Will he or won’t he? That has to be the question on the minds of UFC executives, fans and Nick Diaz’s opponents when it comes time to start a press conference. Today he was scheduled to be on the call along with his UFC 137 opponent B.J. Penn and heavyweights Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo.
As you all know by now, Diaz was originally scheduled to face UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre for his title, but was removed from that spot in favor of Carlos Condit for no-showing two consecutive press conferences. As luck would have it, the UFC paired him up against Penn, Condit’s original opponent in the co-main event.
Lo and behold, GSP was injured and the UFC was forced to move the Penn-Diaz affair to the main event spot and hold their breath that he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize a card that is suffering from injuries and NIck Diaz being Nick Diaz. As the call began today at 2 p.m. EST, Diaz was nowhere to be found.
“We are expecting Nick Diaz to be here and are trying to locate him as we speak,” said a nervous Dave Sholler when quizzed on the Stockton residents whereabouts by Canadian journalist Neil Davidson.
“Is Diaz still scheduled to appear on the card?” was another question posed by Davidson. Poor Sholler could deflect that question to UFC President Dana White who was not in attendance in person or on the phone.
So, as BJ Penn received the majority of the questions, with Mitrione and Kongo being woken up every 10 minutes or so, the mood was a mixture of concern and a certain amount of “I told you so’s,” due to Diaz’s reputation for being late or not showing up to these conferences at all.
Dana White tweeted that he was hearing the UFC dropped the ball on the Diaz no-show. When pressed for further comment, Sholler explained that the UFC was in constant contact with Diaz’s trainer and manager Caeser Gracie, who was on the hunt for the former Strikeforce welterweight champion.
Penn was asked along the way about the fact that Diaz was not in attendance, and he did his best to keep the focus off of Diaz and on the fight and how well prepared he feels he is going into the showdown next Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Then at 2:43, nearly 45 minutes late, Diaz chimed in, sounding as if he had just woken up. “I wasn’t aware that there was a call,” explained Diaz. “I trained hard last night, went home and ate, then fell asleep. I woke up today, my phone was dead and my brother was telling me that I was supposed to be on this call. I was never given any notice. I never knew anything about it, it’s as simple as that.”
Sounding like he would rather be anywhere else, but on the call, Diaz explained some of the training he had been doing. Between his BJJ, boxing and wrestling training, he had been doing a lot of work on his cardio. He was then asked if he had any regrets about all that had gone on, including losing the original spot in the main event against GSP.
“I should have been there for those press conferences, but it’s not going to make a bit of difference whether I whine or cry about it,” Diaz said defensively. “I’m not about to panic, I am going to do what I always do—which is train—and when it’s time to fight, it’s time to fight. Whatever is going on with me won’t matter when the fight starts. My job is to fight, I don’t really have a choice on who I’m fighting or who I’m not fighting.”
Diaz was asked whether or not he had made any missteps in leading up the card and his only concern was that he doesn’t make any mistakes while training. “I’m here to put in 100 percent,” he said. “I think that’s what is really important. I want to have good fights against good fighters, that’s what I try to bring to the table.”
Penn had said earlier on during the call that he believed that Diaz was the best boxer in MMA. He was asked whether or not he was a fan of Penn’s and how he felt about fighting him. The comments made by Penn seemed to please Diaz, who then went on to say that he wasn’t pleased that he has to fight a guy he considers a friend. As with his usual rhetoric, Diaz said a fight’s a fight, and that’s how he is going to approach it.
“It’s not going to make it easy on me,” Diaz said. “We have spent a lot of time training together and I’m going to do what my manager says. I’ll continue to train and whatever they tell me to do is what I will do.” Asked whether or not he felt a fight with Penn would allow him to showcase his skills better than if he faced GSP, Diaz said he would have preferred to face GSP because it was for the title.
“Georges is a little bit bigger than BJ and he would not be able to stall me the same way because I am bigger,” Diaz said. “I was looking forward to fighting GSP. It would’ve been interesting to see how we would’ve dealt with each other. This fight with Penn is a lot different, and to be honest I think BJ is a much better fighter than GSP.
“I don’t think this is the proper weight for Penn, I don’t think he looked that great in his last fight, but you can never count him out. Lightweight is the ideal weight class for him, but all around he is much better than GSP.”
Once again Diaz was asked again whether or not he regretted not getting on the plane to Canada, and in true Diaz style he said yes, but deflected the blame on others for not reminding him about his obligations. He mentioned that if he knew that he had to rely on himself for that information things would have gone much differently.
The fact remains that Diaz lost a shot at the title, yet still finds himself in the main event. He seems focused on training and nothing else. He refused to take any blame for missing any press conferences instead choosing to blame the people who surround him. Yet, Josh Gross tweeted that Gracie told him yesterday that Diaz was aware and would be at the press conference.
For Diaz he believes that all of this is a waste of his time and he should be using this time to train to become the best in the world, because after all, isn’t that what they are there to do? He doesn’t lack any confidence in his abilities and we should expect to see a well trained and prepared Nick Diaz next Saturday night.
Sholler was asked how far ahead this conference was scheduled and he chose not to answer that question. He went on to say that “All’s well that ends well,” and that the fight is on, the organization, fans and everyone else is excited about the matchup.The bulk of the questions posed to Diaz were related to the press conference, which is truly a shame.
Here we have two superb mixed martial artists going up against one another, and all people could ask was the same cookie-cutter questions which only seemed to be drawing the ire of Diaz.
Someone asked Diaz if he and Penn had something on the side and whether or not the Strikeforce title would be on the line. Diaz seemed uninterested in answering that particular question as did Penn. Kudos to BJ for taking the high road and staying away from the controversy.
As long as Diaz is fighting we will have these instances where he just doesn’t care about his obligations outside the cage. He is a fighter that would’ve fit in back in the early days when there wasn’t much media coverage and he could’ve just trained and fought in peace.
One last thing: Both Penn and Diaz said they would be willing to fight for five rounds, but it wasn’t up to them. They both explained that they had been there before and are in shape to do battle for 25 minutes should the UFC ask them to do so.
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