UFC Event

UFC 137 Fight Card Primer: Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski

By Tim Burke@TB_Money Oct 29, 2011, 2:00pm EDT

UFC 137 Weigh-ins at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on October 28, 2011 in Las Vegas, NV. via <a href="http://www.ufc.com/media/ufc-137-weigh-in-photo-gallery">UFC.com</a> — UFC 137 Weigh-ins at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on October 28, 2011 in Las Vegas, NV. via UFC.com

There is a glaring lack of contenders for Jose Aldo's UFC featherweight championship right now, something that many lightweights are keenly aware of. It's not surprising that former lightweight stalwarts are dropping to 145 to try and cash in, and two of them are facing off in the first fight on Spike TV. Tyson Griffin (15-5, 8-5 UFC) meets Bart Palaszewski (34-14, 0-0 UFC) in a featherweight bout at UFC 137.

Griffin is currently ranked at number 9 at featherweight on the USA Today/BE Consensus Rankings, while Palaszewski is currently unranked. Griffin has just one UFC fight at featherweight, but his reputation as a lightweight and a lack of contenders at FW pushed him up the rankings quickly. Bartimus would definitely earn a ranking if he could knock off Griffin. This featherweight UFC 137 fight will be on the televised portion of the preliminary card, and will air live on Spike TV. The Spike broadcast begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

How do these two stack up?

Griffin: 27 years old | 5'6" | 68" reach
Palaszewski: 28 years old | 5'9" | 70" reach

What have these two done recently?

Griffin: W - Manny Gamburyan (MD) | L Nik Lentz (SD) | L - Takanori Gomi (KO)
Palaszewski: L - Kamal Shalorus (SD) | W - Zach Micklewright (KO) | W - Karen Darabedyan (SUB)

How did these two get here?

Tyson Griffin won seven straight fights to earn his way into the UFC in 2006 as a lightweight. Despite an early loss to current LW champ Frankie Edgar, Griffin made his way into the upper echelon of the 155 pound division with wins over the likes of Clay Guida and Gleison Tibau, before running into Sean Sherk and dropping a decision. Two more wins kept him near the top, but the wheels fell off for Griffin in 2010 with three straight losses. That forced a drop to featherweight, where he beat former title contender Manny Gamburyan in his 145 pound UFC debut (he fought at FW early in his career as well) at UFC on Versus 4. Griffin has won five fight of the night bonuses in his career.

Bart "Bartimus" Palaszewski has been competing in MMA for almost 10 years now, and has fought all over the place. After a long run in the IFL he was brought into the WEC, where he went a respectable 4-3. His UFC debut was supposed to come back at UFC 130 but he was forced off the card with an injury. This will be the first featherweight fight of his career.

Why should you care?

This should be a fast-paced matchup between two well-rounded guys. There's almost no way it will be boring.

More UFC 137 preview coverage from Bloody Elbow after the jump.