For Surviving Fights With Movie Monsters (The Fight Nerd)
“Unless you’re UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, you do not want to be engaged in a stand up battle with a werewolf. The lycanthropic crime against nature may come out overly aggressive and afford you the ability to start dancing around and tagging him. But this thing has a gas tank to rival Clay Guida and one flurry is the difference between looking slick on your feet and a first round loss by technical mauling.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ProMMANow)

You would think that Nick Diaz’s camp would cool it with all of the accusations about Georges St-Pierre being scared or faking an injury to get out of fighting their boy now that they got the desired result, but that’s not how they do things in Stockton, evidently.

Dring a media scrum after the UFC 137 presser, Cesar Gracie was asked, in a somewhat baited way if he thought GSP’s injury was legit and he didn’t hold back, although he made about as much sense as his protegee.

“He ran past me earlier. I mean, he literally RAN past me, so… Look, he’s a great guy. He’s a black belt under [my cousin] Renzo Gracie. I don’t know the guy that well, personally, but I’m gonna tell you guys something right now… Nick Diaz missed a press conference and he’s here and [he] fought,” Gracie sort of explained. “The guy that went to the press conference didn’t fight. That’s all I gotta say about it. Nick…Yeah, he got kicked out, he’s this…he’s the bad guy… We didn’t go to what Nick called, ‘the beauty pageant,’ but come fight night you guys saw what he’s made of and he showed up and he did everything he had to and the guys that made the press conference, they weren’t here tonight, so you be the judge. You know what I mean?”

No, we don’t know what you mean since it makes no sense. So let us get this straight, somehow GSP faked an injury to get out of fighting Nick, even though he was scheduled to face Carlos Condit when the injury occurred. Wait, what?!

(Allow us to introduce you to Nelson Roy III, the brilliant hedge fund manager who has absolutely no relation to that fighting hillbilly you saw on Saturday. / Photo via MMAJunkie.)

By Jason Moles

If you decided to play the new CagePotato drinking game this weekend, you’re probably way too hung over to think about your financial future right now. But now that the dust has settled from UFC 137, you owe it to yourself to study our insightful and highly opinionated rundown of where to direct your hypothetical MMA investments. It’s “Buy, Sell, Hold” time once again, Potato Nation…

“The Prodigy” BJ Penn – Sell

Even if Baby Jay is pulling a Jamie Varner (man I hope that’s not a euphemism) as Mr. Falvo so eloquently put it, the writing on the wall has been there for a while now even if the majority of fans didn’t bother to read it. BJ announcing his retirement Saturday night may have been a moment of weakness when his emotions got the best of him which led to a rash decision, but let me remind you (just like every other single story you read today about “The Prodigy”) that Penn has went 1-3-1 in his last five fights. The Hawaiian may fight again to collect another paycheck but there is no more money to be made as a shareholder.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

A superstar on the rise, fist-posing next to a possibly-retired legend who barely has the strength to shaka — you can put this photo in the MMA dictionary next to “changing of the guard.”

UFC 137 provided another example of the unique emotional arc that this sport sometimes gives us. Headliners Nick Diaz and BJ Penn got into a near-tussle at the weigh-ins, spent three rounds trying to knock each other out, and after the fight they were chillin’ like two old bros. Never mind the fact that Penn’s left eye was leaking blood from all the blows he ate from Diaz, who happened to break the record for significant strikes landed in a UFC fight, by the way.

After the jump: More UFC 137 post-fight press conference highlights, in which Diaz talks about why he didn’t want to fight Penn, and explains that he didn’t go to school for buying a house. (That’ll make a little more sense when you watch it.)

Check out “Dapper” Roy Nelson in the three piece! (Video: Youtube/UFC)

“He’s the most disrespectful human being I’ve ever met, and I’m going to put the worst beating you’ve ever seen on him in the UFC.”

With those uncharacteristically aggressive words, Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre verbally accepted the bout against Nick Diaz in a backstage conversation with Dana White.

