Nick Diaz is still a month-and-a-half away from re-entering the Octagon and he’s already stealing headlines.The former Strikeforce welterweight champion vacated his title earlier this year in order to vie for the UFC’s strap. He was originally pitted a…
Nick Diaz is still a month-and-a-half away from re-entering the Octagon and he’s already stealing headlines.
The former Strikeforce welterweight champion vacated his title earlier this year in order to vie for the UFC’s strap. He was originally pitted against UFC titleholder Georges St-Pierre, where the two were expected to meet at UFC 137 this October, serving as the main event of the evening.
However, Diaz was subsequently removed from headlining duties when the always-controversial fighter no-showed two pre-fight press conferences in Toronto and Las Vegas. The promotion was forced to seek a more responsible replacement and it found that in budding contender Carlos Condit.
“The Natural Born Killer” was pulled from his co-headlining duties with B.J. Penn in order to vie for the 170-pound belt. Diaz was later rebooked for the event to take on Penn, reasserting his place within the organization after much speculation brewed as to Diaz’ fledgling future.
Now after all the drama has ensued, if Diaz proves victorious against Penn, why should he be allowed to vie once again for the title?
After BJ Penn’s second straight loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 118, retirement was on the mind of “The Prodigy” during his flight home to Hawaii.”I was flying home [after UFC 118], and I was kind of like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to do this anymore; I don’t k…
After BJ Penn‘s second straight loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC 118, retirement was on the mind of “The Prodigy” during his flight home to Hawaii.
“I was flying home [after UFC 118], and I was kind of like, ‘Maybe I don’t want to do this anymore; I don’t know what’s wrong. If I’m going to go out there and perform like that, maybe this isn’t something worth doing,'” Penn told MMAJunkie.
Re-framing his mindset, Penn remained motivated to compete in the UFC and moved up in weight class to battle long-time nemesis Matt Hughes in the welterweight division.
Knocking out the hall-of-fame Hughes in just 21 seconds of Round 1, Penn resurrected his career within the 170-pound division and sent a lightning bolt of determination through his own veins.
Once again driven to be the best in the world at 170 pounds, Penn was disappointed when he fought Jon Fitch to a majority draw at UFC 127.
Non-committal regarding his future within the division during the post-fight press conference after his bout with Fitch, Penn is now slated to challenge the enigmatic Nick Diaz at UFC 137.
Motivation for “The Prodigy” has been an Achilles heel for the two-division champion in the past. When Penn is driven, focused, and on top of his game, “The Prodigy” is lethal inside the Octagon.
However, when Penn is beleaguered, distracted, or without purpose, “The Prodigy” arrives at fight time out of shape, without passion, and as a shell of his former championship self.
Fast forward to October 29 when Penn faces Diaz for the UFC welterweight eliminator.
Understanding the spoils provided to the victor, “The Prodigy” will challenge Diaz with the heart and soul of his former championship self.
Throughout the years, one constant has remained with respect to BJ Penn’s personality. And that constant is that he wants to be the best; his ego perpetuates that intention, permeating into his psyche.
With a victory over Diaz, Penn will be in line to challenge the victor of Carlos Condit and Georges St-Pierre in their championship bout on the same evening as Penn’s fight with Diaz.
Assuming that GSP retains the belt, Penn will be awarded the opportunity to compete for the title in their trilogy match-up.
Driven by ego and a desire to be the best, a victory over Diaz will serve as the catalyst for Penn to make one more run at the championship and once again claim welterweight gold.
Is the match-up with Diaz Penn’s last fight under the UFC banner? Absolutely not.
I welcome your comments.
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The UFC has a basic formula for promoting its fights that invariably includes one fighter looking into the camera and vowing to defeat his upcoming opponent. Everyone who follows the UFC has seen it many times.
The UFC has a basic formula for promoting its fights that invariably includes one fighter looking into the camera and vowing to defeat his upcoming opponent. Everyone who follows the UFC has seen it many times.
But this week some spice was added to that formula when B.J. Penn accused the UFC of going overboard in pressuring him to trash talk his upcoming opponent, Nick Diaz — and the UFC responded by releasing footage of its promotional interview with Penn that indicated he hadn’t really been pressured at all.
A video that Penn posted on his official YouTube account, discussing the way the UFC wanted him to hype the fight with Diaz, is above. The UFC’s raw footage of its promotional interview with Penn is after the jump.
