The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday. Here’s who will be stopping by for our 105th show.
* Thomas Gerbasi, the author of “UFC Encyclopedia” and the editorial director for Zuffa, will be in studio to talk about his new book and his work on UFC.com and Strikeforce.com.
* Ramsey Nijem will talk about his UFC 137 bout against Danny Downes on Saturday night.
* Featherweight Bart Palaszewski will discuss his move to 145 pounds and his fight against Tyson Griffin at UFC 137.
* “King” Muhammed Lawal will discuss what’s next for him and will help us preview Saturday night’s UFC pay-per-view.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday. Here’s who will be stopping by for our 105th show.
* Thomas Gerbasi, the author of “UFC Encyclopedia” and the editorial director for Zuffa, will be in studio to talk about his new book and his work on UFC.com and Strikeforce.com.
* Ramsey Nijem will talk about his UFC 137 bout against Danny Downes on Saturday night.
* Featherweight Bart Palaszewski will discuss his move to 145 pounds and his fight against Tyson Griffin at UFC 137.
* “King” Muhammed Lawal will discuss what’s next for him and will help us preview Saturday night’s UFC pay-per-view.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
(“Well at the very least, you’re paying me back for all this bottled water.”)
BJ Penn, Nick Diaz, Matt Mitrione, and Cheick Kongo were scheduled to participate in a UFC 137 media call at 2 p.m. ET today, and three of them called in on time. The other one, obviously, was Nick Diaz. According to twitter updates from Ariel Helwani, the UFC and Diaz’s manager/trainer Cesar Gracie began frantically searching for the former Strikeforce welterweight champ when he no-showed the call. Gracie was surprised by his fighter’s absence, but offered the explanation that he only found out about the media call 24 hours in advance and he wasn’t sure whether it was still on after GSP pulled out due to injury.
(“Well at the very least, you’re paying me back for all this bottled water.”)
BJ Penn, Nick Diaz, Matt Mitrione, and Cheick Kongo were scheduled to participate in a UFC 137 media call at 2 p.m. ET today, and three of them called in on time. The other one, obviously, was Nick Diaz. According to twitter updates from Ariel Helwani, the UFC and Diaz’s manager/trainer Cesar Gracie began frantically searching for the former Strikeforce welterweight champ when he no-showed the call. Gracie was surprised by his fighter’s absence, but offered the explanation that he only found out about the media call 24 hours in advance and he wasn’t sure whether it was still on after GSP pulled out due to injury.
So anyway, Diaz finally shows up around 2:45 and says he didn’t know about the call. (Oh, won’t somebody keep this man informed of such things?) Dana White blamed his own organization for the mixup, but what else is he going to do, take Nick off the main event again? By the way, the current poster for UFC 137 carries the tagline “Expect the Unexpected.” You said it, brother.
Filed under: UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive, NewsUFC president Dana White has already stated that the new UFC 137 main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will not be a five-round fight because, as he put it, “they haven’t trained for five rounds.”
UFC president Dana White has already stated that the new UFC 137 main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will not be a five-round fight because, as he put it, “they haven’t trained for five rounds.”
However, Diaz’s manager and trainer Cesar Gracie wants the world to know that Diaz is ready and willing to go five rounds with “The Prodigy” on Oct. 29.
“If they can’t fight five rounds against each other, how are they going to fight five rounds against GSP?,” Gracie said to MMAFighting.com on Tuesday.
Gracie said he told White that Diaz wanted to change the fight to a five-rounder but had yet to hear back from Penn’s camp. After speaking to Gracie, both White and Penn could not be immediately reached for comment.
“Dana is good with it,” he said. “We’ve agreed to it. If BJ agrees to it, we’ll make it happen.”
Gracie added that there was no hesitation on Diaz’s part to agree to a five-round fight after hearing the news of GSP’s injury and subsequent removal from the card.
“These guys have to prove they are ready. These guys are fighters. BJ has always said he’s a warrior. … The old school days of MMA, back when it was NHB, they fought forever.
“Don’t be scared, homie. Let’s make it five rounds.”
You would think that after screwing up badly enough to have a title shot yanked away and with your future career with your employer hanging by a thread as a result, you might want to, I don’t know, apologize and show some sort of emotion that resembles remorse for your actions.
