Georges St-Pierre gives a little backstory on his locker room encounter with Nick Diaz at UFC 266 in 2021.
One of the viral moments at UFC 266 last September was the short locker room encounter between former rivals Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre. As you’ll see in the clip below, Diaz, who was slated to fight Robbie Lawler in a rematch, approached St-Pierre who was there to corner Nasrat Haqparast in his fight with Dan Hooker.
GSP and Nick Diaz shook hands backstage before Diaz’s #UFC266 fight pic.twitter.com/myfOfOd8dj
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 26, 2021
No backstory was ever told about this little feel-good moment, until recently when St-Pierre spoke about it in his appearance on The MMA Hour.
“When it happened, he was walking towards me. And with Nick Diaz, you never know,” St-Pierre told Ariel Helwani. “So, I was, like… I took a stance in a way that I didn’t know if he wanted to come to fight me or if he wanted to talk to me.
“And when I saw him physically reach out to me with his hand, I was like, ‘Oh OK.’ Now I reach out and I shook his hand. It’s peace, I guess.”
There was a bit of friction between the two men during the lead-up to their UFC 158 title fight in 2013. Long story short, things got more personal, particularly on St-Pierre’s end. But the 40-year-old two-division UFC champion says Diaz is the same way, maybe even more so than he was.
“Nick, I think, he’s one of the guys that took fighting very personal,” he said. “And whatever that I say, I never wanted to hurt him personally. I just said things to make the fight more interesting.
“I never had any animosity with him or any of the guys once I retired. For me, it’s only business.”
St-Pierre has been retired since 2019 and has shown no interest in any combat sports venture. The 38-year-old Diaz, meanwhile, is still part of the UFC’s active roster and according to his longtime mentor, Cesar Gracie may return before the year ends.