Georges St-Pierre Wishes He ‘Made Peace’ With Nick Diaz Following 2013 Clash

Georges St-PierreOn the eight-year anniversary of his unanimous decision, UFC welterweight title defence against Nick Diaz, former two-weight champion, Georges St-Pierre has claimed he’s burdened by the fact that’s never “made peace” with the Stockton native following their “personal” March 2013 battle. St-Pierre, who has yet to feature in the Octagon following a hiatus snapping return […]

Georges St-Pierre

On the eight-year anniversary of his unanimous decision, UFC welterweight title defence against Nick Diaz, former two-weight champion, Georges St-Pierre has claimed he’s burdened by the fact that’s never “made peace” with the Stockton native following their “personal” March 2013 battle.

St-Pierre, who has yet to feature in the Octagon following a hiatus snapping return at UFC 217 back in November of 2017, has been continuously linked with returns to professional mixed martial arts, with the often floated ‘superfight’ with current lightweight gold holder, Khabib Nurmagomedov continuing to rumble in the background. 

Snapping a four-year stint on the sidelines at the Madison Square Garden event in late 2017, St-Pierre returned in a main event title challenge against then-undisputed middleweight kingpin, Michael Bisping — stopping the polarizing veteran with a third round rear-naked choke to become a two-weight UFC champion. 

Leaving the promotion in less than ceremonious circumstances back in November of 2013, St-Pierre narrowly edged out former welterweight titleholder, Johny Hendricks to lodge his ninth successful title defence, before vacating his championship, claiming he needed to take some time off away from mixed martial arts, with UFC president, Dana White openly criticizing the Canadian’s decision to walk away from the sport. White infamously detailed how St-Pierre owed the UFC, Hendricks, the fans, and the welterweight championship another fight.

Recently claiming how he hated fighting professionally, St-Pierre spoke with ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani recently, reflecting on his “business” versus “personal” clash with former WEC and Strikeforce champion, Diaz, noting how he’s been bothered by the fact he never “made peace” with the outspoken Californian.

Well, it felt to me — it’s not really the fight, it felt like I never made peace with Nick Diaz,” St-Pierre said. “And it’s a little bit unfortunate in the way that I feel — I feel like he took that (fight), not only like a business, he took it like very personal. For him, a fight was very personal. But for me it was very (like) business, you know what I mean?

And I never had a chance to see Nick Diaz after we fought, but if I ever cross path with him, I’ll go see him and shake his hand, and say, ‘Hey man, I don’t hold any grudge. I hope you don’t as well.’ Maybe he’s going to want to fight me, I don’t know what he feels. But to tell you the truth, I just like to have some form of camaraderie with my opponents because we share a moment — we make money and we share a moment, and we have a moment. And for me, he’s one of the guys that I never had a chance to talk with after the fight, and I feel like it’s missing a little bit in my life.

Nate Diaz Claims GSP ‘Cheated’ By Using Steroids For Nick Diaz Fight

Looks like we could truly see Georges St-Pierre vs. Nate Diaz soon…

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This week, the mixed martial arts (MMA) world was awash with the out-of-the-blue rumor that legendary former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre would meet longtime lightweight Nate Diaz at August 4’s UFC 227 from Los Angeles.

The rumor came from UFC president Dana White himself, as he insisted the fight would be contested at 155 pounds – a division Diaz hadn’t fought in since 2015 and one St-Pierre has never fought in despite discussing it for years.

There was little in the way of confirmation, however, as both sides stayed exceptionally quiet on the matter.

Some of St-Pierre’s teammates told UFC Tonight analyst Kenny Florian that they hadn’t even heard St-Pierre was entertaining a fight with the younger Diaz, and indeed there were several reasons why it just doesn’t make much sense. For example, the whole concept sounded a bit off given that “Rush” had handled Nate’s older and bigger brother Nick at March 2013’s UFC 158.

This evening, however, could signal that there’s truly some fire burning behind all the smoke, as Nate took to Facebook to post an inflammatory post towards St-Pierre, suggesting he was a cheater by fighting his brother on steroids, coming in overweight, and having ‘his boy’ give Nick a bad i.v.

Now, he continued, the UFC was selling fans “wolf tickets” in reference to Nick’s famous pre-fight tirade before he fought St-Pierre, so the longtime MMA legend could fight himself if he didn’t clear up his so-called issues:

A genius bit of trash talk that will certainly get the loyal-to-the-death legions of Diaz fans talking about Nate’s hopeful return, it would seem he’s moved on from the prospect of fighting Conor McGregor in their oft-discussed trilogy bout – at least for now – as St-Pierre has finally fit the bill of the big names he’ll only return to the octagon for.

