(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.”

(“Well at the very least, you’re paying me back for all this bottled water.”)

BJ Penn, Nick Diaz, Matt Mitrione, and Cheick Kongo were scheduled to participate in a UFC 137 media call at 2 p.m. ET today, and three of them called in on time. The other one, obviously, was Nick Diaz. According to twitter updates from Ariel Helwani, the UFC and Diaz’s manager/trainer Cesar Gracie began frantically searching for the former Strikeforce welterweight champ when he no-showed the call. Gracie was surprised by his fighter’s absence, but offered the explanation that he only found out about the media call 24 hours in advance and he wasn’t sure whether it was still on after GSP pulled out due to injury.

(A little club soda will get that right out.)

When discussing his fourth round tapout loss to UFC Light Heavyweight Champ Jon Jones, Rampage Jackson explained that he lets no man put him to sleep because he doesn’t trust people. I’m not exactly certain what Jackson fears might unfold once he goes out, but vile atrocities such as antiquing and billboarding have been perpetrated on unconscious fighters before. But there’s a certain amount of trust that goes into tapping out as well. The tapout is nothing more than a gentlemen’s agreement, really, in which one fighter admits that he’s taken enough punishment for one day. But not everyone in the face-punching business is a gentleman, and sometimes your opponent may not agree that you’ve taken all of the damage you deserve.

When you hold a submission too long there’s a chance of causing damage to a limb or unconsciousness, but it always leads to hurt feelings.

RVCA | BJ PENN THE ROAD TO UFC 137 from RVCA on Vimeo.

It’s always a good sign when you see BJ Penn with his head down toiling through a training camp like he is in this nifty little “Road to UFC 137″ video released this week by RVCA.

The former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion explains during the video that he was a bit put off by the UFC’s decision to switch opponents on him less than two months out from UFC 137 and that he didn’t want to have to fight his friend and sometimes training partner Nick Diaz, but says he relented when he realized that there weren’t any other opponents for him to fight. Their friendship will likely go out the window with the first fist to face contact in the bout.

(Former UFC Octagon Girl Brittney Palmer shows off her work, shares her plans for an “art empire.” Props: MMA30tv)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere…

- Dana White: If Victorious Over BJ Penn, Nick Diaz Will Get a Title Shot (LowKick)
“I expect nothing from him (at the press conferences). I expect him to be sitting right here in this chair. He doesn’t have to answer one question if he doesn’t want to. I just want him to sit there and then get up and do the (staredown). Just show up man. He’s probably going to flip everybody off and do all this other stuff – its Nick Diaz. I don’t want him to not be Nick Diaz, I just need him to show up.”

- 10 MMA Rematches That Should Have Never Happened (BleacherReport/MMA)
“Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva and the recently concluded Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar trilogy are both examples of what a warranted do-over should look like…Then, there are other bouts where a decisive ending merits no speedy return for the two fighters to be joined together again inside the cage.”

- ‘King’ Mo Lawal Talks ‘Rampage’ Jackson: We’re Going to Fight Eventually (MMA Fighting)
“This fool Rampage calls me out, and then people get mad when I respond? He’s a b—h in my eyes, because he didn’t respond. Maybe he’ll respond later, but the word is he wants to fight [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua]. That’s whatever.”

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

Latest odds for UFC 137‘s headliner and co-main event:

Georges St. Pierre (-365) vs. Carlos Condit (+370)
BJ Penn (-113) vs. Nick Diaz (+108)

On October 29th in Las Vegas, Georges St. Pierre will attempt to make his seventh-consecutive welterweight title defense against a challenger who’s far more multi-dimensional that the grapplers and strikers GSP has run through recently. Can the dangerous-in-all-positions Carlos Condit turn this into a battle, or is he going to get blown out like the others who came before him? And should BJ Penn be considered the slight favorite over Nick Diaz, or should it be the other way around? Let us know who you’re pulling for in the comments section…

(The BJ Penn air freshener — perfect for whenever something smells fishy.)