And just like that, Carlos Condit’s “guaranteed” title shot went up in smoke faster than a fatty in the 209. All of the events surrounding GSP’s next challenge have been bizarre, but that’s what happens anytime you’re dealing with the “Pride of Stockton”. Just last weekend, MMA’s least credible source, Chael Sonnen, predicted that Condit would get bumped back in line should Diaz get past Penn, and he was right on the money.

Business as usual. Props: MMAFighting.com

Let’s get the obvious out of the way as soon as possible: Last night’s UFC 137 was nothing that it was supposed to be. The odds of things playing out as they were supposed to with this card were slim from the beginning, with Nick Diaz compromising the initial main event with his decision to no-show press week and GSP having to withdraw from his match with Carlos Condit. But at least we could rest assured that BJ Penn would deliver some karma to Nick Diaz in the form of a quick beating, right?

Throughout the first round of last night’s main event, it looked that way. BJ Penn’s counter striking proved too much for Diaz early on, as Penn outworked the Strikeforce champion, managing a takedown as well. But by the second round, Nick Diaz came back to take complete control of the fight. His better conditioning allowed him to keep Penn against the cage and unleash strikes at will. By the third round, BJ Penn’s defense was completely ineffective, as Nick Diaz continued to batter Penn. With his eleventh straight victory, Nick Diaz looks as ready for Georges St. Pierre as anyone has in a while. The bout also earned both men the 75k Fight of the Night honors.

Perhaps BJ Penn was just pulling a Jamie Varner last night, and announcing his retirement out of frustration. But if he wasn’t, it’s hard to argue against his decision. BJ Penn is 1-3-1 in his last five fights, with his sole victory coming over the recently retired Matt Hughes. If it wasn’t clear from his draw against Jon Fitch that he would never be a champion in the UFC again, it became pretty obvious after watching him gas out and get picked apart last night. Penn’s legacy can’t improve at this point, but it can certainly diminish with more losses to contenders in the UFC. He’s making the right move by retiring; let’s just see if he actually sticks to it.

(It’s confusing, because in Strikeforce, standing elbow strikes during weigh-ins are totally legal. / Photo via CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this set, click here.)

After five years in the wilderness, Nick Diaz is finally returning to the Octagon tonight, at UFC 137 in Las Vegas. (As expected, Diaz is much, much less excited about this than we are.) His opponent is BJ Penn, a living legend and former two-division UFC champion whose future in the sport very much depends on his performance tonight.

Also on the card: Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo fight for a spot in the heavyweight title mix, Mirko Cro Cop and Some Fat Guy fight to save their jobs, and top ten featherweight Hatsu Hioki puts the reputation of Japan on his back.

Round-by-round results from the “Penn vs. Diaz” pay-per-view card will be piling up after the jump starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, courtesy of CagePotato liveblog assassin Matt Kaplan. Refresh the page every few minutes for the latest updates; as with our last UFC PPV liveblog, we’ll be including “next page” links to reduce spoilage, so click ‘em as the night goes on. Thanks for being here, and let us know how you feel in the comments section.

(Highlight video courtesy of MMAFighting.com)

 
It’s been a while since we brought you kids a good weigh-in video, and we’re truly sorry for that. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just getting pretty rare that someone wears an elaborate costume to the scale, misses weight by an incredible margin, or a high-profile staredown gets personal. And if those are the criteria for a great weigh-ins, last night we hit the mother lode!

Roy Nelson’s been toying with us all about his new, streamlined look, and last night he dangled that carrot in front of us just a bit longer. “Big Country” stepped onto the stage concealing his new figure like the boys at Mercedes test driving a prototype in public. Even with the excess padding (and to be fair, we are just assuming that wasn’t his real physique), Nelson weighed only 252 lbs.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/0fficialbjpenn)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/LayzietheSavage)

Just a friendly reminder that the weigh-ins for UFC 137 will be live from the Mandalay Casino and Events Center at 7:00 pm ET tonight and you can watch the stream live right here.

Until then, enjoy some BJ Penn and Nick Diaz highlight reels to get you pumped for tomorrow night. Is anyone actually not excited for this fight?

Tonight we will get to see which BJ Penn showed up in training camp — the one with abs or the one who doesn’t give a shit. We’ll also get to see how effective Roy Nelson’s diet of toilet paper and castor oil was this camp.