This video suggests the younger Diaz is trying to lay the groundwork for what would be a massive if not somewhat confusing showdown in L.A. this summer.

If he is, well, he did a fine job accomplishing that goal.

Are you excited to watch St-Pierre vs. Nate Diaz?

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Quote: Nick Diaz Will Fight Again Soon

The MMA world has been wondering whether or not Nick Diaz will ever return to fighting after a three-year hiatus following his no-contest against Anderson Silva back at UFC 183. That’s nearly an eternity when it comes to fight fans’ memories, but the appeal of the Stockton slugger has kept Diaz firmly in the conversation […]

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The MMA world has been wondering whether or not Nick Diaz will ever return to fighting after a three-year hiatus following his no-contest against Anderson Silva back at UFC 183.

That’s nearly an eternity when it comes to fight fans’ memories, but the appeal of the Stockton slugger has kept Diaz firmly in the conversation despite the extended hiatus.

Diaz’ close friend and fellow MMA fighter Jake Shields is perhaps the best person to ask when it comes to the elder Diaz brother’s return, and according to him on a recent episode of The MMA Hour, thankfully, it looks like we’ll be seeing more Stockton slaps sooner than later:

“I think he will. I think he’ll fight again soon. I think he’s mentioned it in training a little bit. I haven’t been out there so I don’t know how much he’s been training but I’m pretty sure he’s been in the gym a decent amount and I would love to see him fight again. I think he’s still got some more in him. He hasn’t been training as much but he’s still in good shape and he can come back fast.”

“Nick is a hard person to predict. Only Nick really knows what he is going to do. People always ask ‘is Nick going to show up at a press conference?’ I’m like, ‘man, I can’t even tell you.’ Nic doesn’t even tell the people close to him, sometimes. He just kind of goes out and surprises everyone. Only Nick knows what he is going to do. If I had to guess I’d say he’ll fight again.”

Shields and Diaz are longtime members of “The Scrap Pack” alongside Nick’s younger brother Nate Diaz and Gilbert Melendez. The MMA landscape has changed drastically since Diaz’ suspension, with Tyron Woodley holding the welterweight belt and a slew of new faces populating the division.

The 34-year-old is a former Strikeforce welterweight champion and competed against former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre in a losing effort back at UFC 158.

Who would you like to see Nick Diaz fight upon his return?

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Georges St-Pierre: I’m Not Scared Of Nick Diaz

With his little brother Nate coming off of a massive payday from this past Saturday’s (August 20, 2016) UFC 202 event, UFC welterweight veteran Nick Diaz may be closing in on a big money fight of his own. With former UFC 170-pound king Georges St-Pierre possibly on the cusp of his blockbuster return to the

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With his little brother Nate coming off of a massive payday from this past Saturday’s (August 20, 2016) UFC 202 event, UFC welterweight veteran Nick Diaz may be closing in on a big money fight of his own.

With former UFC 170-pound king Georges St-Pierre possibly on the cusp of his blockbuster return to the Octagon, the Canadian star may very well be welcomed back to combat action by his old nemesis in Diaz.

‘GSP’ recently spoke to MMA Fighting regarding the possibility of his UFC return; and while he has plenty of suitors to challenge him in a return to mixed martial arts (MMA), St-Pierre noted that a rematch with the brash Diaz brother is certainly a very likely possibility:

MMA: UFC 158-St.Pierre vs Diaz“It could be very possible to happen,” GSP said.

“I beat him, but there was a lot of animosity,” St-Pierre said. “I didn’t feel I fought well that fight. He says I poisoned him and all that kind of stuff. Whatever.

He has very good excuses. Even myself, I could make excuses, but I’m not that type of guy. Trust me when I say I didn’t fight as well as I wanted to and it would be fun to do it again.”

While other fighters such as current UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley are also currently campaigning to welcome St-Pierre back to the UFC, ‘Rush’ is adamant that he isn’t ‘ducking’ anybody for his homecoming bout and stated that he would love to return against a guy as ‘dangerous’ as the Stockton Native:

“There’s a lot of options,” GSP said. “I know a lot of guys have called me out. … Everybody is dangerous this game, I know. People say I’m ducking this guy, I’m ducking that guy. I’m not ducking anybody.

I’m not scared of this guy and it would be fun to be welcomed in the cage after a long layoff to fight a guy that has such a stature, that sort of skillset,” St-Pierre said.

“He’s a very dangerous guy, Nick Diaz. it would put me right back in the water where I left it, at the very world-class caliber level. I would welcome the challenge. I’m not a guy who would shy away from a challenge like that.”

