Nick Diaz is not a great talker. He opens his mouth, but rarely does he have any idea what is going to come out. At UFC 137 on Saturday night, you had the sense that he finally figured out what he wanted to say. It turns out that promo was all he needed to get back what was rightfully his in the first place: A fight with Georges St-Pierre for the UFC welterweight championship.
Diaz defeated B.J. Penn via unanimous decision in a fantastic fight. With the crowd chanting “GSP” before the judges’ scores were even read, Diaz made sure that they had something else to remember.
“I don’t think Georges is hurt,” Diaz said, “I think he’s scared.”
That line was right out of the Chael Sonnen book, because it was at that precise moment when UFC president Dana White knew he had to call Carlos Condit and tell him that his title shot would have to wait, because he had a huge money fight sitting on the table, and the time to do it was now.
“I’ve known Georges St-Pierre since 2004,” White said. “He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, and he’s always exactly the same no matter what the situation is, no matter who he’s fighting. Since 2004, I’ve never seen him like he was tonight. Georges St-Pierre flipped out tonight after Nick Diaz was in the ring, and Nick needs motivation. He’s got it. He’s going to fight Georges St-Pierre.”
St-Pierre told White that, “[Diaz] the most disrespectful human being I’ve ever met, and I’m going to put the worst beating you’ve ever seen on him in the UFC.”
As much as Diaz drives White and the rest of the UFC management team nuts because he doesn’t do the promotional work for his fights or know how to act in public, he is the right man to fight St-Pierre. Condit is a good fighter, but he does not have the name cache to get a fight with St-Pierre over. He will earn a title shot with another victory.
But the next one belongs to Diaz, and he has earned with his performance in the octagon and on the microphone. UFC doesn’t need him to show up to press conferences; all they have to do is play the clip of the post-fight interview over and over again.
Diaz knew that winning the fight against Penn wasn’t going to be good enough to get him his title shot back, so he did the one thing he knew would set the world on fire: He called out arguably the most popular fighter in mixed martial arts today as a coward.
It can never again be said that Diaz is anything less than a genius. All we have to do is wait until Super Bowl weekend to find out if he can back up his talk.
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