Diaz-Cerrone lives up to hype, from first middle finger to last

If some arenas are lacking in filled seats, the promise of such action should pack houses yet again.

If it’s still true — and you can debate it more and more — that nothing is more exciting than the next megafight in boxing, the hype that precedes those bouts usually proves more stimulating than anything that happens in the ring.

That’s often not the case in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

And it wasn’t for a second during Diaz-Cerrone.

You have to like your odds at seeing a good fight when, at the end of his prefight instructions, a referee says the fighters can touch gloves and Cerrone instead flips off Diaz.

What happened to the part about cowboys being polite?

The (middle) finger raising wouldn’t stop until three rounds of lightweight jabs and punches and kicks were finished in a co-main event, when Diaz had a unanimous decision victory and UFC 141 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena had its fight of the night.

It saved the card, really, given that two of the other featured fights ended quicker than those who forked out pay-per-view dollars would have hoped.

Johny Hendricks and his caveman beard looked as though they had to quickly return to the woods to continue winter hibernation, using a wicked left to knock out Jon Fitch in 12 seconds of a welterweight fight; the main event ended when Alistair Overeem made his UFC debut by sending a left kick into Brock Lesnar’s liver and the former heavyweight champion and World Wrestling Entertainment star into retirement.

“I had no idea he would (retire), but I get it,” UFC president Dana White said. “Brock has made a lot of money in his career and accomplished a lot of things. His (retirement) doesn’t shock me.”

It makes sense that the biggest pay-per-view draw known to UFC will never again compete in the Octagon and likely anywhere else combat sports are featured, unless there is a wild steer somewhere on his farm in rural Minnesota that needs to be wrestled.

But when you see him drop like he did at 2:26 of the opening round and consider Lesnar battled stomach problems for 18 months that could have killed him, leaving the sport now is both the intelligent and correct choice.

I still have no idea what his main enabler with the bad haircut is going to do with all the free time, but there has to be chores around the barn he can handle.

“I’ve had a really difficult couple of years with my disease, and I’m going to officially say tonight is the last time,” Lesnar said. “I promised my wife and my kids if I won this fight, I would get a title shot, and that would be my last fight. But if I lost …”

Cerrone also did but isn’t going anywhere, except perhaps to that bed in his trailer for a long rest. He fought for a fifth time in 2011 on Friday and happened to get the best Diaz has looked in his career.

The fight was never going to the ground because Cerrone never wanted to risk it and for that he didn’t have a chance to outpoint Diaz, who threw jab after jab in taking another step towards the title shot he covets.

“I want to fight for the championship,” Diaz said. ” I want to be champion. I want to fight the best and be the best.”

I’d rather watch three rounds of Diaz-Cerrone over 12 rounds of any boxing matchup any day, save for perhaps the one we’ll probably never see (a few guys named Floyd and Manny). You want such relentless action as Diaz-Cerrone to go on and on, although in the wise words of Adam Hill, the R-J’s mixed martial arts expert, “One might end up dead.”

Maybe, but not without some serious trash talking as the coffin is lowered.

Diaz opened the third round by showing Cerrone both middle fingers and yet each backed up every syllable they spouted leading up to Friday, although when it was over and two bloodied fighters came together, handshakes were offered and a mutual respect born.

“I talked a lot of (expletive), but he was a warrior,” Cerrone said. “Fighting (five times in a year) had nothing to do with it. I’ll fight 20 times next year if they want. I was a little flat-footed but that had nothing to do with it. He really came to fight. He really brought it. He’s a tough dude.”

Loved this fight. Made the night.

In the year’s final card, it defined the UFC at its best.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.