Diaz makes Penn talk retirement

In the end, after a flurry of punishing punches and a rigid anger backed by stunning conditioning, UFC 137 became about two things: Nick Diaz calling out Georges St. Pierre after his win and his beaten and bloody opponent, BJ Penn, announcing his retirement.

Then, well after the fight was over, came the real news: Diaz will fight St. Pierre for his UFC welterweight title on Super Bowl weekend in a title bout that wasn’t supposed to happen for a very long time, if at all.

All week, the drama behind Diaz-Penn was enhanced by the subplots away from the Octagon. Diaz had failed to show up for a media event two months ago, and the result was UFC president Dana White yanking him from the title fight against St. Pierre that was originally supposed to happen Saturday night.

Instead, Diaz was demoted to fight Penn, one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and one of his idols. When Pierre injured himself 10 days before UFC 137 and pulled out of his fight with Carlos Condit, who’d been promoted on the card as part of Diaz’s punishment, it once again became the Nick Diaz show.

What a show it was.

In Round 1, as the crowd thundered “BJ! BJ! BJ! BJ!,” Diaz thundered away. The finely conditioned machine — the man trains for triathlons on the side — just kept coming. He moved into and at Penn relentlessly, attacking even as Penn more than held his own.

Then came the second round, and with it Diaz’s barrage. Penn’s stamina waned, and with every shot so did the look on his face. He bled, as fighters will, but beyond that was the real problem — a notable deflation stemming from every part of him. As Diaz pushed and pushed, landing brutal shot after brutal shot, Penn gave ground again and again. He was clearly a talented fighter, but he seemed one who, too quickly, did not want to be there.

Whereas Diaz thrived off his opponents’ struggles.

“In the second round I turned it on and tried to take him out,” Diaz said.

By the end of the second round all Penn could do was retreat. He tried to adjust in the third, coming out fast and going at Diaz in an attempt to wrap him up and take him down, but again Diaz let punch after punch fly.

Then Penn retreated again, for good.

“He started going on the defensive in Round 3,” Diaz said. “Things would have been different if there were five rounds. I would have taken him out for sure in the fourth.”

For Penn (16-8-2), this fight was a chance to show he still had it. For Diaz (26-7), it was the fact he got to fight at all that mattered. He had been booted, embarrassed and taught a lesson by the UFC. His only recourse could be in the Octagon, and so he channeled his well-known rage into showing he belonged.

Then, with two minutes to go, Penn found life. It was as if he could sense this was it — the final 120 seconds of his stunning career.

Both men found extra bursts of energy at that moment, and an array of well-aimed punches found their mark. Then it was over, the crowd screaming, the fighters embracing, and then the announcement of a decision everyone saw coming: Diaz the winner by unanimous decision, 29-28, 29-27, 29-28.

Close, but never in doubt.

The win official, Diaz stomped through the octagon screaming, “Georges! Georges! Georges!”

“I don’t think Georges is hurt,” Diaz told the crowd. “I think he’s scared — scared to fight me.”

St. Pierre, sitting in the crowd, was flashed on the big screen for his reaction. He smiled, sort of, and then shook his hands in a mockery of fear. Diaz, explaining the fight, said, “I was just mad . . . ” and then the crowd drowned him out.

He was going to have to see if he would fight again before St. Pierre-Condit or simply waits for the winner for his title shot. Then White announced after the fight that Condit had agreed to step down, willing to fight someone else on the same card and allow Diaz-St. Pierre to be on the schedule starting now.

And Penn, one of only two UFC fighters to win a championship in two weight divisions (lightweight and welterweight), faded even further in the background, sounding as if he’s done.

“Hats off to Nick Diaz,” Penn told the crowd. “He’s the man. This is probably the last time you’ll see me in here. I can’t — I want to perform at the top level. I got a daughter, another daughter on the way. I don’t want to go home looking like this.”

That was UFC 137: One former champion, beaten and bruised, speaking about life after fighting. And one fighter aspiring to be a champion, still boiling with enough rage, even after a win, to make it possible he might just get there.

You can follow Bill Reiter on Twitter or email him at foxsportsreiter@gmail.com.