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| Penn and Diaz almost went to blows at weigh-ins, it was tension that boiled over in their main event battle at UFC 137. |
UFC 137 was the card that kept on changing, but in the end it delivered from start to finish. The prelims, although free, were very worthy of being on the main pay-per-view card. And, the five main card fights were impressive, for the most part.
Usually the end of a UFC card would garner Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night honors, but tonight for the first time Inside the Cage will hand out our very own awards. Of course we don’t give out the bonuses that UFC does, but the notoriety should be enough. Not to mention, they aren’t necessarily honors fighters want.
Here we go:
Fight of the Night: Hatsui Hioki decision victory over George Roop – This featherweight battle was the perfect fight to start off the main card. It was a battle that went a full three rounds and saw each man get an upper hand with punches and takedowns. The crowd was split down the middle, as were the judges. Each fighter came out prepared to put on a show for the crowd in attendance and helped the featherweight division gain the admiration of even more fans.
NOT Fight of the Night: When UFC announced a heavyweight battle between Cheick Kongo and Matt Mitrione fans envisioned somebody getting knocked out and both fighters looking bloody. Instead, fans got a drawn out and disappointing fight. For what was supposed to be a co-main event, this match was heavily booed and even Dana White admitted on Twitter that it wasn’t what he expected. Kongo walked away with a decision victory, but might have lost some fans in the process.
Battle of the Night: As entertaining as this card was it would not mean anything if the main event between Nick Diaz and B.J. Penn were to fall flat. Even before the opening round, it was apparent that these two would not disappoint. Each fighter paced back and forth and were anxious to start the fight. At the beginning of the second and third rounds, they met in the middle of the octagon before the referee signaled them to go. They traded punches, rarely shot for a takedown and both were committed to knocking the other out.
Neither got the KO, but neither walked away unscathed. Both fighters had black eyes and were bloodied, but Penn took the brunt of the devastating shots. His left eye was swollen shut and Diaz walked away with the unanimous decision victory. After the fight Diaz called out Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre while Penn announced his “probable” retirement. This match is definitely the closest we will get to the days of Gladiators.
This was the first of four straight weekends of UFC cards and it got the next month of fights off to a nice start.
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