ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

For the first time since he became the UFC’s lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar is the betting favorite heading into a fight. From the Vegas perspective, the time of feel-good flukes is over -- this time, Edgar is getting love where he normally just gets overlooked.

And when you glance at the tape, why not? Edgar has gone 3-0-1 against two guys in the past two years. But the guys he’s beaten weren’t just guys. They were oppressors of the 155-pound division: Gray Maynard, who entered the cage a behemoth next to Edgar, at least 15 pounds heavier; and B.J. Penn, who left the cage with no future in the division and no answer for the man who had plenty.

Edgar batted back two fast-encroaching forces of momentum, and he did it twice apiece. For the past couple of years, Edgar has been making guys redundant.

And that’s the kind of drama that feels too good to be true.

Now Edgar is getting set to face Benson Henderson: a dynamic, athletic, comet-shrieking member of the division who, as an underdog, becomes a tempting choice to dethrone the pride of New Jersey. This is how it goes. Most people who are taking Edgar are speaking in universals, saying things like, “I’ll never bet against Edgar again.” These people are letting you know they have learned their lesson. They believe now. In what, exactly? That Edgar’s own belief is a near tangible. That Edgar won’t lose -- because he can’t.

Yet there are still cynics who can’t fathom how a natural featherweight, who doesn’t cut but two loaves of bread to make 155 pounds, can continue beating guys the way he does. How can you take brute punishment against Maynard and come back, twice, in an eerie loop of sequences? How can you beat Penn with flickering jabs, fancy footwork and impossible determination ... twice?

Nobody ordinary can do this. But Edgar does. Edgar is cut from the same cloth as the iron-chinned post-war boxers who made heart the overriding component. For everyone who backs the latest head of steam, be cautious: Edgar is where momentum goes to die.

That’s why this feeling that Edgar has more to prove than Henderson at UFC 144 in Japan is literally backward, and yet partially true. Edgar has proved himself as a champion and as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters going. Now Edgar could be working on proving that he’s the greatest lightweight champion ever. If that sounds like a stretch of the imagination, then we’re right in Edgar’s wheelhouse.

Think about it: A victory over Henderson would be enough to tip him over into that rarefied space. At least, conversationally. In the short history of MMA, who would have had a better run? Penn was tremendous for the three years between 2007-2010. He defended the belt three times with a cameo superfight at welterweight with Georges St. Pierre. Then he ran into Frankie Edgar, the little impasse that could.

Takanori Gomi was a force for a long while in Pride, but the competition he faced wasn’t like Edgar’s. Jens Pulver defended his belt twice, but he has been in a career free fall since 2006.

There are other mentionables, but none as pronounced as Edgar, who has a chance to defy logic on an even larger scale come Saturday.

And wouldn’t that be just like him to do it? A guy with no business fighting in MMA’s most competitive division has a real chance of becoming its ultimate kingpin.

There were those who thought that Nick Diaz beat Carlos Condit at UFC 143, pointing to his constant pursuit as evidence. Diaz stalked, mocked and talked. He was "Stalkton." He was exactly who we thought he was.

Problem was, Condit wasn’t.

Condit went into the nastiest kind of retreat, one that stuck and ducked and moved and circled and landed leg kicks and counter shots with isolated ease. Isolated? Wait -- wasn’t Condit supposed to stand in front of Diaz and trade, looking for that big curtain closer? Weren’t chins supposed to come into question? Wasn’t Condit supposed to be tailor-made for the high-volume striking assault that Diaz is known for?

Condit had a mute button for the volume. He was either brilliant, or he was a high stakes version of Kalib Starnes, depending on your bias. In all circles, it was clear that he consciously avoided a brawl. And this is where feelings got hurt. In the end, Condit wasn’t about meeting bloodthirsty expectations so much as winning the fight, and he executed his game plan brilliantly. Good for (or shame on) him. Now he’s the interim welterweight champion, and don’t expect apologies from Albuquerque.

Yet for all the scorecard dissection that ensued, nobody was as disappointed or disillusioned as Diaz, who sort of retired right after. A totally impromptu retirement -- just a hundred seconds after a stubborn war he could never incite.

“I don’t need this s---,” he said to Joe Rogan.

He said he’d continue to help train his brother, Nate, but as for him and the whole pack of incompetent judges and all the pressure-filled, bustling hate? Devil take it. He doesn’t need the racket.

Which we all of course took with a grain of salt.

Nobody really thinks that the 28-year-old Diaz is walking. He does need the racket. All the dude has done since his earliest memories is mean mug whoever gets in his grill, and fight. He went so far as to balance out the street menace early by funneling it into jiu-jitsu in his formative years. These days, he is as much Cesar Gracie as Cesar Gracie. Diaz is known for his fiendish work ethic, and he trains compulsively. It’s what he does. It’s how he copes, and how he vents. We like it because we see such focused discipline coming out of unknown wilds. Maybe more than anybody, this game is Diaz’s lifeblood.

Only it’s not a game to Diaz, it’s fighting -- and that’s why judge’s scorecards become absurd to such a literalist.

This last distinction is why he’ll return to the cage before long. The old Dana White proverb to “never leave it in the hands of the judges” will resonate in him and work as kindling. Losing that way won’t sit well in the 209. White senses it, just like you and I. In fact, White was already dangling Josh Koscheck out there as a possible next opponent in the postfight news conference. Emotions got the better of Diaz, who has never filtered the urge to say what’s on his mind like typical professionals.

It helps that there are possibilities all over the place. Realistically, with Georges St. Pierre on the shelf until something like November, a rematch with Condit isn’t out of the question. Neither is fighting a Johny Hendricks or a Jon Fitch or a Rory MacDonald to avenge his brother’s loss. Or maybe Jake Ellenberger, who would love nothing better than to stand and trade heat with Diaz. How about rematch with Diego Sanchez, who knows the buttons to push to get Diaz’s chest puffing back out?