It will be a telling if Nick looks Penn in the eyes during the staredown. Hearing him talk all week about how BJ is one of his idols and that he really looks up to him reminded me of when GSP said the same thing about Matt Hughes right before losing by an armbar to “Country Breakfast.” He said similar things about fighting Karo before they squared off, about how he didn’t want the fight. Look what happened in that one.

Check out the stream at 7 after the jump.

(Hey, it’s that thing from my nightmares! So weird seeing you during the daytime! / Photo via @bjpenndotcom)

It’s been a while since we’ve tried to convince you fine people of something totally ridiculous. But looking through Saturday’s UFC 137: Penn vs. Diaz card, I feel like playing devil’s advocate on a few things. So keep an open mind, and read on…

Donald Cerrone Should Drop to Featherweight

Donald Cerrone has recently claimed that he’d like to face Nam Phan in his next fight, because Phan beat up his best friend Leonard Garcia earlier this month then allegedly said that if Garcia’s coaches were any good they would have taught him how to throw straight punches. Now, the average observer might say, “Look Donald, you’re on a five-fight win streak — shouldn’t you be more concerned about challenging for the belt at lightweight than chasing personal rivalries with unranked dudes at 145?”

But I say screw it, Cowboy, you do you. Not for the revenge aspect, which is completely silly. But because the lightweight division has too many contenders to the throne, and the featherweight division doesn’t have enough.

(Stream courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Just a friendly reminder that we will have the live stream of today’s UFC 137 pre-fight presser for you right here starting at 4:00 pm ET.

If you’re at home today or somewhere your boss won’t catch you getting shit-faced, we’ve created a little drinking game for you to enjoy it a bit more.

Check it out after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/HDNet)

HDNet caught up with Nick Diaz this week ahead of potentially the biggest fight of his MMA career against BJ Penn this weekend at UFC 137 and the former Strikeforce welterweight champ revealed the biggest key to beating the resilient Hawaiian. According to the surly Stockton native, he needs to first and foremost go into the fight not looking at Penn as one of the guys he looks up to most in the sport or else he might show him too much respect Saturday night.

“For this fight…my biggest obstacle I think is kind of overcoming my own personal faith in BJ Penn, because you know, after all he’s pretty much a guy I, you know… I don’t look up to a lot of guys, but I’ve looked up to BJ Penn for a long time, but he came from my school, okay? You understand? He came from my academy. Whether he says he does or whether he says he doesn’t, that’s where he came from, so… That’s where he started learning jiu-jitsu,” Diaz explained. “I actually had his first mixed martial arts fight on video. I don’t even know if he’s ever seen it, but I had it on a tape — like a cassette tape and I used to watch that before anyone even saw him fight in the UFC. We’ve trained together, too before so that’s kind of… a lot of that is really the difficult part about this fight, other that that he’s a great fighter. It’s probably going to be a lot harder for me fighting this guy because…it makes it a lot easier for a guy like Georges [St. Pierre] to go out their and hold him, stall for the rounds, but I go out there and I fight. He knows me and I know him too. He knows what I do and I know what he does too, so…I wouldn’t have picked this fight if I had my choice, that’s for sure.”

(Damn, Stitch, aren’t you supposed to stay neutral? Props: Me, five minutes ago.)

This week’s featured stories…

- Akira Corassani: Behind The Screen (Exclusive Interview) (LowKick)
“When you end up in a heel hook, you know that you have two options: it’s tap or your knee will snap, or your MCL, ACL will be out and maybe your career will be on ice…But, this grip was not in. It wasn’t a good heel-hook. You can see the technique also, his legs were all on the wrong side of my body. So, he was holding my ankle and he was going 100% to yank it and I was like, ‘Holy S—!’ So, I raised my hand, I was going to tap. Then, I don’t feel it. I don’t feel it, so why am I going to tap? If you see the other camera angles I posted on my website, you see clearly that I raised my hand and then I take his leg and shove it to the side to escape. Then he slips, my heel pops out and I’m out. That’s it…I didn’t tap, I continued fighting and I won the fight.”

