LAS VEGAS — Talk of a Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz, champion vs. champion fight is premature, UFC president Dana White said on Wednesday. Furthermore, St-Pierre, the UFC welterweight champ, is not likely to fight on a rumored December card in Montreal.
Buzz regarding a St-Pierre vs. Diaz fight has circulated since Diaz began campaigning for it shortly after his April win over Paul Daley, and then again after St-Pierre defeated Jake Shields at UFC 129. Last week, several news sites reported the two were likely to meet in December.
On Wednesday, White shot down the likelihood of the possibility.
“I think it is a given that he’s not [going to be fighting in Montreal],” White said when asked about it. “I don’t know where the hell that came from.”
A possible fight with Diaz is complicated by contractual issues. Diaz is a Strikeforce fighter, and though he doesn’t have a contract with Showtime, pulling him out of the Showtime rotation may cause some difficulties with Zuffa’s new cable TV partner. Though White didn’t go into specifics about that, or any of the issues that would preclude Diaz from fighting St-Pierre, he said the fight was not close to happening just yet. When asked to give odds on the fight’s possibility, White shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he said. “If I gave you a percentage, I’d be speaking out of turn. I honestly don’t know. Nothing has been worked out. Nothing has been talked about.”
Diaz was in Las Vegas last week, and the two sides took part in a meeting. White said the meeting came about after he heard boxing promoter Don Chargin talking about the possibility of Diaz boxing Jeff Lacy.
“Everyone was like, ‘What’s he going to do? Is he going to box? What do you think about him boxing?'” he said. “I was like, ‘I think I’m going to sit down and talk to him, and talk him out of boxing. That’s what I think.’ And that’s what happened.”
When pressed on whether Diaz is altogether out of the picture, White stopped short of that, but reiterated that several issues have to be worked through before that fight could materialize.
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