There will be suitors, some of them equipped with the kinds of mouths that will get to Diaz.

But that’s all window dressing. The thing is, Diaz doesn’t have it in him to quit, and there’s still too much left unresolved and just too many reasons for him to walk away.

And for those who have paid attention to Diaz’s competitiveness over the years, the biggest might be this -- he simply can’t.

Cung Le attempted to beat Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 with an unlikely game plan -- that of fighting like Cung Le.

It nearly worked. Le tried to kick Silva’s liver through his spine, but in the end he was downed with a barrage of strikes that left his nose in crescent form. The scrap was good enough to be a candidate for "fight of the year" but was unfortunate enough to be only the third-most exciting bout of the night. That was the same evening Michael Chandler won a back-and-forth battle with lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in Bellator, and Dan Henderson outlasted Mauricio Rua in a five-round grind.

But the immediate reports back seem to be that Strikeforce fighters like Le are faring pretty well in the UFC. These were supposed to be the B models, slogging it out in a nice regional show. They weren’t supposed to be able to compete with the elite of the world. At least that’s what we heard from carnival barkers whenever somebody had the audacity to compare a Strikeforce fighter with a UFC fighter.

Yet, since the Zuffa purchase of Strikeforce and the great integration, it looks like Strikeforce had its share of equals and betters. This weekend Nick Diaz will fight for the interim welterweight belt against Carlos Condit after belting B.J. Penn at UFC 137. Win it, and he gets his long-awaited shot at Georges St. Pierre. Meanwhile, Fabricio Werdum takes on Roy Nelson in a fight with very loose title connections in the heavyweight division. Should Diaz and Werdum win -- and Vegas thinks they should -- it will continue a trend that makes Scott Coker look vindicated for something deep inside that could use some vindication. It also diversifies things for matchmaker Joe Silva.

Last weekend, Lavar Johnson scored a knockout of the night against Joey Beltran in Johnson's UFC debut. Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Henderson came back and beat Rua and is now patiently waiting in line for the Jon Jones-Rashad Evans winner. Strikeforce titlist and linear champion Alistair Overeem kicked Brock Lesnar into retirement, and next faces Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight strap. Other Strikeforce fighters (not named Gilbert Melendez) are making their way from the hexagon to the Octagon, too. In fact, just about anybody who’s anybody in the clearance of Strikeforce heavyweights will soon be in the UFC: Antonio Silva, Chad Griggs, Daniel Cormier, Josh Barnett, et al.

The floodgates are open.

Granted, some of the Strikeforce fighters coming over are UFC retreads. But in the early returns the worst you can say is that Jake Shields, who jumped ship to the UFC before the acquisition, hasn’t lived up to billing. Most Strikeforce fighters are having a happier time of it than when the UFC/Pride partition came down, and the Pride fighters faltered. Same with the WEC, given the potential of Condit and Ben Henderson. Yet most of the WEC’s talent competed in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, which didn’t exist in the UFC until the beginning of 2011, so it’s hard to make a full spectrum comparison.

But think about it -- in mid-to-late 2012, as many as three reigning Strikeforce champions could be wearing UFC gold (Diaz, Henderson and Overeem). If Melendez was ever released from exile, he could challenge for the lightweight belt, too.

What does it all mean? Maybe nothing. Or maybe it’s something that we’ve always suspected and debated about. While the best fighters in the world are generally thought to be in the UFC at all times, there are fighters dying for the chance to be brought in for no other reason than to prove them wrong.

And knowing just how short the fight society’s attention span can be, the UFC is only too happy to be wrong when they do.

Georges St. Pierre is actively rooting for Nick Diaz to win versus his erstwhile training partner Carlos Condit this weekend at UFC 143.

Why? Because, when he returns from his knee injury, he wants to beat Diaz to a pulp himself and maybe teach him some manners along the way. Simply watching somebody else beat up Diaz isn’t going to cut it -- St. Pierre wants to lay hands on the man who essentially called him a coward. There’s just no satisfaction in doing this thing vicariously.

And as St. Pierre rehabs in California, this becomes his raison d’être -- to drag Diaz from the back alleys of Stockton, and blow him up large and in public under a thousand high-watt bulbs. It just so happens that he’s plotting Diaz’s comeuppance with boom mics hovering over his head.

All of this is, of course, a little bizarre.

Most diplomatic competitors pretend to have no rooting interest in a game/fight that leads directly to them. Any admission of wanting to play/fight a lesser opponent is a sign of disrespect or some overarching insecurity. Any preferential treatment the other way looks like chest puffing.

But as everybody knows, the fight game is always that much more literal and that much more uninhibited. Guys do not follow protocol, they’re not nearly as censored and most have only the vaguest idea of consequences. Maybe it’s because there are no metaphors in play. It is literally man against man, and the loudest man need only back it up.

The novelty is that it’s coming from Georges St. Pierre. That’s GSP, the Hobey Baker of MMA, who once said Dan Hardy would be the toughest challenge of his career (and believed large portions of what he was saying). If there’s ever been a gentler gladiator outside the cage than St. Pierre, I’d like to know who he is.

Yet in the most recent "UFC Primetime," the producers smartly yanked the plug on the Condit/Diaz spotlight to have the usually reserved St. Pierre weigh in on matters. In it, the French-Canadian did not speak in automaton clichés (as he sometimes does) or work rote phrases (such as, “I just want to the best Georges St. Pierre I can be”). This time, over a montage of him doing specialized training on the road back from knee surgery, he said he was hoping and praying that Diaz beats Condit. His dander is still way up, and he looms over Las Vegas this weekend like a storm cloud.

