Bart Palaszewski vs. Tyson Griffin targeted for UFC 137

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Bart Palaszewski (35-14 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Tyson Griffin (15-5 MMA, 8-3 UFC) have agreed to meet in October at UFC 137.

As part of the expected booking, Palaszewski is dropping a weight class to fight the fellow ex-lightweight at featherweight.

Palaszewski's management team at the VF Elite Sports Agency today confirmed the fight. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) also confirmed it with a source close to Griffin.

Featuring a welterweight title fight between current champ Georges St-Pierre and former Strikeforce titleholder Nick Diaz, UFC 137 takes place Oct. 29 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

The night's main card airs on pay-per-view, though Palaszewski vs. Griffin likely will be part of the preliminary card.

Palaszewski makes his UFC debut after a planned UFC 130 bout with Gleison Tibau was scrapped due to his injury. The Team Curran fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, who previously competed in the WEC before the merger with the UFC, had put together a four-fight win streak before a close split-decision defeat to Kamal Shalorus at WEC 53 in December.

Griffin, a former UFC lightweight contender, saved his UFC career with a recent majority-decision victory over Manny Gamburyan at UFC on Versus 4. After a 6-1 run from 2007 to 2009, the Xtreme Couture fighter and four-time "Fight of the Night" winner hit the skids with consecutive losses to Evan Dunham, Takanori Gomni and Nik Lentz. Despite the setbacks, the Dunham and Lentz losses both came via closely contested split decisions.

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I'll take Griffin in this one.

Griffin is going to keep winning until he gets a title shot. I love him at this division.

Too bad Faber went down. I would have liked to see that rematch.

Bart will be game, I expect Griffin to take a close dec though.

freakzilla wrote:

Griffin is going to keep winning until he gets a title shot. I love him at this division.

tyson would of won again. faber was champ at a time the division was super weak. still is weak but in a way its a bit more competative. if anything step down for griffin from his last fight but guess non of the other guys are available. should still be a good fight

Faber was a legit Champ, and he just when toe to toe with Cruz in a close matchup. I've always been high of Ty Griffin, but questionable dec or not he just lost to Lentz not to long ago, lets not at like he's in another league from the Cali Kid.

LA wrote:

Faber was a legit Champ, and he just when toe to toe with Cruz in a close matchup. I've always been high of Ty Griffin, but questionable dec or not he just lost to Lentz not to long ago, lets not at like he's in another league from the Cali Kid.

i was never high on tyson at lw. he was a good lw but he did lose to lentz. he did get flatten by gomi, he did lose to dunham within the last year. im not saying faber wasnt a legit champ but things are different now that some lws like tyson,manny, brown and others that werent able to make it as top lws and now are able to be title contenders at fws, well that goes to say something. faber was a good champ, but it was mma weakest division. now imo not hating on faber or anything ,imo aldo is a monster and one of a kind but still, even though the division has gotten alot better and more competative, i dont have him in my top 5 p4p for the division he is ruling

I said when they announced their moves, Tyson would be a better FW then Kenny. I still stand by that.

OU wrote:

I said when they announced their moves, Tyson would be a better FW then Kenny. I still stand by that.

You could be right. Time will tell.

That decision was more than questionable. Tyson got straight robbed against Lentz.

throwdownfight1 wrote:

LA wrote:

Faber was a legit Champ, and he just when toe to toe with Cruz in a close matchup. I've always been high of Ty Griffin, but questionable dec or not he just lost to Lentz not to long ago, lets not at like he's in another league from the Cali Kid.

i was never high on tyson at lw. he was a good lw but he did lose to lentz. he did get flatten by gomi, he did lose to dunham within the last year. im not saying faber wasnt a legit champ but things are different now that some lws like tyson,manny, brown and others that werent able to make it as top lws and now are able to be title contenders at fws, well that goes to say something. faber was a good champ, but it was mma weakest division. now imo not hating on faber or anything ,imo aldo is a monster and one of a kind but still, even though the division has gotten alot better and more competative, i dont have him in my top 5 p4p for the division he is ruling

Things are different, and Faber has looked better as of late then Tyson, hey this was just a reply to you knocking Urijah.

And that whole guys dropped cause they could hack it at LW stuff is off base, they just moved to what is probably their true division.

Ludo wrote:

That decision was more than questionable. Tyson got straight robbed against Lentz.

He may have been robbed, but in the breakdown of the posts it was simply used to show he ain't been killing it so lets not act like he runs over Urijah.

I agree there. I also don't agree he's "too small" for Lightweight. Dude had his share of success in the division against decent competition. It isn't like he's a boring fighter either. Of his 13 UFC appearances he has 4 fight of the night awards and was voted fight of the year with Guida. In a rematch I think Urijah beats him at 145 by being the faster guy with better counter striking and the wrestling to hold him off in the clinch. But it would be a great fight to see.