It’s been a wild ride for Nick Diaz.
First, the former Strikeforce titleholder was bumped from his championship tilt against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137, thanks to his penchant for missing several pre-fight press junkets.
Next, Diaz was re-booked for the pay-per-view event opposite of BJ Penn, who was left without an opponent was Carlos Condit took over headlining duties to fill in for the Stockton native.
Then, the Canadian champ was sidelined due to injury and Diaz will now serve as the headlining act alongside the Hawaiian.
What makes matters worse is that both Diaz and Penn have a history.
The former two-time UFC champion was gearing up for his title defense against Kenny Florian at UFC 101 in August of 2009, where he brought both Nick and Nate Diaz into his camp in preparation for his pivotal bout.
From there, both Penn and the Cesar Gracie product fast became friends, which makes matters now both awkward and deceiving.
“I’m not happy about it at all”, said the elder Diaz, who spoke to the press earlier this week concerning his impending bout with “The Prodigy”.
“I’m fighting somebody who’s my friend, or was my friend, and now I’m fighting this guy.”
The Cesar Gracie black belt has usually found motivation for fights in cultivating anger and hatred towards his opponents, though now Diaz will look to draw his desire to win from an entirely different place.
Friend or not, Diaz does as he’s told and will not let victory escape his grasp, despite how unsettling the circumstances surrounding the 170-pound contest are.
“This definitely doesn’t make it any easier for me”, said the 28 year old.
“I don’t like fighting people that I already know, or have already met, or trained with, or have video on me. We spent a lot of time training together. It’s kind of a shady feeling going into a fight like that, but I’m just doing what my manager says.”
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