Which is fitting, because St. Pierre also talked about a dark place inside himself that Diaz couldn’t possibly fathom. This was the true revelation. The points were a little loose, but St. Pierre seemed to be saying that Diaz can outcrazy him, but not outblack his moods.

Somehow, in the exchange of Diaz not showing up at news conferences, getting plucked from the title shot and then disrespecting St. Pierre publicly after beating B.J. Penn at UFC 137, lasting impressions were made. In fact, the last insult made St. Pierre’s pupils turn black, and this is a version of St. Pierre that becomes fascinating.

Move over, Garth Marenghi, we’re about to visit Georges St. Pierre’s “Dark Place,” a place the media has never been able to get at. For once, the inner-workings of the usually stubborn professional are burbling up to the surface. And that counts as a new wrinkle.

It also makes the interim welterweight title fight between Condit and Diaz that much more fun, and it definitely makes GSP’s rooting interest the general rooting interest. Who doesn’t want to see Diaz-St. Pierre now? Who doesn’t want to see St. Pierre fighting with a grudge, against a guy who doesn’t give a damn about no feelings?

Now, with the UFC on Fox 2 playing out as the gateway to vastly riveting matchups between Chael Sonnen/Anderson Silva and Rashad Evans/Jon Jones, there’s this weekend, which joins right in. A supercharged, totally peeved St. Pierre is expediting his return because he wants to smash Diaz into a million afterthoughts as soon as possible. It’s another gateway fight that sets up a trilogy of ax-grinding title bouts for mid-2012.

And it’s a hard spot for Condit. Lose, and make everybody happy. Win, and snap St. Pierre back into the ordinary light.

For now, everyone is keeping up a pretty good poker face.

Fresh off his victory over Jorge Masvidal on Saturday night, Gilbert Melendez maintains that he’s excited and proud to carry on as Strikeforce lightweight champion. Really, what did you expect him to say? Meanwhile, Zuffa brass is holding firm that so long as Strikeforce continues to exist, Melendez will stay put. Given that he’s one of the fight promotion’s last two remaining male champions, did they have any other choice?

That said, if the fight company is serious about keeping Melendez in Strikeforce for the long haul, it’s going to have to provide a serious injection of talent to justify it. With all but a few of the world’s top-20 lightweights already under contract to the UFC, it’s also no secret where that competition is going to have to come from: Somebody (multiple somebodies, probably) will soon be saying goodbye to the Octagon and hello to the hexagonal Strikeforce cage.

Here are my picks for five fighters Zuffa could sub-in as Melendez’s next opponent, without sacrificing guys -- like Melvin Guillard, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone or Anthony Pettis -- who are still “in the mix” for an upcoming shot at UFC champ Frankie Edgar:

Gray Maynard. If competition is what Melendez needs it couldn’t get much tougher than Maynard, who recently emerged on the short end of a trilogy with Edgar where he twice came within a breath of winning the UFC title. While he’s arguably underrated at No. 5 in the world, it will be awhile before Maynard can work his way back into the logjam of UFC title contenders and that makes him a good candidate to swoop directly into a shot at Strikeforce gold. At the very least, a bout against the powerful wrestler -- who recently ditched Xtreme Couture for the American Kickboxing Academy -- would tell us where Melendez truly stands.

Kenny Florian. In the wake of his loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 136, Florian 86’ed plans to carry on at featherweight and is currently on a lengthy sabbatical while preparing for a return to 155 pounds. After three defeats in title fights, it’s hard to imagine him climbing the UFC ladder yet again, but he shapes up as perhaps the perfect litmus test for Melendez. Florian is a superbly rounded veteran who could likely make things interesting no matter where their fight ended up. As the consummate company man, he’d also probably take an assignment to Strikeforce in stride, especially if it represented his last best chance to win a major championship.

Clay Guida. Melendez’s first Strikeforce title reign began with a split decision win over then-champion Guida back in 2006. Four months later “The Carpenter” embarked on his 15-fight tour of duty in the UFC. Guida saw a four-bout win streak and any chance at top contendership in the Octagon thwarted by Ben Henderson in November and the stage could ostensibly be set for him to return to Strikeforce. His aggressiveness and frenetic pace would test Melendez in a way Masvidal certainly didn’t last weekend and though Guida would likely come in as an underdog, a rematch would make for an interesting measuring stick for both guys nearly six years after their original meeting.

B.J. Penn. Recent losses to Edgar, Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz have effectively locked Penn out of the UFC title picture in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions, but at 33 years old it’s hard to believe that “The Prodigy” is truly done with fighting for good. His power striking, otherworldly takedown defense and Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills would make for a compelling matchup with Melendez, so long as the UFC could convince Penn to take the assignment. Heading to Strikeforce would not only give Penn the chance to revitalize his career with a win over a top-5 lightweight -- not to mention win a title -- but it would be great exposure for the Strikeforce brand, too.

Sean Sherk (or, heck, Evan Dunham). The former UFC champion has been beset by injury and defeat in recent years, but Sherk is said to be ready for a return to the cage sometime in early 2012. There had been rumors he’d fight Guida at UFC 143, but that fight hasn’t materialized yet. Another strong wrestler with powerful punches and ridiculous submission defense, Sherk might see a bout with Melendez as a chance to put himself back on the map. Likewise, the once highly touted Dunham is still clawing his way back after back-to-back losses in 2010-11, one of which was a controversial split decision defeat to Sherk at UFC 119. He’s booked to fight Paul Sass in late January and if he wins, why not dispatch Dunham to Strikeforce to see what Melendez could do with him?

Nick Diaz has never celebrated particularly well -- there’s too much to brood over, even in times of perceivable triumph.

Like the time he packed B.J. Penn up for an ambulance ride. That was a reluctant piece of business that he wanted nothing to do with. It didn’t stop the forces behind the curtain that are against him. Neither did the subsequent news that he’d been re-inserted into a title shot with Georges St. Pierre over Carlos Condit.

