I want to believe.
Honestly, I want to believe that the Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz bout that is going to take place on March 16 at the Bell Centre in Montreal is going to be the type of brawl that leaves the MMA world abuzz for months after it comes to a close, but try as I might, I just can’t convince myself that it’s going to end that way. In fact, I can say with almost 100 percent certainty that it’s going to end in disappointment for fans expecting something special.
I know the show that Diaz put on during the media call on Thursday, March 7 has the MMA world all pumped up, and I’ll admit it was quite the show but that’s all it was—a show. It was nothing less than a spectacular 45-minute show, but it won’t transfer to an even more spectacular 25-minute (or less) fight in the Octagon in Montreal.
Sorry to be a downer.
Go ahead and listen to the media call again and try and remove emotion from the moment; I mean, really listen to it. St-Pierre’s heart rate may increase a little at points, but nowhere does he approach rage, nowhere does he go to a dark place. Plus, hidden under all the bluster are multiple admissions from Diaz that he is a fan of St-Pierre, that he likes GSP.
Sure, Diaz worked himself into a lather during the call, but the reality is that he is doing that simply to convince himself that he is the underdog, that he is the guy who’s being held down by the man, that he’s some type of misfit, “this piece of s—t that deserves to be beat down.”
Diaz needs that hate to fight. He needs to think that the world is against him, and if that’s not the case, he’s going to do his best to convince himself and the fans that everything is stacked against him and that everyone but his team wants to see him fail.
What makes all of this even more upsetting is that we all know that the performance on the media call was just the tip of the iceberg from Diaz. When the media spotlight shines on him in the days leading up to the fight, he’ll surely come up with additional verbal jabs to throw at the champion, but they’ll all be for naught. They’ll leave us all wanting something that is just not going to be delivered.
Diaz’s trash talking, taunting, swagger at the weigh-ins? Sure, it’ll get the adrenaline pumping, it will have tongues wagging about how much of a war we’re going to see in the main event, but you know that once that cage door locks, we’re going to see the same type of fight we saw when Carlos Condit earned a victory over Nick Diaz at UFC 143.
St-Pierre isn’t going to fight Diaz’s fight. No matter how much we all want him to, no matter how much we all wish these two would just stand and throw and jaw at each other inside the cage while fists fly and blood pours, that’s not what we’re going to get. Deep down in your darkest places, you know it’s true.
But hey, we still have everything that leads up to the fight. Enjoy that—it’ll be well worth the money you spend on the pay-per-view.
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