UFC vs MMA

LAS VEGAS - The prefight lead up for Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz was as nasty as any this year in the UFC. When they finished crushing each in the cage tonight for 15 minutes, a strange thing happened, the bitter enemies hugged, said sorry and patted each other on the back. Diaz won the fight pretty convincingly, but his face still showed wear from the battle. Cerrone's face was extremely swollen, but he seemed almost thrilled about what he'd just experienced. "It's awesome. That's what I like to do. That's what makes fights," said Cerrone, who saw a six-fight win streak snapped "That to me was a good time. That was fun. I mean standing there and throwing, that's what everyone likes to see." Cerrone had genuine dislike for Diaz before the fight. After 15 minutes in the Octagon, he couldn't help but admire him. "He stood there and went toe-to-toe. There's some respect in that," Cerrone said. [After the fight] I looked him i...

Sam Morris Nate Diaz, left, and Donald Cerrone congratulate each other after their lightweight fight at UFC 141 Friday, Dec. 30, 2011 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Diaz won the three round unanimous decision. By Case Keefer (contact) Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011 | 2:30 a.m. The feud between Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone at UFC 141 followed the same trajectory as the vast majority of grudge matches in mixed martial arts. Lingering dislike turns into full-fledged hatred a few days before the fight when two opponents are forced to answer questions about each other and hang around at the same media functions. By the time the bout ends, the whole ordeal is behind both competitors. Diaz and Cerrone had nothing more to argue about after their co-main event Friday at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Diaz scored a unanimous decision victory (30-27, 30-27, 29-28) over Cerrone in a contest that won the Fight of the Night honors and reserved its place in UFC lore for the way both fighters threw everything the...

LAS VEGAS -- This is the UFC 141 live blog for Donald Cerrone vs. Nate Diaz, a lightweight bout on tonight's UFC pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Cerrone (17-3), who is fighting for the fifth time this year, won in UFC fights against Paul Kelly, Vagner Rocha, Charles Oliveira and Dennis Siver. Diaz (14-7) lost to Dong Hyun Kim and Rory MacDonald earlier this year before getting back on track with a submission win over Takanori Gomi in September. The live blog is below. Round 1: After the customary display of middle fingers in lieu of the glove touch, referee Herb Dean gives the signal and Cerrone comes charging out with a right hand that Diaz ducks under. After extricating himself from Diaz's grasp, Cerrone lands a nice right, but Diaz keeps the pressure on. Cerrone's looking flat-footed and making for an easy target for Diaz so far. Diaz pops his head back with consecutive punch combos, and Cerrone looks lost. He's got no head movement at al...

Aside from watching 500-plus pounds of muscle hit the stage at the UFC 141 weigh-in today, the staredown between Nate Diaz and Donald Cerrone should be epic, if not a bit violent. Yesterday's staredown at the final press conference resulted in Donald Cerrone's cowboy hat flying 10 feet in the air. Check out the video (NSFW) to see the aftermath with 20-somethings, Nate and his brother Nick, talk about who's really the puss in this case. For Cerrone, he loves being the bully and thinks he's in Diaz's head. "He is the guy that punks everybody else and gets in everyone else's head, so now what happened? The tables turned, and now I'm in your head, you little (expletive)," Cerrone told Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "It feels good to turn the tables, to think that he came out hard and wanted to be a bully and now I'm bullying him." Cerrone wasn't totally calm about Thursday's minor fracas. That was $1,000 cowboy hat t...

by Patrick L. Stumberg on Dec 31, 2011 11:00 PM EST in UFC News Oh, these silly Ultimate Fighters. Despite Greg Jackson's exhortations between rounds, stubborn "Cowboy," Donald Cerrone, chose to stand directly in front of Nate Diaz for all three rounds of their UFC 141 slobberknocker last night (Dec. 30, 2011) in Las Vegas, Nevada.. At the post-fight press conference, he revealed why. He could have phrased it a lot better, though. A battered Cerrone informed the gathered media that Nate Diaz, who has expressed disdain in the past for wrestlers with the gall to do what they needed to to win, didn't want to to "any of that gay wrestling shit". Oh, boy. After getting soundly outgrappled by the larger Dong Hyun Kim, Nate told the media that, essentially, he didn't need to work on his wrestling, but the rules needed to stop helping wrestlers. It seems that getting manhandled by Rory MacDonald in his very next fight didn't change his mind. But what'...

After plenty of smack talk, Nate Diaz delivered a three-round beating of Donald Cerrone, winning by decision 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. The battle started before the fight even began. When the two came to the center of the Octagon for fight instructions, Cerrone flashed Diaz the middle finger when told to touch gloves. "You can touch gloves ... or not," referee Herb Dean said. [ Related: Kevin Iole's complete UFC 141 recap ] They started throwing immediately, with Diaz trying for the takedown. Cerrone pushed him off and landed a punch on the way out. Diaz found his rhythm, and landed more strikes early in the bout. Cerrone responded later on with kicks, but Diaz gave the majority of punishment. With a bloodied and bruised face, Cerrone responded with leg kicks that put Diaz on the ground twice early in the second round. A head kick then put Diaz on the ground, and another leg kick did the same. Under the two-minute mark, Diaz began to throw the punches that made him successful...

Donald Cerrone isn't very big on Christmas and he's definitely not a fan being insulted. After an October run-in with Nate Diaz, it makes for the perfect blizzard of punches, knees and kicks next week at UFC 141. Before UFC 137, there was no history between Cerrone and Diaz, until the younger half of the infamous Diaz brothers pulled a trick from his bag of anger. During the workouts before UFC 137, Diaz was speaking Leonard Garcia, one of Cerrone's teammates at Jackson's MMA in Albuquerque. "Leonard was over there talking with the dude, so I said 'oh, [expletive] I'll go over there.' They were laughing and joking around. I walked over and said 'what's up Nate, I'm 'Cowboy.' He slapped my hand away and called me a punk-ass [expletive]," Cerrone told ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM in Las Vegas (NSFW). "He told me to get on. I don't know what his point [was]. I guess he doesn't want to be cordial." Cerrone is slightly vo...