He peeked behind the curtain and saw that he was being cast as the bad guy on the spot for calling St. Pierre a faker. He saw through what was happening immediately. He knows exactly what we’re up to.

But at this point, Nick Diaz isn’t a bad guy -- and he’s never been one. He’s Nick Diaz. There’s a distinction. Bad guys are the notorious prodders who look to get under people’s skin; Diaz is just very protective of his version of reality. If he didn’t live in Stockton, Calif. among the riff-raff searching for lively cigarette butts on the sidewalks, he’d lose his bearings. When he goes on runs from his Stockton neighborhood into the nicer areas, he sees that people have fountains, yards and side yards with additional fountains. This peeves him on unfathomable levels; he thinks of slights and Floyd Mayweather’s millions and of people having their laugh.

That’s an active chip sitting there on his shoulder -- noteworthy because it’s a permanent fixture. He’ll never apologize for it. And that’s one of the reasons we love Diaz the man, or hate him -- it’s such a thin line. Where the fighter begins and the man ends, we don’t know. It’s possible they can’t be kept separate. There are those who can’t stand his contradictions and his disrespectful attitude. He’s either a martyr with the best boxing skills in MMA, or he’s a thug who can stuff a double-leg unlike some millionaires out there. As Walt Whitman said, “I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.”

So does Diaz.

Which brings us around to the paradox -- Diaz wants nothing to do with those richer areas on his jogging route. Can you imagine him with a fountain? No. Diaz is best in the gutter looking up at the stars, because the gutter is his muse. It’s a kind of necessity, and we pick up on this and admire -- on some level -- his conviction. Those paranoias he harbors? They work as fuel to his drive, regardless of how he acquires them. And envy is just a word he uses for hunger.

How much of this is conscious we’ll never know, but Stockton is who he is, through and through. Diaz has plenty of money to move anytime he wants; he doesn’t acknowledge having a bank account, and maybe he shouldn’t. It’s not endless training that keeps him from browsing the market, it’s a gut feeling that he’s exactly where he needs to be for now. The street runs in him deep. We visit it vicariously when he tells us about it. And we have to, because no media will dare step foot in Stockton. (Though don’t tell writer Ben Fowlkes, who went to Stockton for a FIGHT! magazine assignment a couple of years ago and waited around for days for a Diaz who never showed).

Diaz is an iconoclast not because he’s trying to be, but because he can’t help it. For all the odds he beats, he sees them growing longer. He fights as a necessary evil. He wins, and it’s salt in the wound. Eh, you know what? It’s all as it should be.

As long as he’s mad at the situation, we’re dealing in vintage Diaz, the only one we know.

LAS VEGAS -- We already knew one high-profile retirement was coming at UFC 137, as Mirko Filipovic had all but confirmed the end of his legendary career in the days leading up to the event.

On Saturday night, B.J. Penn unexpectedly made it two, announcing in the aftermath of his hard-fought unanimous decision loss to Nick Diaz that this could well be the last time we also see “The Prodigy” inside the Octagon.

Citing the upcoming birth of his second daughter to go with a 10-and-a-half-year, 26-fight career, Penn said he could no longer keep up with the physical toll that fighting in MMA had begun to exert on his body. He left the Octagon with his left eye discolored and swelling and went straight to the hospital without making an appearance at the postfight media conference.

UFC president Dana White said he hadn’t had a chance to speak with Penn after the fight and sounded equally unsure as everyone else about Penn’s future.

“In the 10 years we’ve all seen B.J. Penn perform and fight, you’ve never seen B.J. Penn get busted up ...,” White said. “He got busted up tonight, let me tell you. To give B.J. credit where credit is due, I didn’t know if he was going to be able to answer the bell after the second round. … He says he wants to retire. We’ll see how that plays out.”

Just 1-3-1 in his last five bouts -- including a pair of losses to Frankie Edgar in 155-pound title bouts -- Penn decamped from lightweight for the welterweight division last year, hoping to make yet another improbable run at 170 pounds. His loss to Diaz effectively derailed any immediate chance that he could earn a shot at his second welterweight title reign and meant an uncertain outlook for the 32-year-old veteran in a division that recently has undergone an injection of new contenders.

Of course, the million-dollar question is: Can we believe him? Is this really it?

It can be difficult to take this kind of declaration as gospel. Fighters often say things they don’t mean in the cage after fights, when emotions are running high and the sting of defeat is still at its sharpest. Penn has made statements like this before, saying after his February draw with Jon Fitch that he wasn’t sure how long he could soldier on in MMA.

Yet there is at least some evidence to suggest that Penn could be serious this time. After being the picture of calm during the week leading up to the fight, he appeared on the verge of tears as he made his way to the Octagon. Before this bout, Penn also had made what is fast becoming a standard admittance on the part of aging former UFC champions -- that he was no longer strictly motivated by the title and that he just wanted to take “big fights, win them and see what happens.”

His performance against Diaz on Saturday likely can be best described as vintage Penn, for better and worse. The former multidivisional UFC champion started like a house of fire, finding a home for his powerful strikes during the first five minutes and taking the opening stanza on all three judges’ scorecards. Just as he has throughout much of his career, however, Penn lost the cardio game as the fight wore on, and Diaz’s strenuous pace became unmanageable.

Diaz scored repeatedly with his high-volume punches in the second and third rounds, seemingly putting Penn on the verge of a stoppage on a couple of occasions. Penn, who had been stopped only twice in his career, weathered the storm for the final 10 minutes.

If it was indeed Penn’s final 10 minutes in the Octagon, they were difficult ones. The epic nature of the fight, however, was befitting the swan song of a celebrated career.

"B.J. is a warrior, man," White said. "What he’s thinking tonight, he might not think eight weeks from now; who knows.”

