Nick Diaz talked the talk, but he failed miserably in attempting to walk the walk. Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre scored an easy win over Diaz in the main event at UFC 158, and the so-called rivalry is dead.
Rivalries exist when there are two competitors of equal or similar talent, and that clearly isn’t the case with GSP and Diaz. The champion dominated the challenger for five rounds to the delight of the crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
In the Octagon, Diaz tried to taunt, he threw a punch after the bell, and he talked more trash, but in the end, he lost.
GSP didn’t just out-class Diaz in the Octagon; even his post-fight interview was handled better. He gave Diaz tons of credit for being a great fighter, and he even unsuccessfully asked the pro-GSP crowd to give Diaz a hand.
When Diaz took the mic, he claimed he didn’t want to make excuses, but predictably delivered a few. He mentioned being rusty after being out of action for a year.
He referred to GSP‘s attacks rather dismissively and continued with the persona that makes him one of the more disliked fighters in the sport.
Diaz even said he would probably retire. We’ll miss you…not really.
The UFC can now move on to the fight that should have taken place on Saturday. Johny Hendricks defeated Carlos Condit in a spectacular fight in the co-main event, and now Hendricks is in line for his long-awaited shot at the title.
Diaz talked his way into this title shot despite coming off a loss and a drug suspension (Yahoo! Sports), and that never sat well with me.
I’m happy to see GSP and the UFC hopefully move on to a bout that makes sense from a fighting standpoint. This main event was based on trash talk that Diaz obviously couldn’t back up.
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