With the announcement on Wednesday that UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (22-2) would defend his title against his Strikeforce counterpart, Nick Diaz (25-7, 1NC) media have been looking for comments from both fighters.
Both men will headline UFC 137 which is scheduled to take place on Oct. 29 in Las Vegas.
St-Pierre spoke to The Canadian Press while in Rome, praising Diaz as the opponent to beat at 170 lbs, as well as offering some thoughts on his recent UFC 129 win over Jake Shields.
“I’m excited, because it’s been a long time he’s been talking about me, saying like he’s the best, he was saying I was avoiding him and stuff. But I never avoid anybody.”
“Now it’s time to walk the walk. It’s going to be a good fight…”
“I don’t care about gaining the Strikeforce title. I’m a UFC guy and I want to stay in the UFC the rest of my career. That’s where I belong.”
“Right now I’m champion. I don’t care about fighting for a title. I care about fighting the name and Nick Diaz, he’s the guy to beat right now. He’s the guy that a lot of people rank him even No. 1 so that’s why I want to fight him…”
“He’s the kind of guy I’m happy to fight. I like fighting guys who are not easy like this, that have a kind of warrior spirit.”