UFC 158 had a very strange conclusion despite the fact UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre won a definitive decision over Nick Diaz in front of his home crowd in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
“Rush” praised the former Strikeforce welterweight title holder for his boxing, cardio and unorthodox jiu-jitsu, while Diaz thanked his adversary for the kind words.
This type of scenario would be standard procedure if it wasn’t for all the trash talk the Stockton, Calif., native spewed leading up to the fight.
Apparently, all the good sportsmanship didn’t last very long, as Braulio Estima, a friend and training partner of St-Pierre, says Diaz shoved him backstage when he tried to shake his hand.
Here’s what the world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt said about the incident on his Facebook page:
Today it was amazing Heorge did a great job full control the whole fight. Unfortunately I got a very disappointing experience. After the fight went to shake hands with all the members from nick Diaz, I wasn’t very welcomed by Diaz which I expected just wanted to give my respect for that fight as a martial artist. Even Dana came to straight after and said thanks for not pushing back. I replied I would never ruin my friends gsp night for that guy.
Estima, who has won 13 gold medals in elite jiu-jitsu competition since 2004, was supposed to fight Diaz in a jiu-jitsu superfight at the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo this past May, but Diaz no-showed the event.
While the two sides told two very different stories about why the match didn’t end up happening, there seemed to be a discrepancy about when Estima and Diaz were supposed to make the 180-pound weight limit.
Although Diaz initially said he was likely going to retire immediately after the fight, he has since said he would step back in the Octagon to rematch GSP (via Mike Whitman of Sherdog.com).
However, that seems nearly impossible, as after his win over former WEC welterweight champ Carlos Condit, Johny Hendricks was announced as the next opponent for Rush (per John Morgan and Matt Erickson of MMAjunkie.com).
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