LAS VEGAS -- Perhaps the most revealing comments made about B.J. Penn during the buildup to his fight against Nick Diaz at UFC 137 came from Penn's own striking coach, Jason Parillo.

“B.J., in order for him to win a fight, has to be a mean son of a b----,” Parillo said during an interview on the UFC’s "Countdown" prefight hype show. “B.J.’s got to make a decision in his mind whether he wants to kick your a-- or not, and if he makes that decision, that’s going to happen.”

The most interesting thing about those words -- which have been playing on repeat at deafening volume on big screens before live events all week long -- was how at odds they seemed with the version of Penn on display in Las Vegas these last few days.

During nearly all his public appearances, we heard a lot about the respect Penn has for Diaz, his friend and occasional training partner. Penn himself used words like “relaxed” and “fun” to describe his mindset. All in all, he appeared about as completely un-mean as you could expect from a professional fighter headed into a high-profile bout.

All that changed during the UFC 137 weigh-in, when a shoving match unexpectedly broke out on stage between Penn and Diaz that required fight company personnel -- including UFC president Dana White -- to pull them apart.

Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe, if Penn was looking for a reason to get fired up to fight Diaz, he got one Friday.

It started during the staredown, when Penn invaded Diaz’s personal space and Diaz responded by pressing his forehead against the shorter man's face. They scuffled and were quickly separated, but reports said Diaz may have thrown an awkward punch during the exchange. The two fighters left via opposite sides of the stage, with Diaz going halfway down the steps before turning back to have a final, mean-mugging look.

If Penn fights better when he’s angry, as Parillo asserted, perhaps this unexpected melee was the best possible outcome for him.

As he returns to his hotel room to stew over it for the next 24-plus hours, I doubt all that mutual esteem and admiration between him and Diaz will be what’s running through his head. Instead, it’ll probably be the near-head-butt, the rumored punch and the evil glares tossed back and forth as they were pulled off in different directions.

It’s enough to make you wonder which B.J. Penn will show up to fight Saturday night. Will it be the mature Penn? The relaxed and fun one? Or will it be the B.J. Penn who causes fountains of blood to squirt out of his opponents’ heads in rhythm with the beatings of their hearts? You know, the one who licks the gore off his gloves once he’s finished?

If Parillo was right, Diaz may have just booked himself a fight with the latter.

LAS VEGAS -- You’ll have to forgive some of those in attendance at the UFC 137 prefight media conference on Thursday if they couldn’t quite get over the fact that Nick Diaz was there, too.

Diaz’s recent media engagements have been so erratic and unpredictable leading up to this event that just showing up for this one -- and showing up on time -- seemed remarkable.

Enough so that even Diaz, at times, appeared to be in on the joke.

“They did bring me down an hour early,” he said, when asked if the UFC or his team had to take any special precautions to keep him from missing the media conference. “I don't know if that was a change of plans or if that was on account of me.”

It's been less than two months since Diaz got bounced from a scheduled welterweight title fight against Georges St. Pierre after no-showing a pair of advance PR events. He presumably got a stern talking-to from UFC President Dana White on the matter and now, after being booked back in the main event against B.J. Penn on this Saturday’s card, his handlers said he’s learned his lesson.

“We had a talk about fighting in the UFC now and doing press and everything like that,” said Diaz, who also showed up some 45 minutes late for last week’s conference call. “I said my only problem with doing press is that it takes time away from my training. I train harder than most athletes out here ... and [doing press] really throws me off my week, which throws my whole month off; and that’s a big deal to me.”

In truth, most of the answers Diaz gave at Thursday’s media conference were an improvement on his past performances, but questions about his distaste for media kept coming. Finally, White had heard enough.

“He’s here, guys,” the exasperated UFC president said. “If you want to ask him about the fight, he’s here. He’s here today, it’s over and I can tell you from what I’ve heard from my crew here, he’s done everything that he’s supposed to do.”

White sees surprising likeness in Penn and Diaz

Both Diaz and Penn are talented jiu-jitsu fighters who love to box. While Diaz typically opts for a high volume, high-octane striking attack, Penn will likely have the edge in power if their main event fight stays on the feet.

If it goes to the ground? That could be anybody’s best guess, as they might be that comparable in skill.

However, when asked on Thursday if he saw any similarities between the two welterweights, White singled out a far more, uh, intangible quality shared by both Diaz and Penn.

“The similarity between these guys is they’re both crazy,” White said. “I love this fight.”

New life for Strikeforce?

The largely condemned fight company may have gotten its metaphorical 11th-hour reprieve recently when Ken Hershman, Showtime’s former head of sports programming, left for HBO. With Hershman and his notoriously rocky relationship with White now out of the way, the UFC president said on Thursday that he’s abandoned his hands-off approach and is knee deep in negotiations to get Strikeforce a new deal with the premium channel for next year.

White said he was in New York on Wednesday meeting with Showtime officials and -- maybe for the first time ever -- sounded relatively upbeat about the possibility that Strikeforce might stick around beyond the new year. White said an announcement could come as early as the end of this week.

"I had a great meeting with them," White said. "We'll see how it goes. I met with all of them, the whole crew. It went very well, and we'll see how it progresses."

Mitrione wants to race

Matt Mitrione moved his claim of being perhaps the UFC’s quickest, most athletic heavyweight to the next level recently, as he took to his official Twitter account offering to take on any of the company’s current champions in a footrace. On Thursday he did not back down from that challenge, even widening it a bit to include at least one very athletic former champion.

“I feel that I can beat anybody that has a belt [in the UFC] in a 40-yard dash, maybe even 100,” Mitrione said. “I’m going to challenge Urijah Faber to a timed mile sooner or later. I don’t know if I can beat him, but I’m sure as hell going to give it a shot.”

