Former two-division champion B.J. Penn is set to face Nick Diaz at UFC 137, but as UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen would say, he isn’t looking to manufacture conflict.
According to Penn, he was pressured into saying he was going to “beat Nick Diaz” in his countdown interview for UFC 137.
“They forced me to say, at the end of the whole thing, ‘you gotta say Nick Diaz’s name now, you gotta say his name,'” said Penn.
“I was like, ‘what?’ They were like, ‘Say you’re gonna beat Nick Diaz. Say you’re gonna beat Nick Diaz.’ And I said, ‘I’m gonna beat Nick Diaz.'”
Having trained with Diaz in the past, Penn has a lot of respect for the Cesar Gracie student, and he doesn’t want to falsify any grandiose hype leading up to the fight.
As the saying goes, it’s just business for “The Prodigy.”
Penn goes on to empathize with Diaz, who recently had his UFC title shot revoked for missing two scheduled press conferences.
He talks about the power of editing and being made into the villain when he was heading into his UFC 94 bout against Georges St-Pierre, which he feels would’ve happened to Diaz if he remained in the championship bout at UFC 137.
In response, UFC President Dana White released the uncut footage of Penn’s interview with the UFC promotional team to MixedMartialArts.com.
You be the judge.
Was Penn pressured into saying he would defeat Diaz?
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