Diaz / Photo: UFC
Nick Diaz was supposed to have faced Georges St-Pierre in this Saturday’s UFC 137 headliner, fighting for the welterweight belt. However, after the controversy-plagued Diaz failed to appear at the pre-event promotional press conferences, he was plucked from the matchup and put up against BJ Penn. Furthermore, GSP was injured and unable to make it to fight in the main event against replacement Carlos Condit. And Diaz made a point of bringing up the withdrawal, after his triumph over Penn:
“I don’t believe GSP is hurt, I think he’s scared,” he said to his would-be opponent, who was sitting in the front row.
At the post-event presser, UFC president Dana White announced that Diaz would finally get his shot at the title. The showdown with GSP should happen on February 4 at the UFC Superbowl weekend event in Las Vegas.
“I have to be the bad guy. You point your finger at me and make me the bad guy. Now I’m the bad guy, and now I managed to get the fight,” declared Diaz.
Current champ St-Pierre too spoke at the Mandalay Bay: “This is what I wanted since the beginning. We’re going to do what would should have done originally. I always wanted this fight and now I want it even more. I can’t wait till Superbown weekend,” he responded.
If the win over BJ is a good letter of introduction for St-Pierre, Diaz guarantees he’ll be even better next time around.
“I’m not happy with my performance overall. I wasn’t 100% today. I felt fine, but I went through a lot of rough spots in this fight.”
So now we’ll all just have to wait to see how Nick does in February against the seemingly unbeatable GSP. Until the Superbowl!