BJ Penn, God bless him, has never been afraid to bump heads with his UFC bosses — and now a new feud is brewing between the Prodigy and the UFC’s hype-show producers. It all started earlier this week when Penn released a video blog discussing an experience he had shooting the Countdown special for UFC 137. Said Penn:

“I got a lot of respect for Diaz, I’ve trained with him. They forced me to say… ‘You gotta say Nick Diaz‘s name now, you gotta say his name.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ They were like, ‘Say you’re going to beat Nick Diaz.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to beat Nick Diaz.’ I wish…I would have said ‘at UFC 137 my hand is going to be raised.’ I don’t know if they’re going to come back and try to show Nick Diaz that, I don’t know what’s going on with that.”

Seems innocent enough — it’s not like the UFC coached Penn to attack Diaz personally, and declarative statements like these are a standard element of fight promotion. But it was still enough to rub Penn the wrong way. So you can imagine how he felt when Dana White himself released footage showing that Penn wasn’t really “forced” to say anything at that Countdown shoot. Check this out…

(The old dude at the top who hasn’t figured out the fist pose just wandered out from the sauna and got in the photo. Thankfully, he put his clothes on before he did. -photo courtesy of Matt-Hughes.com)

Matt Hughes has apparently gone back to his roots training with longtime coach Pat Miletich for his upcoming UFC 135 bout with Josh Koscheck.

The former UFC welterweight champ, whose three-fight winning streak was snapped by a knockout at the hands of BJ Penn in his last fight also flew “The Prodigy” into Hillsboro, Illinois to help him get ready for the fight, which speaks to how seriously he’s taking his training.

Check out an excerpt from the blog after the jump.

(We know, Nick. It’s crazy what you have to put up with. Photo via MarkJRebilas.)

Last night, MMAJunkie posted a lengthy sit-down with press-conference dodging UFC welterweight Nick Diaz, in which Nick shared his thoughts on getting bumped from his UFC 137 title fight against Georges St. Pierre, and subsequently re-booked against BJ Penn. Obviously, he’s pissed and none of it is his fault. To summarize: If Nick had known that the fight was dependent on him showing up to press conferences, he would have attended them, and he didn’t even know what he was being asked to attend in the first place, and he’d already requested that all of his PR obligations take place in California, so what the hell, right?

In Nick’s ever-warped perception, the real bad guy in the situation is Georges St. Pierre, who didn’t protest when the UFC canceled the fight. And now, friends and neighbors, it’s personal:

“I really don’t appreciate this mother [expletive] sitting there at that press conference and laughing at me,” Diaz said. “That’s some real bitch [expletive]. He’s sitting there laughing like it’s funny or something. If I saw Georges on the street and called him a bitch, I bet you he wouldn’t do [expletive]. I bet you if I walked up and gave him a slap, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t do [expletive]. But you can’t do that to me. That’s not how it works for me. That’s something to fight about.

(Meredith DiVita, the 10th hottest MMA chick of 2010, is back with a new Knoxx Gear photo shoot. For more pics of Meredith, check out her public Facebook page and KNOXXlifestyle.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- BJ Penn: The UFC Forced Me to Say Things About Nick Diaz (MMA Mania)

- Jason “Mayhem” Miller Explains Alleged Assault on Sister (5thRound)

- The Truth About Fighters and Sponsors (MMA Fighting)

- Strikeforce Ratings Way Down for ‘Barnett vs. Kharitonov’ (MMA Payout)

- Roger Ebert Reviews New MMA Movie, “Warrior” (TheFightNerd)

- Rich Franklin Done for 2011 With Torn Shoulder Labrum (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Photo Report: Alexander Shlemenko Training With Michael Bisping for Bellator 50 (LowKick)

- Rampage Jackson Wants His UFC/PRIDE Unified Light Heavyweight Belt Back (MMA Convert)

- Power Ranking Every Upcoming UFC Event (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- Well at Least Kimbo Slice Has No Problem Attracting the Opposite Sex (MiddleEasy)

- Kurt Angle Explains Why Imitating Fedor Is Impossible (FightOpinion)

- Strikeforce Heavyweight Semifinals Recap With ‘Big’ John McCarthy and Lloyd Irvin (NBC Sports MMA)

First shit was a fantasy, then shit got real, then shit got crazy, and then shit got interesting…

In a positively shocking turn of events that no one could have seen coming, Dana White today announced via Twitter that Nick Diaz had been re-booked for a bout at UFC 137 — against BJ Penn.