Cro-Cop looking for payback from Barry

The viral video sensation showing Mirko Filipovic and fellow UFC heavyweight Pat Barry singing along with “California Dreaming” while on a recent road trip apparently didn't get cleared by Cro-Cop before its release to the public.

Asked if the emergence of the video was a sign that Cro-Cop was letting his hair down a bit as he approaches the end of his MMA career, the fighter made it sound as if he didn’t expect that video to find its way to the Internet and joked (we hope) that he’ll have a score to settle when next he meets up with Barry.

“If you ask me if I am planning a singing career, no, that’s not true,” Cro-Cop said. “Pat Barry sold me [out] because he released it on YouTube, and I will kick his a-- the first time I see him.”

UFC 137 already out-bizarres most cards that have stood before it.

The main event features one original headliner -- but it was a massive detour to arrive at the same spot for Nick Diaz. To rehash the chain of events would be laborious, but in a nutshell he went from sellable challenge for Georges St. Pierre to flake to the Internet shrink chair, through the back door in the kitchen to a subject of psychiatric concern, down a Stockton highway to a co-main event with B.J. Penn, and from the company doghouse back to main event without ever breaking from his scowl.

In other words, he remained perfectly as he was -- and as he’s always been -- while the world crumbled and then resurrected around him. This is how things go. Drama is ours; he’s just Nick.

Everyone knows by now that there’s no normal when Diaz is on a fight card. In fact, if nothing happened -- if he showed up punctually to events and spoke coherently on pressing matters -- we’d fear something was wrong with him, that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. As is, he’s a spectacle that becomes almost a guilty pleasure after multiple views; when he’s not flipping off Frank Shamrock with his lip out to here, he’s vaguely threatening reporters to keep out of the 209. He doesn’t have a lot of sponsors, but he has lots of sponsorship money. To that point, he’s the brokest well-paid fighter going, and he’s always too distracted to get into specifics. As Damon Martin of MMA Weekly says, these are “Diazisms.”

The fight game would be nothing if it didn’t have a left field. And that’s half of Diaz’s appeal; prodding him can’t be anything other than fun.

The other half, of course, is that he can fight. And he’ll fight you the way you want to fight, up to you. Paul Daley wanted a brawl, Diaz accommodated against conventional wisdom -- a phrase he wants nothing to do with. He wants a fight. This is a simplicity that often escapes us. He’ll do the volume jabs and slaps and open-fingered pawing to set up deceivingly hard crosses and hooks, mean-mugging his opponent the whole time. And if it’s there, he’ll take the nearest available limb and put it into an ugly position. In fact, he still has Hayato Sakurai’s arm in the trunk of his car.

In his bout with Penn on Saturday -- which was largely thought to be the best on the card even before St. Pierre and Carlos Condit was scrapped -- there’s a chance we’ll see some triple-jointed pleximan grappling moments that will make Joe Rogan do his trademark bug-eyes. It’s just as possible somebody will get knocked out. The way Diaz fights, it’s a 50/50 proposition it could be him.

But if there’s ever been a more technical fighter shrouded in thuggery, it’s Diaz. It might appear 50/50, but he didn’t win 10 straight fights by throwing hot dice. When you fight as though your life is at stake, as if it’s not virtual but actual survival, you tend to mix up the things you’ve learned with the things that are native to your instincts. He knows how to let the one yield to the other.

Diaz brings it. He takes it. He just wants to fight.

Nothing different this time though. UFC 137 may seem like a crazy set of circumstances that will finally get a chance to play out this weekend in Las Vegas. But for Diaz, it’s just a fight, and you can read into things as you see fit. He doesn’t care, homie.

If you think that mankind isn’t self-destructive, take a quick look at the UFC’s welterweight division. There, you’ll find lots of guys climbing all over each other for the chance to be jab-ridden, thrashed and left on the side of the road by Georges St. Pierre. In that way, it’s become a division of 170-pound martyrs.

That may sound defeatist if your name is Carlos Condit or Nick Diaz, the latest pair to battle for the penultimate position -- but it’s a perspective that’s shaped by recent history.

Remember what happened to the last several contenders that got the “privilege” to fight St. Pierre for that belt?

Bad things, dude.

Josh Koscheck suffered orbital bone fractures and was shelved for nine months; Dan Hardy spiraled to a four-fight losing streak; Thiago Alves not only lost his mojo but also two of his next three bouts; Jake Shields, who hadn’t lost since 2005, followed up his beatdown by getting KO’d by Jake Ellenberger; Jon Fitch is passing eternity with gritting teeth in a rusty cage. Even Bruce Buffer tore his ACL/MCL introducing St. Pierre at UFC 129 in Toronto. All he did was shake his index card at the champion.

In other words, why anybody would lobby to step foot in a cage with St. Pierre is a question best asked of masochists. Or Cesar Gracie.

Gracie says that Diaz should leapfrog Condit for the chance to fight for the welterweight strap if he beats B.J. Penn. But Condit is already there. Diaz or Condit, Condit or Diaz? That becomes its own debate, the one people are talking about.

One didn’t have the shot, then did, and now waits. The other had the shot, then didn’t, and now philosophizes on things as subjective as “pecking orders.” Forgetting for a minute spotlight pressure (alleged), Gracie thinks Diaz should be next in line should he beat Penn this weekend at UFC 137, ahead of the guy who took his place for insubordination, Condit.

Might be so, but Condit was already assured the fight would still happen as soon as St. Pierre’s ready. On one side merit gets argued, on the other promises look a lot like trump cards.

Diaz is from the 209, which makes him oblivious to any silly sort of reasoning. Tag, no tag-backs. Who’s right?

Both.