“They forced me to say, at the end of the whole thing, they forced me,” Penn said of the way the UFC wanted him to directly address Diaz. “‘You gotta say Nick Diaz’s name now, you gotta say his name.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ They were like, ‘Say you’re gonna beat Nick Diaz. Say you’re going to beat Nick Diaz.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to beat Nick Diaz.'”
For a guy who’s not known for being able to give much of an interview, Nick Diaz sure has not had a loss for words ever since being pulled from the main event of UFC 137.For one thing, Diaz made a YouTube response for no showing the UFC 137 press confe…
For a guy who’s not known for being able to give much of an interview, Nick Diaz sure has not had a loss for words ever since being pulled from the main event of UFC 137.
For one thing, Diaz made a YouTube response for no showing the UFC 137 press conferences, which some are calling an apology: though one’s definition of an apology needs to be pretty loose in this situation.
From there, Diaz simply went off on a tangent calling out Georges St-Pierre hard for allowing the main event of UFC 137 to be changed.
GSP now takes on Carlos Condit for the UFC welterweight title on October 29, while Nick Diaz will face BJ Penn in a possible title eliminator.
Let’s take a look at some of the things the elder Diaz brother has had to say recently.
Carlos Condit picks BJ Penn over Nick Diaz. Josh Koscheck says he’s lucky to face Matt Hughes. Paul Daley is out of BAMMA 8. Michael Bisping says Middleweight Division not cleared out. Anderson Silva hasn’t.
Carlos Condit picks BJ Penn over Nick Diaz.
Josh Koscheck says he’s lucky to face Matt Hughes.
Nick Diaz manages to say he’s not making excuses, while at the same time making every possible excuse for the fallout from UFC 137.In an interview wit mmajunkie.com, Diaz wants to point the finger everywhere but at himself. DIaz’s explanation was juven…
Nick Diaz manages to say he’s not making excuses, while at the same time making every possible excuse for the fallout from UFC 137.
In an interview wit mmajunkie.com, Diaz wants to point the finger everywhere but at himself. DIaz’s explanation was juvenile as usual,
“If I’d have known the fight was going to be off, I would have [expletive] gone to the press conference, or I would have told somebody, ‘Hey, if I don’t make it to this stupid [expletive], I’m not fighting”.
Diaz is not a 12-year-old child who needs to be told what to do. This isn’t a case of, if you go mow the lawn, you can have your allowance for the week. Diaz knows that Dana White doesn’t play around when it comes to his company and shouldn’t have tried to play the same games he got away with former Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker.
If Anderson Silva, arguably the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world can be threatened with being fired, why did Diaz think he could get away with not playing his part in promoting UFC 137?
Later in the interview, Diaz claimed he didn’t even know there was going to be a press conference that day. Press conferences are trivial these days with the Internet, but to Dana White and the UFC, they’re still considered valuable tools with connecting to the media.
Diaz may have skipped out on some medical testing in Strikeforce, but the UFC is an entirely different league.
As White said at the press conference, “I asked him to play the game a little.” Diaz instead chose to take his ball and go home.
Following the debacle of the Diaz-Mayhem rivalry that never materialized, Diaz’s reputation is starting to falter. For being someone who never backs out of a fight, Diaz has seemingly managed the feat twice.
But instead of accepting that it was his fault (or his camp’s if he truly didn’t know), Diaz goes on to blame Georges St. Pierre for the fight falling through.
So GSP takes part in the media functions, allows a UFC television and production crew to follow him around for a few weeks and accepts a fight against someone who hasn’t fought for the UFC in years, and it’s his fault.
“I really don’t appreciate this mother [expletive] sitting there at that press conference and laughing at me,” Diaz said. “That’s some real bitch [expletive]. He’s sitting there laughing like its funny or something.
If I saw Georges on the street and called him a bitch, I bet you he wouldn’t do [expletive]. I bet you if I walked up and gave him a slap, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t do [expletive]. But you can’t do that to me. That’s not how it works for me. That’s something to fight about.”
You’re right, Nick. GSP probably wouldn’t do anything if you slapped him on the street. Not because he isn’t tough or because he’s afraid of your Stockton background.
It’s because he’s a mixed martial artist.
He knows what it takes both inside the octagon and outside to become a champion. The time spent sparring is just as valuable to the time spent in front of a microphone to UFC brass.
Nick DIaz is no doubt an excellent fighter. But if he wants to be more than just the “street thug,” he needs to grow up.
Although he isn’t trying to make these little excuses, DIaz has filled the blogosphere with reasons why he lost his title fight.
Here’s a tip for Diaz: If he wants to find the real reason he “doesn’t have the commitment to be a champion,” as GSP put it, all he needs to do is look in the mirror.
After 