The sight of Nick Diaz at a press conference alongside Georges St-Pierre, promoting their upcoming UFC 158 bout, surprised everyone.
Having been unceremoniously booted from his welterweight title fight against the Canadian champion more than a year ago, because he missed two press conferences, last month we saw a much more chastened and professional Diaz greeting the press.
A Diaz who, we thought, finally understood that being a UFC fighter is about much more than just what he does inside the cage—it also includes what he does outside it. That means dutifully doing the press rounds and promoting the fight that he’s been yearning for his entire career.
But it seems that press conference last month in Montreal was little more than a concession to his paymasters. As Dana White revealed in the post-UFC on Fuel TV 7 media scrum, as attended by Bleacher Report MMA: Nick is still Nick.
Apparently, since that press conference in Montreal, Diaz has already missed no fewer than three scheduled interviews and given the UFC’s appointed film crew the runaround in his hometown of Stockton, Calif.
During the scrum, White was asked about whether he would encourage more video blogs from fighters during fight week, such as one from Diaz. White responded, “Nick Diaz would be an interesting Countdown show too if we can get him to show up for those.”
“How about if he had a professionally, shot by professionals, the best in the business, the best at cutting and producing features on athletes. Imagine how f****** good that would be. But first we gotta get him to show up for the f****** interviews, then we could do it. How many did he miss? Four? Three? Three. He missed three interviews.”
Diaz’s no-show after he had already signed to fight long-reigning champion GSP for the belt in 2011 cost him dearly. He was taken out of the main event and forced to face BJ Penn in a title eliminator, shortly before he was beaten by Carlos Condit in February 2012.
However, White isn’t concerned that Diaz will repeat his no-show tendencies during the upcoming crucial media events for UFC 158.
“He showed up for the press conference,” said White. “I knew something was going to go bad somewhere, you know what I mean? It’s just, that’s Nick!”
“We’ve had a crew in Stockton, for two weeks. When he doesn’t do an interview, you know how much it costs us? A shitload of money. We’ve got a f****** crew, rolling around Stockton, not doing a f****** thing. It costs us a lot of money, and we can’t properly sell the fight or Nick Diaz.”
Nick is set to take on GSP in Canada on March 16 at UFC 158 for the welterweight title.
All quotes obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report MMA.
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