Both sides are (more or less) equally deserving. Same could be argued for Fitch. And if Penn beats Diaz, he too could make his case for a title shot, yet the fact that GSP and Penn have fought twice before doesn’t bode well for an argument, particularly after the one-sided nature of their rematch at UFC 94. Interest is the driving factor. It’s why Penn/Fitch haven’t met again -- there was never even ebb and flow interest in a potential second fight. Just ebb.

That’s why it will boil down to Condit, or Diaz if he wins. Both are novel and mysterious as new opponents. Some people like Diaz’s chances because he’s dangerous off his back and comes forward; others see Condit as an unheralded mangy dog who is allergic to scorecards. Either way, both these guys look like they’d force St. Pierre to fight, and they will both appear deserving of the chance to prove it.

If Diaz does beat Penn on Saturday, we’ll see if the UFC leaves the door open for Diaz/GSP. It would be a cruel thing to lop Condit out of the picture, yet if it’s a fight that people want, the UFC won’t consider his feelings too much.

But, as Muhammed Lawal likes to say, “let’s keep it 100” here for a second -- winning the GSP sweepstakes tends not to be as happy as it sounds. There’s still St. Pierre to contend with, which is the place where careers go to get forked.

In the abstract, Diaz and Condit are jostling for the chance to ruin themselves, and really, what could be more exhilarating for a competitor?

In Houston a couple of weeks back, there were some people talking about collector’s items, namely an original UFC 137 poster of Georges St. Pierre versus Nick Diaz.

These people were Zuffa employees, so what they were really saying is that they have dibs on all the cool stuff that we don’t.

But this reminded me of some of the media that snapped up the UFC on Versus 4 programs in Pittsburgh -- the one with the ill-fated Nate Marquardt versus Rick Story on the cover. When bad things happen, people see collectibles (and matchmaker Joe Silva sees headache medicine). Would anybody remember Billy Ripken if it weren’t for that 1989 Fleer card, the one with some choice words on the knob of the baseball bat?

Obviously, GSP/Diaz didn’t come off. Turns out neither did the next iteration, that of Carlos Condit versus GSP, only that poster didn’t have a comical backstory about missed news conferences and surly, digressive videos from the streets of the 209. That one was altered because of an ordinary knee injury suffered by St. Pierre just two weeks out. Whereas the first poster is cool because it ultimately ended up in musical chairs and equally intriguing match-ups, this one isn’t because it just loses a big fight.

It's all similar to the Brock Lesnar/Junior dos Santos fight of UFC 131, and Rashad Evans/Jon Jones for UFC 133. Any fight can be scotched or altered, at any time, for any reason. Some of them can be repaired or reworked, but no fight is invulnerable. In fact, if 2011 is a gauge, we shouldn’t take for granted that any particular fight will actually happen until we see the fighters emerge to their walkout music. Chance doesn’t use discretion -- a lot of times the fight being altered/nixed is the card’s headlining bout.

Which is, again, the complication with five round non-title main events. Nothing should be taken for granted, yet in this scenario that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Back at UFC 131, Dana White told the media that going forward, all main events would be five-round affairs. This was hinted at well before then, but what made it tricky was when he added “no exceptions” to the equation. Even if a fight is pulled on short notice, and another is bumped to the main event, or one fighter is replaced on short notice by another?

“No exceptions,” he deadpanned.

Granted, the ideology probably hadn’t been thought all the way through at the time. But it will have to be now, because since then and even before, all we’ve seen are exceptions. It’s unfair to ask fighters who are training for three rounds to go in for five on a couple of weeks' notice. And it’s unreasonable to have all fighters prepare for five rounds “just in case.” If a main event falls through, or if a fighter is replaced on relatively short notice, a non-title fight shouldn’t be anything other than a three-round fight, no matter in what order it appears on the card. With MMA’s biggest critics using hindsight to make their arguments, it just segues too easily into controversy.

The latest is GSP/Condit giving way to Penn/Diaz. In this case, Diaz’s manager, Cesar Gracie, lobbied immediately for a five-round fight. Penn even gave the old "why not" when it came around to him. Both guys have had experience in extended fights as former/current champions, but verbally agreeing to do two extra rounds is pretty Wild West for a professional setting.

The problem is that it’s a psychological/physical adjustment that could end up having repercussions in the end. Diaz competes in triathlons; Penn has had instances of fading. What if Penn took two out of the first three rounds and then gassed for the last two or got subbed out in the fourth or fifth?

As this sport grows, careers shouldn’t be treated so willy-nilly with on-the-spot handshake agreements. In a roundabout way, the careful management of careers is one of the reasons we’re seeing fighters drop out of bouts -- they don’t want to fight at anything less than 100 percent.

And it’s hard to fault them.

In the end, Dana White did the right thing by declaring UFC 137’s new headlining bout between Penn and Diaz a three-round tilt. In this case there were exceptions, and in the fight game exceptions and allowances are too often muddled. If the original main event is signed for five rounds and all goes perfect, it should be five rounds. Why not? But if things are altered en-route to getting there, the solution should be to default to three.

In an attempt to quell growing speculation about his fighting future, UFC featherweight Kenny Florian revealed in a statement on Monday that he is not yet ready to make a final decision.

The 35-year-old Florian failed in his attempt Saturday in Houston to capture the 145-pound title. He lost to titleholder Jose Aldo by unanimous decision at UFC 136.

“I am passionate about mixed martial arts, and I love being involved in this sport,” Florian said. “It is incredible to see how much MMA has grown and that, today, there are millions of people who enjoy the UFC as much as I do.

“Everyone is asking what is next for me. The only response I can give right now is that I’m going to take some time. I want to rest, spend some time with my family and friends, and then evaluate all of my options.

“I’ll speak with [UFC president] Dana [White], and my manager, Glenn Robinson, and we will figure out my next move. One way or another, you haven’t seen the last of Ken-Flo!”

Speculation that Florian (14-6) would hang up his gloves began taking shape immediately after he came up short against Aldo. The fight was Florian’s third attempt at capturing a UFC title, each time he was on the losing end.

