A wild week for the Ultimate Fighting Championship just got wilder on
Wednesday afternoon, as UFC President Dana White revealed in a Las Vegas
press conference that the man challenging for UFC welterweight champion
Georges St-Pierre’s title on October 29th in Las Vegas won’t be
Strikeforce 170-pound king Nick Diaz, but “The Natural Born Killer,”
Carlos Condit.
The shocking news came after Diaz no-showed a press conference in
Toronto Tuesday and did the same thing in Vegas. After not returning
subsequent phone calls, White decided to pull the Stockton, California native from
the main event of UFC 137.
“I’ve had my reservations about Nick Diaz for some time,” said White.
“All I asked the kid to do was play the game this much (holding fingers slightly apart). I need you to do
certain things. You have to show up to the press conference, you have to
promote this fight. He looked at me and said he would, and he lied to
me. I’ve promoted over 1600 fights and this has never happened once.
I’d rather pull the fight now than risk him not showing up on the night of the fight. This blows my mind.”
“Nick Diaz has lost his chance at the welterweight championship, and Carlos Condit gets it. This kid absolutely deserves it.”
Not hesitating to step into Diaz’ place is another worthy challenger in
Condit, a former WEC welterweight champion who has hit his stride in the
UFC, winning four in a row. Included are three consecutive knockouts of
Rory MacDonald, Dan Hardy, and Dong Hyun Kim. The 27-year old from
Albuquerque was already in camp preparing for a UFC 137 bout with BJ
Penn when the call came to replace Diaz.
Montreal’s St-Pierre, unbeaten in nine fights since 2007, has barely
lost a round in that time frame, defeating Penn, Matt Hughes, Matt
Serra, Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, and Jake
Shields. Now he will prepare to turn back the challenge of Condit on
October 29th.
“When I went to Toronto and he didn’t make it, I didn’t judge it right
away,” said St-Pierre. “I thought something bad happened. Then I talked
to some people and it’s a lack of professionalism. There are three
partners to promote a fight – the UFC, me, and Nick Diaz. I showed up to
do my job and Nick Diaz didn’t, and there are consequences. I would
have never done something like that.”
Wednesday’s news came on the heels of a week in which the UFC announced plans for the organization’s return to Japan in 2012, the signing of Alistair Overeem, an Overeem-Brock Lesnar bout in December, a Ben Henderson–Clay Guida November bout, and replaced the injured Diego Sanchez with Josh Koscheck in the UFC 135 co-main event on September 24th.
There was no news yet on Diaz’ future in the organization or on a new opponent for Penn.