Cesar Gracie: "Diaz vs Penn should be a 5-round main event"

http://mmaweekly.com/cesar-gracie-on-diaz-vs-penn-if-you-cant-do-5-rounds-youre-not-ready-to-be-a-champion

Quote :

Nick Diaz and B.J. Penn are now set as the main event for UFC 137, but the Diaz camp is hopeful to make it a five-round fight within the next 24 hours.

Following an injury to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre that forced him out of his fight with Carlos Condit at UFC 137, Diaz vs. Penn got the bump to headline the Las Vegas show.

Now with just under two weeks to go until fight time, Nick Diaz’s trainer and manager Cesar Gracie says they are hopeful for a five-round fight if Penn will accept.

“It’s up to Dana at this point I think. B.J., I tried to call their camp earlier, but I couldn’t get a hold of them. I think that if B.J.’s camp agrees to it, I think it would happen. Again, I don’t want to overstep my bounds or anything like that, but I don’t see a reason Dana wouldn’t let that happen,” Gracie told MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday.

“There’s no contractual obligation for anyone to do five rounds at this point. They both signed bout agreements for three rounds, and there’s no way they could make it happen, but we’ve already agreed to it, and if B.J.’s camp agrees to it, I think it would be great for the fans.”

As far as the timing goes, Gracie admits for as much of a cardio machine that Diaz is, they haven’t been training or preparing for a five-round fight anymore than Penn has, so they would hope to know something for sure within the next day.

“It would be nice within the next 24 hours. Nick hasn’t been training for five rounds at all. He’s been training for three rounds, so he’s in the same boat as B.J,” Gracie stated. “People that think Nick was training for five rounds before, well that was too early out. So we’re in the exact same boat as B.J. We just want to step up to the plate and keep this as a great card, worthy of buying and worthy of fans wanting to see.”

Smart move, IMO. Everyone knows BJ has questionable cardio, and if Diaz's camp comes out first and puts it out there for BJ's camp to accept, it will look bad for BJ if they say no.
Not to mention Diaz needs to step up to get back on Dana's good side after the press-conference fiasco.

arent there rules that pnly championship fights are 5 rounders

Where've you been, man?!



All main events from here on out (regardless of whether or not they are title fights) will be 5-round fights in the UFC. I'm not sure exactly which event it begins with, but it is an active rule change.
Hopefully this will be the first non-title fight 5-rounder.

Actually I thought it was all main and co-main events?

I agree with this 100% This would be easy to do ... as long as both boys agree... just write up an addendum to the contract and its done. It would make GSP pulling out less of a drag on the card.

I would be down for a 5 rounder with these 2.

D'oh

By the 4th round both will be leaning on each other... I don't expect this to end via stoppage, so yeah...

Tut, I didn't think that Cesar Gracie would go in for this type of stuff tbh.

Diaz won't gas at all in a 5 round fight.
BJ?
Possibly. But not Diaz.
Smart move by the Diaz camp, IMO.

Also, it looks like BJ is willing to do it.......

if he is properly compensated, that is.

http://mmaweekly.com/bj-penn-good-to-go-5-rounds-at-ufc-137-but-gracie-should-put-his-money-where-his-mouth-is

Heh short quote from Triggs link...

Diaz, when asked if he wanted to go five rounds, told MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday, “It’s whatever. It’s not really up to me. Either way, it’s fine by me.”

For his part, Penn is more than willing to accept the offer to make the bout five rounds. His only hesitation is that fighting is a business, and as such, he would want a discussion about compensation before the bout is reclassified.

Quote :

For his part, Penn is more than willing to accept the offer to make the bout five rounds. His only hesitation is that fighting is a business, and as such, he would want a discussion about compensation before the bout is reclassified.

“I want to be compensated accordingly and that’s it. I’m more than willing to do a five-round fight,” Penn told MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday. “If Dana wants a five-round fight, just give me a call and we can put it together right now.

“Or if Cesar wants to make it a five-round fight and he wants to compensate me personally, he can put his money where his mouth is, it’s that easy. I’ve been training to fight. I’m ready to fight.”

I knew I saw this somewhere...

Quote :

Jun 09, 2011
UFC president Dana White today told a small group of reporters that the promotion has decided that all main-event non-title bouts – whether on pay-per-view, Spike TV or Versus – will now be scheduled as five-rounders.

However, the adjustment will not apply to any currently scheduled bouts, such as UFC 133's Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis tilt, or UFC on Versus 5's Dan Hardy vs. Chris Lytle contest.

"From this day forward, as we speak right here, right now today, every fight that is a main event that is not a title fight will be a five-round fight," White said following a UFC 131 pre-fight press conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

LINK

I guess because it wasn't already scheduled as the main/title event, it was set for three rounds...
I sure hope it automatically gets bumped to a five rounder, without having to request it.

Well it sounds like the two fighters might agree to do it, so that might be cause enough to make the change.

Im having second thoughts about 5. Do we really want to see these two hugging and rolling around trying to gogoplata each other for FIVE rounds.

I dont think the friends are gonna pound each other for 5 rounds, I predict they will turn it into a chess match and try to submit each other with their Jiu Jitsu. In the end... 3 or 5 they will jump up hug each other and tell each other how much they respect the other guy.

^^
As much as I don't want to see that happen, I am in the same boat.

I would love to see them go out there and leave it all in the cage, and earn FOTN;
then they can respect each other as much as they want after.

Nah, they're gonna bang for sure. Both of them are great ground fighters, but they have proven time and time again that they both much prefer to stand and trade.

They never mentioned with which ppv event and when they will start the 5 round main event non-title fight rule.

I hope it does. I think main events should always be title fights, superfights, or #1 contender fights. This is a superfight and I hope it's five rounds so that they can finish it.