Mar 16, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Nick Diaz (blue) taunts Georges St.Pierre (red) during their Welterweight title bout at UFC 158 at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 16, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Nick Diaz (blue) taunts Georges St.Pierre (red) during their Welterweight title bout at UFC 158 at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

Diaz has only competed once since suffering his unanimous decision loss to ‘GSP’ at UFC 158 in 2013, when he took on Anderson Silva in the main event of UFC 183 last year.

The bout was originally ruled a unanimous decision victory for ‘The Spider’, however, due to Silva testing positive for steroids and Diaz exceeding the limit of marijuana metabolites in his system following the contest, it was later reverted to a No Contest.

Would you like to see St-Pierre and Diaz throw down one more time to welcome back the former welterweight kingpin?

‘Where you at Georges?’

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Coach: GSP Was Vomiting Prior To Nick Diaz Fight

Well, the narrative surrounding UFC 158’s (March 16, 2013) main event title fight between then welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz continues to become more and more strange. In a recent interview after his 18-month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) was lifted, Diaz claimed that he was drugged prior to

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Well, the narrative surrounding UFC 158’s (March 16, 2013) main event title fight between then welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz continues to become more and more strange. In a recent interview after his 18-month suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) was lifted, Diaz claimed that he was drugged prior to the fight with St. Pierre, an outlandish claim that his boxing coach, Richard Perez, also spoke on earlier today (August 8, 2016).

As if that wasn’t odd enough, St. Pierre’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, John Danaher, recently said that the Canadian star was vomiting all night ahead of the fight due to faulty watermelon juice:

“Georges drank some watermelon juice for rehydration that had been too long out of the fridge and got a badly upset stomach,” Danaher wrote on Instagram. “He spent the entire night vomiting. It was so sad to see such a perfect camp get ruined at the last minute by such a minor oversight. The night of the fight, Mr St-Pierre came in underweight and drained. We had to curtail the warm up for fear of exhausting him before the bout even began.”

Danaher said that although “Rush’s” camp was ‘flawless’, there’s always unforeseen events that could potentially take place. In the end, however, St. Pierre scored a dominant decision victory over Diaz, a performance that Danaher felt showed off the Canadian’s true championship worth given the circumstances:

“Mr St-Pierre showed why he was a great champion that night, putting on a dominant shut-out performance to win a unanimous decision – no one in the audience would have guessed how serious a problem he had to overcome,” Danaher wrote. “He used a system of pacing the rounds and timing the takedowns and allowing standing escapes to maintain the pace of the fight whilst controlling the action but at the same time, not exhausting himself. It worked brilliantly and the problem was overcome.”

What do you make of these somewhat puzzling claims coming from both camps? Also, with Diaz’s suspension up and St. Pierre recently saying that he was ready to return after vacating his title years back, would you like to see the two run it back a second time?

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George St. Pierre and the Point-Based Fighting Style

As former UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre stepped away from fighting in November 2013, he took his efficient, point-based fighting style with him. This was St. Pierre’s choosing, however; UFC brass has been handing out walking papers …

As former UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre stepped away from fighting in November 2013, he took his efficient, point-based fighting style with him. This was St. Pierre’s choosing, however; UFC brass has been handing out walking papers for years now.

Dana White has never held back his thoughts, and has publicly criticized the fight world’s less entertaining names. White has been quick to judge those like Jon Fitch and Ben Askren, who are traditional wrestlers. Fitch, prior to his release, went 1-2-1 in the organization, spearheading White’s arguments. White’s comments are ill-advised though; the UFC still needs guys like Fitch.

Both Fitch and Askren have fought for world championships and are highly recognizable welterweights. The pair are money makers for their organizations, ONE FC and WSOF. A former collegiate wrestler at Perdue, Fitch possesses a very uninspiring game plan. An overwhelming number of his fights, 17 to be exact, have gone to a decision.

Still, when Fitch was on top of his game, there was no one beating him. He, rather handedly, won his first eight fights in the UFC, defeating the likes of Josh Burkman, Thiago Alves and Diego Sanchez on the way to a St. Pierre title shot. Fitch, whom was supposed to give St. Pierre a challenge on the ground, fell short but kept on winning. 

Wrestling isn’t an exciting style of fighting but the best know how to stifle it. Some of the most prominent fighters in the UFC like, featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Lyoto Machida, avoid the majority of takedowns coming their way. It would help a fighter to become adept at different disciplines but if you win at such a rate that Fitch has, 14-3-1 under the UFC, then why fix it?

Someone with the consistency and high-level ground game as Fitch should garner more respect. Sure, he fell off and suffered difficult losses, but losing to a future Hall of Famer in B.J. Penn and future welterweight champion Johny Hendricks is nothing to hang your head about. The UFC puts a premium on fighters who go to war and leave it all in the octagon but real battles are won in the trenches. For every Randy Couture, there’s a Chuck Liddell and for every Cain Velasquez, there’s a Junior Dos Santos.

