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Some fans may have noticed that B.J. Penn and Diego Sanchez were both holding canes with gold ducks handles at the UFC 107 pre-fight press conference. While WKR initially thought this was some weird pre-fight psyche out attempt from Diego Sanchez it ends up that these canes appeared as part of a local tradition at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis, Tennessee called The Peabody Marching Ducks.

Twice a day, at 11:00am and 5:00pm,  several ducks march to the Peabody fountain (example video below). Sometimes celebrities who are staying at the hotel help escort the ducks for the escort master Jason Sensat (how sweet of a job would that be?). These individuals are presented with the aforementioned canes and both Diego and  B.J. carried their canes to the press conference as they attended the march earlier today (Ariel Helwani has a grainy picture of the ceremony).

Speaking of Ariel, he asked the fighters what they thought of the march. Diego remained completely silent while B.J. Penn said, "Quiet, but we are professional so it wasn't bad. Ducks were cute."

So where does this tradition come from anyway? Some drunk hunters of course!

Back in 1933 Frank Schutt, General Manager of The Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Jack Daniel's Tennessee sippin' whiskey, and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain.

Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Soon, five North American Mallard ducks would replace the original ducks.

In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now-famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke became the Peabody Duckmaster, serving in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991. Today, The Peabody Ducks are led by Duckmaster Jason Sensat.

Updated with video via Fanhouse.

SBN coverage of UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez

Now if ESPN has taught us anything ducks just want to be free!

Update: Yes, the Peabody Ducks have a twitter account.

SBN coverage of UFC 107: Penn vs. Sanchez