With a simple swap of opponents, White deftly solved the headaches he had with Diaz and the two co-main events at UFC 137 without calling in a fighter on short notice, and simultaneously scored a huge amount of free publicity for the fight (Ed. note: Oh, the ironing.)

On top of that, White also managed to deal a pretty stiff blow to Diaz, without looking like a bad guy in the process.  Diaz now finds himself without a Strikeforce title or a fight for the UFC title, with fans jeering his own catchphrase back at him, facing a very tough veteran with a broad skill set that could very well beat him at his own game.

Ok, Nation: it’s going down.  Who ya got?

[RX]

(Is there any greater rivalry in world history than .com people vs. .net people?)

Man, I feel bad for Jon Fitch. Fans shit on him for not finishing, the UFC has stopped giving him marquee fights — a public shaming from BJ Penn is really the last thing he needs right now.

Fitch was cleared to resume training last month following his shoulder surgery, which didn’t leave him with enough time to replace Diego Sanchez against Matt Hughes at UFC 135 later this month. However, he claims that he’ll be healthy enough to come in as BJ Penn’s replacement opponent at UFC 137 in October, or as Nick Diaz’s new opponent, whenever Diaz gets out of the doghouse.

Diaz wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.

Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor: Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.

Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”

(Too bad, so sad, Nick. Maybe ProElite will have you.)

You would think Nick Diaz would have taken Dana White’s warning that he better start “playing the game” when he re-signed him to the UFC. Apparently he doesn’t know the two golden rules: One, Dana White always wins and two, Dana White never forgets.

Case in point, after not showing up for a scheduled press conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Diaz once again went MIA for another presser today in Las Vegas, and as a result White yanked away his UFC 137 title shot against Georges St-Pierre and instead gave it to former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit.

An obviously infuriated White, who said that in 1600 events he has promoted he has never had such issues with unprofessionalism with a fighter, broke the news via a highlight reel featuring Condit and St-Pierre. He explained that they twice rescheduled Diaz’s flight and that neither he nor Nick’s longtime trainer Cesar Gracie have been able to reach the sociopathic former Strikeforce champion since Monday. During the event today, Gracie called White to tell him he agrees wholeheartedly with his decision to swap opponents and apologized for his fighter’s lack of professionalism. White revealed that Gracie had Diaz cornered in his house after he finally found the AWOL fighter on Monday and that Diaz snuck out the back door when his coach’s back was turned. Gracie has been chasing him all over Stockton ever since.

According to former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes he has accepted the challenge of Josh Koscheck to face him in the place of his original UFC 135 opponent Diego Sanchez, who pulled out of the bout due to a broken hand. The only problem is, the UFC brass haven’t decided whether they want to see “Country Breakfast” possibly have his lights and his career turned out by Kos or have Bob Arum telling Dana, “I told you so!” until the day he dies (some time soon by the looks of it) thanks to a potential 15-minute wrestlefuck session with Jon Fitch.

Either way, Hughes is fighting on September 24, so at least there’s that.

(Props: NicktheFace via MMAMania)

With four consecutive wins including back-to-back first-round knockouts of Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim, Carlos Condit is one of the hottest contenders in the UFC welterweight division. But to be a legend, he’ll have to start beating legends. The Natural Born Killer will get an opportunity to do just that at UFC 137: St. Pierre vs. Diaz (October 29th, Las Vegas), where he’ll face former lightweight/welterweight champ BJ Penn in the co-main event. With just one victory in his last four fights, Penn needs to make a statement against the young up-and-comer to prove that he’s not ready to be put out to pasture just yet.

But forget about what this fight “means.” These are two guys who go for the finish every minute of every round, and Penn vs. Condit is guaranteed to be a thriller. As the video reminds us, 96.3% of Condit’s wins come by stoppage — and Penn has still yet to be knocked down, despite a 10 year career that saw him fight across four different weight divisions. That’s kind of insane. Condit is currently a slight favorite with the oddsmakers. Sound about right to you?

After the jump: NicktheFace’s trailer for UFC 137′s headliner between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.