If you’re Nick Diaz, you pretty much do the opposite of that.
You would think that after screwing up badly enough to have a title shot yanked away and with your future career with your employer hanging by a thread as a result, you might want to, I don’t know, apologize and show some sort of emotion that resembles remorse for your actions.
If you’re Nick Diaz, you pretty much do the opposite of that.
“I’m trying to get back to Stockton here. I was out in San Francisco at the last minute trying to get on an airplane this morning trying to get to a press conference for the UFC wanted me to fight for the title against Georges St-Pierre and now they’re telling me that they’re going to give the fight to Carlos Conduit, which I think is ridiculous and Georges thinks it’s a great idea because Carlos Conduit poses an even greater threat,” Diaz pointed out. “So I guess that just leaves me out. It’s funny, one second I’m about to come into some money, do a little boxing, you know, fucking probably lose some teeth. But I’m ready to get paid, you know? So I’ll fight whoever, whatever, you know. Anything. I’d definitely rather fight GSP, you know. I was ready to do some boxing, but they didn’t like that, so they got me out of that and they got me in a fight with GSP for the same money or more money or whatever. But now it looks like they get to save money and I don’t get paid.”
First off, how till the UFC save money when all of the billboards, print ads and video promos will have to be recut on top of a metric shit ton of other expenses they’ll have to incur because of the change of opponent? You can bet Dana will make it well worth Condit’s while to step up and take the bout as well.
Still, Nick thinks he’s the one getting screwed here.
“I’m locked in a contract and all these dealmakers making deals. I don’t know. All I know is I’m ready to fight, so I’m sorry I didn’t make it to the beauty pageant, but, you know, I’ve never not showed up to a fight,” he explained, like it excused his failure to meet his press obligations this week. “I’ve never backed out of a fight in my life.That’s not what I do, so I just wanted to throw all that out there. What are you gonna do? I’m ready to fight. I’m pretty much done here. You know what I mean? This is what it’s, you know? So peace out.”
So for those keeping score at home, according to Diaz he was duped by the “deal makers” (likely meaning Gracie and White) to turn his back on his boxing dreams to instead sign with the UFC, which would pay the same type of money and give him more opportunities than fighting cans and has-beens, but because he didn’t feel like going to this week’s “beauty pageants” he now won’t get to fight or make any money, which is ridiculous.
Somebody needs to explain the basic principles of economics to this poor sociopath.
Screw it, I’ll do it.
Nick, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. A big part of your job is to promote your fights. You didn’t do your job and now you’re suspended without pay. If you weren’t fighting, McDonald’s would likely have instituted the same punishment had you refused to clean the grease traps, so quit playing the victim who thinks everyone is out to get him. The Man isn’t holding you back. Your immaturity and bad decisions are. Know what I’m sayin’?
Everyone in the world has learned (save for maybe Nick Diaz) that Dana White has replaced Diaz with Carlos Condit as the title-shot contender against Georges St. Pierre for UFC 137 due to Diaz’s no.
Everyone in the world has learned (save for maybe Nick Diaz) that Dana White has replaced Diaz with Carlos Condit as the title-shot contender against Georges St. Pierre for UFC 137 due to Diaz’s no call no show to the Las Vegas press conference and after failing to make it to the Toronto press conference yesterday.
Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz‘s long-time manager and trainer, says he has stood behind Nick Diaz for years, but he can’t defend his decision to not show up to the UFC 137 media days in Toronto and Las Vegas this week.
Instead, Gracie told MMAFighting.com that he stands behind the UFC‘s decision to remove Diaz from the UFC 137 main event against Georges St-Pierre in favor of Carlos Condit.
“I told Dana [White] he was right to have done that,” Gracie said.
In fact, Gracie called White in the middle of the UFC’s press conference to announce the main event switch to say as much.
“There’s a lot of hard workers I see that have trouble putting food on the table for their kids,” Gracie said. “I’ve stuck up for Nick a lot, but I can’t stick up for him on this one.”
Gracie said he last spoke to Diaz on Tuesday. That’s when Diaz informed him that he couldn’t find his passport and was not going to be able to fly to Toronto for that day’s media obligations. The UFC excused Diaz for missing the Toronto leg of the trip, as long as he made it to Las Vegas.