We’re in an era in mixed martial arts where words hold more weight than a punch or a takedown, just ask Nick Diaz or Chael Sonnen. Those two men revolutionized the post-fight interview. Each has been rewarded a title shot in the past simply because a microphone was put before them. According to Bleacher Report’s Chad Dundas, UFC 158 St. Pierre vs. Diaz did an estimated 950,000 pay-per-view buys.

For argument’s sake, let’s compare that number to St. Pierre’s title defense against Fitch. The pair’s main event took place at UFC 87 in August 2008. The French Canadian dispatched his challenger with ease and the PPV did an estimated 625,000 buys, which at the time was one of the higher grossing shows the UFC produced. White’s promotion has grown exponentially since 2008 on the backs of St. Pierre, Brock Lesnar, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva.

Now, let’s take a look at the gate totals for both UFC 87 and UFC 158. The latter drew an attendance of 20,145, while the former tallied 15,082. A drastic difference yes, but due to the entirely different landscapes of the UFC at those moments, efforts to compare the numbers would seem futile.

Typically, the UFC has fared better in grudge matches (i.e: St.Pierre vs. Diaz). Adding a little fuel to the fire will always make a fight interesting. So while fighters like Diaz continue to lose and still fight, fighters like Fitch are shown the door as it hits them on the way out.

The saga between Fitch and White began way back in—you guessed it—2008. It began when the American Kickboxing Academy fighter was released by the promotion after he refused to sign over his name and likeness rights for use in the UFC Undisputed video game.

“It was a surprise, but not really. I’ve always felt there was some kind of issue between the UFC and me; I never understood what it was,” Fitch told Inside MMA.

Then, after he was released in February 2013, White remarked to MMA Junkie that “This is a sport, just like any other. It’s just like the MLB, NFL and NBA.” He made no mention of a rift between him and Fitch, later justifying the decision as business-related.

“I can tell you this, Jon Fitch isn’t cheap,” said White, adding. “He was ranked number one and now he is nine.”

According to White, Fitch was paid over $400,000 in discretionary and performance bonuses outside of his UFC contract. Fitch responded to his former boss in a video detailing exactly how much money he made in his 18-fight UFC career. According to Fitch, he made just over $1,300,000, including bonuses, but that was before he paid $200,000 to management and his gym. Bleacher Report’s Damon Martin put Fitch’s testimony into perspective.

“While Fitch didn’t discuss this at the time, he also has to pay taxes on that amount of money, which would also reach well over $200,000 based on his original pay of $1,020,000 over 18 fights,” said Martin. “Fitch would also have paid taxes anytime he fought internationally, like his bout against Erick Silva at UFC 153 in Brazil.”

Cost-cutting moves have happened before in the UFC, as they do in all professional sports. Perhaps, most recently and notably, former welterweight title challenger Jake Shields, who coincidentally challenged Fitch to a fight after his latest win, was cut after he lost to Hector Lombard. White eluded that the decision was a cost-cutting measure but, as the case was with Fitch, he said to Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole  “Mixed martial arts is a young man’s game. I like Jake Shields a lot but he’s never going to be the guy.”

Wait a second, how do you justify cutting a guy who went 3-1-(1) in the UFC, and only made $120,000 in his fight with Lombard, according to White? Unacceptable. Shields may possess an extremely linear skill set, and nothing that resembles a boxing pedigree, but he deserves better. This is a man who has only lost to St. Pierre and Jake Ellenberger, and previously beat Dan Henderson.

White put it best, sports are a business and that’s what people tend to forget. Just as people crucified LeBron James when he left Cleveland, just as Johnny Damon was booed for leaving Boston, the public will hurl as many obscenities as they can think of at your general direction when they sense betrayal. Most outsiders won’t ever understand what it takes to run an organization, let alone the mind state of a superstar athlete trying to do the best thing for their careers.

What we tend to forget is that there is no loyalty in sports. Any general manager or president is always looking for a better version of you. The athlete is a mere peg in a system to just make the rich, richer. That’s why Kobe Bryant argues that owners are the ones who make off with the most cash.

“It’s very easy to look at the elite players around the league and talk about the amount of money that they get paid,” Bryant told ESPN LA’s Baxter Holmes. “But we don’t look at what the owners get paid and how much revenue they generate off the backs of these players.”

But why cut some of the best fighters who helped you take the UFC around the globe Mr. White? Don’t you remember how Shields helped you set attendance records at UFC 129? You kept Dan Hardy around long after he lost to St. Pierre. White is just too busy giving the fans what they want. 

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