Florian’s previous title bouts were at lightweight. He lost by unanimous decision to Sean Sherk in October 2006, and was submitted by B.J. Penn at UFC 101 in August 2009.

In addition to competing as a mixed martial artist, Florian serves as an analyst on "MMA Live," which airs regularly on ESPN2.

The most compelling thing to come out of Tuesday’s UFC 139 conference call was a hypothetical that had nothing to do with the actual UFC 139 conference call. Somebody asked Dana White if Josh Koscheck would be on the Nov. 19 card, seeing as much Kos covets a chance to fight in his hometown of San Jose, Calif. White, without too much hesitation, let that familiar grin creep over his face.

“Koscheck? I don’t know; fans were asking me that earlier,” he said. “We will see if he wants to fight [Jon] Fitch, then they can both fight in San Jose. Koscheck told me he wants to fight in San Jose; I haven’t heard from Fitch, though.”

In other words, White’s already thought about it. Plenty. Only this time, the old idea -- as much ire as it usually draws from the brotherhood at the American Kickboxing Academy -- does make a certain amount of sense.

Both guys want to fight in San Jose. Both are top-10 welterweights who find themselves in a collective purgatory after losing to Georges St. Pierre. The big difference is that Fitch is looking for passage back to GSP; Koscheck has resolved that the welterweight title dreams belong to a bygone day. Now he wants big fights for big money (until he moves to middleweight, where he can reinvent himself as a challenger). The terminology for guys in Koscheck’s current position is “gatekeeper.”

And yet there’s the hitch. As teammates, Koscheck and Fitch have traditionally refused to fight each other on principle. To this point they have managed to avoid it becoming a major issue, mostly because they both lost their title bids. If the UFC is really dangling the fight out there for both guys and they happen to refuse again, it won’t make any big waves this time, either. Fitch is already signed on for a bout against Johny Hendricks for UFC 141. So be it.

But just think what would happen if the UFC rearranged the furniture a little bit here?

If Fitch were to fight and get through Koscheck on Nov. 19, it’s a twofold win. Not only does he beat a guy with better standing than Hendricks, but he does it a full six weeks before his scheduled Dec. 30 date. Timing is as important as merit in the UFC. St. Pierre and Condit fight on Oct. 29, just three weeks before the San Jose card. If Fitch beats Koscheck, he could be discussed very legitimately as the next in line for the GSP/Condit winner, ahead of Nick Diaz or B.J. Penn. Say what you want about his fighting style, but the timing would work, and his merit could not be thrown into question.

Was White serious about offering Fitch to Koscheck? Who knows. But if he was, and Fitch has a chance to hasten his step back to GSP, he should do it. That’s his goal. And Koscheck should oblige, because in that scenario, why would he prevent Fitch’s chances with a refusal to fight?

As a fellow competitor, it’s much better to prevent Fitch’s passage by refusal to lose.

Dana White has one point of contention in matching long-standing champions Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, and it's this -- a super-fight of that caliber is at odds with a tidy promotion.

White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva want each titlist to clean out their respective divisions and make the showdown inevitable. They want the fight to be completely obvious, to everyone, leaving no doubt that this is the fight that has to be made.

Problem is, that’s impossible. The divisions are filthy with new challenges. It’s an indefinite, super-fight derailing fact. And Jake Ellenberger just proved the point.

Not only did Ellenberger beat a top-five welterweight in Jake Shields, but he did it in 53 possessed seconds. If Shields was worthy to challenge St. Pierre at UFC 129, then surely Ellenberger -- who, counting Shields, has finished four of his last five UFC fights and won them all -- can’t be anything other than a new challenge to that throne. Every cusp fighter who makes a statement against the old guard looks exactly like a challenger. It’s the nature of the rungs. Hungry fighters like Ellenberger will always look imposing, if not necessarily unique.

If St. Pierre gets by Carlos Condit at UFC 137, there’s Nick Diaz (whom he was supposed to face), B.J. Penn (again), Jon Fitch and the one they are saying is cast in GSP's likeness, Rory MacDonald. And of course, there's Ellenberger, Johny Hendricks, Charlie Brenneman and Rick Story. For every foe that he sweeps under the rug, there’s another looking like the GSP antidote right behind him.

In other words, St. Pierre isn’t about to run out of challenges anytime soon.

And, to a lesser extent, neither is Silva. Take a look at the middleweight division, and you can see at least two or three more fights. There’s Chael Sonnen, who came very close to ending Silva’s run at UFC 117 (asterisks in tow), There's Brian Stann, who if he gets by Sonnen deserves the shot. Then there’s Michael Bisping and Mark Munoz, who’ve never had a crack at Silva. Dan Henderson says he’ll cut down to 185 pounds for one reason and one only, and that’s to do battle again with Silva. Granted, Silva is a lot closer to cleaning out his division than GSP, but there’s still a lot of work to be done for a guy who will be 37 years old in the spring.

The UFC has never been overly protective of its champions. The idea is always to book the strapholder against the guy they think can/will beat them. That’s the way it is, and for those who’ve watched boxing over the years; it’s a refreshing way to go about business. And that’s also the problem. There are guys always coming up that have the look and feel of somebody compellingly dangerous for the invulnerable champion.

That’s why the UFC has to decide that enough is enough and that a super-fight between GSP/Silva needs to happen. It’d be an incredibly lucrative fight, a colossal pay-per-view with a massive gate that could sell out a venue like Cowboys Stadium. They know this. Yet the big draw -- that both guys are invincible -- is left at risk the longer GSP and Silva are dangled out there to defend. One day, one or the other will lose.

GSP/Silva is getting down to now or never ... and if it’s a matter of each fighter cleaning out his division, then, unfortunately, it’s headed toward never.