“I would have driven him to Vegas if it came to that,” Gracie said. “I don’t care. He just turned his phone off and acted like a little kid. It just doesn’t cut it.”
In talking to Gracie, it’s clear he’s more disappointed than anything in Diaz’s behavior considering how big this fight against St-Pierre was for him.
“Nick is like family to me. We’re going to have a long discussion, hopefully with Dana, to see if he’s still in the UFC or not. But let’s face it, Nick is 28 years old. I talked to Dana about this before, and I think a big problem with all of this is Nick has social anxiety. He doesn’t like to go and be away from home. He has no trouble fighting in the cage, though,” Gracie said.
“You can’t just not show up and [not] tell anyone anything.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, White suggested the pressure of fighting GSP got to Diaz, but Gracie quickly refuted that notion.
“He doesn’t feel comfortable being around people,” he said. “He has a very deep ingrained social anxiety, and it’s something he probably needs help for, I think. I think that’s why he self-medicates himself with the marijuana. That’s my amateur opinion.
“He did the same crap with Paul Daley and a couple other guys. It was the same Nick Diaz. It’s not the pressure of fighting GSP. It’s the pressure of doing a news conference before the fight. Fighting is no pressure because he gets to beat someone up or get beat up.”
Gracie isn’t ready to severe ties with Diaz, though. Not when he needs him most. But he did offer his pupil a bit of advice through the media because that’s the only way he can reach him right now.
“I’ve always been there to facilitate things for him and stuck up for him even when he was wrong. If I were him, I would be calling Dana at some point basically begging for my job and giving [me] another chance to fight for the title.”
Cesar Gracie, Nick Diaz‘s long-time manager and trainer, says he has stood behind Nick Diaz for years, but he can’t defend his decision to not show up to the UFC 137 media days in Toronto and Las Vegas this week.
Instead, Gracie told MMAFighting.com that he stands behind the UFC‘s decision to remove Diaz from the UFC 137 main event against Georges St-Pierre in favor of Carlos Condit.
“I told Dana [White] he was right to have done that,” Gracie said.
In fact, Gracie called White in the middle of the UFC’s press conference to announce the main event switch to say as much.
“There’s a lot of hard workers I see that have trouble putting food on the table for their kids,” Gracie said. “I’ve stuck up for Nick a lot, but I can’t stick up for him on this one.”
Gracie said he last spoke to Diaz on Tuesday. That’s when Diaz informed him that he couldn’t find his passport and was not going to be able to fly to Toronto for that day’s media obligations. The UFC excused Diaz for missing the Toronto leg of the trip, as long as he made it to Las Vegas.
“I would have driven him to Vegas if it came to that,” Gracie said. “I don’t care. He just turned his phone off and acted like a little kid. It just doesn’t cut it.”
In talking to Gracie, it’s clear he’s more disappointed than anything in Diaz’s behavior considering how big this fight against St-Pierre was for him.
“Nick is like family to me. We’re going to have a long discussion, hopefully with Dana, to see if he’s still in the UFC or not. But let’s face it, Nick is 28 years old. I talked to Dana about this before, and I think a big problem with all of this is Nick has social anxiety. He doesn’t like to go and be away from home. He has no trouble fighting in the cage, though,” Gracie said.
“You can’t just not show up and [not] tell anyone anything.”
At Wednesday’s press conference, White suggested the pressure of fighting GSP got to Diaz, but Gracie quickly refuted that notion.
“He doesn’t feel comfortable being around people,” he said. “He has a very deep ingrained social anxiety, and it’s something he probably needs help for, I think. I think that’s why he self-medicates himself with the marijuana. That’s my amateur opinion.
“He did the same crap with Paul Daley and a couple other guys. It was the same Nick Diaz. It’s not the pressure of fighting GSP. It’s the pressure of doing a news conference before the fight. Fighting is no pressure because he gets to beat someone up or get beat up.”
Gracie isn’t ready to severe ties with Diaz, though. Not when he needs him most. But he did offer his pupil a bit of advice through the media because that’s the only way he can reach him right now.
“I’ve always been there to facilitate things for him and stuck up for him even when he was wrong. If I were him, I would be calling Dana at some point basically begging for my job and giving [me] another chance to fight for the title.”
The MMA Hour is back in your life on Monday. Here’s who will be stopping by for our 105th show.
UFC