- Funky Town: Bellator Welterweight Champion Ben Askren Says He’ll ‘Maul Jay Hieron’ (MMA Mania)
“Yeah he was a national champion in junior college but Jay [Hieron] is significantly overrating his wrestling ability. What you have to realize is that people who win national junior college tournaments, I pin them in 30 seconds. That’s no big deal. I mean, even at the highest, highest level at the NCAA tournament my senior year, in five matches I probably got 40 takedowns and that’s against the best of the best of the best guys in the United States in wrestling and Jay was never on that level”

- ‘Raw Combat’ Author Jim Genia Discusses the NY Underground MMA Scene (The Fight Nerd)
“New York doesn’t allow MMA right now, so fighters have to go to New Jersey to fight where it’s sanctioned or they have to go underground in New York city…but the book isn’t just about the underground fight scene in New York, it’s also about the development of sanctioned MMA in the east coast…In New Jersey, there was a show called BAMA Fight Night run by Big Dan Miragliotta. His show was the only show for the longest time, there weren’t sanctioned events in the North East, so Big Dan would hold these shows and people like Matt Serra, Nick Serra, Phil Baroni, they had their first fights at these events.”

(Video courtesy of IronForgesIron)

Our friend ZombieProphet from IronForgesIron.com always comes through with videos of shows and events we forgot about and the UFC 137 countdown show that aired last night is no exception.

Cesar Gracie has some interesting observations about BJ Penn and he refers to the former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ as “Superman,” but says that his protegee Nick Diaz is the Hawaiian scrapper’s kryptonite.

I don’t know about you guys, but this fight gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

Check out part two after the jump so you can hear MMA JayT mancrush, Cheick Kongo talk about how he wasn’t out in his last fight with Pat Barry, in spite of his trainer’s assertion that he lost consciousness at least once in the bout.

UFC 137 is just a week away, featuring what some believe to be a welterweight number one contender match between B.J. Penn and Nick Diaz. If you weren’t convinced by our betting advice for the main event, then perhaps the words of Stephan Bonnar, Manny Gamburyan, Tyson Griffin, and Phil Baroni will do your thinking for you. And from the looks of it, you’re thinking B.J. Penn is going to come out on top, because that’s what the consensus seems to be for these pros.

 
(Not yet………………………………..getting warmer…….)

UFC 137 is just around the bend, and since the lineup has made more changes than a MTV awards show host, we figured we’d lay out the current odds before something else horrible happens. So, courtesy of BestFightOdds.com, check out the sweetest lines available, along with our time tested advice below.

PPV Main Card
B.J. Penn (-115) vs. Nick Diaz (-105)
Matt Mitrione (-135) vs. Cheick Kongo (+115)
Roy Nelson (-290) vs. Mirko Filipovic (+245)
Hatsu Hioki (-330) vs. George Roop (+270)
There is no line yet available for the recently bumped up Tavares/Jacoby fight.

Spike TV Prelims
Donald Cerrone (-225) vs. Dennis Siver (+185)
Tyson Griffin (-290) vs. Bart Palaszewski (+245)

The undercard odds have yet to be released as well, but we only bet big here, so forgeddaboutit!

The Main Event:

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

We’re not sure if it was creative editing or if Nick Diaz has had a change of heart about his views on the PR obligations of being a fighter, but Stockton’s favorite son almost seemed happy doing this pre-UFC 137 promo for UFC.com.

Arguably the most interesting tidbit from the oft misunderstood former Strikeforce welterweight champ in the brief clip is that his UFC 137 opponent, BJ Penn is his favorite fighter.

“He’s my favorite fighter. He’s better than they are. He’s better than everybody. I know where he came from; he came from my school. As far as I’m concerned he came from where I came from and that’s why he’s here. I gotta win these fights. I don’t think it matters what I do; I think I have to win. I love competition. It gets me right. It makes everything work,” Diaz explained. “I know who’s in this sport. It’s shit…not what I do. MMA fans, in general, are looking forward to this fight. I kind of think that we have some of the same style, therefore we have some of the same fans and I respect his style of fighting.”