Nick Diaz Out, Carlos Condit In Against GSP
Nick Diaz off the Strikeforce card.
At a Las Vegas press conference today, UFC president Dana White announced that Nick Diaz has been removed from the UFC 137 main event in Las Vegas. His opponent, Georges St-Pierre will now face Carlos Condit.
White discussed difficulties in getting Nick Diaz to honor his media commitments as the reason for his withdrawal. Nick did not attend press conferences in Toronto or Las Vegas in which he was scheduled to appear.
White spoke about Diaz, “He looked me right in my face and lied to me and told me he’d do (the press conferences).” He continued, “Nick Diaz can’t handle the pressure of a major main event. … That’s what I think.”
Condit was scheduled to fight BJ Penn at UFC 137 and is on a four fight winning streak. He most recently handed Dong Hyun Kim his first loss in MMA at UFC 132. Condit was the final WEC Welterweight champion before that organization was absorbed by the UFC.
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I don’t get it. How does Condit qualify for a title shot?
By being an asskicker.
Love that fighter.
I know Rory mac trains in montreal with gsp, but really…he would have been this close if he could have finished that last round against condit!
Condit is awesome and incredibly fun to watch. Was hoping for Diaz but since I love condit Im still happy.
I agree…Condit will make this interesting. I liked him in the WEC…his war with Macdonald was a fight of the year candidate for me last year.
I`m curious to see how Greg Jackson approaches this from a coaching perspective. (how can he coach against either guy and will it impact how they move forward?)
Sucks wonder if bj is gona get another guy
I predict White puts Diaz vs Penn.
You heard it (this nonsense) here first.
What an unprofessional fucking loser, him, and his tokin brother should be removed from the UFC roster ASAP.
They’re a fucking disgrace to MMA as a whole, and someone needs to let them know that.
DW fired semtex for what he did to Kos, well at least he knew how to show up to pressers, and be professional, and bring eye balls to his fights.
And as far as i’m concerned, his gym, coaches need to cut the dead weight, let him suffer in the ranks of BAMMA, or Ring Of Fire.
I knew this was gonna come back to blow up in DW’s face.
@ PapaG Quote from greg jackson:
Teammate protocols are pretty clear in this situation so everybody knows what happening. I step out, the other coaches — John [Danaher], Phil [Nurse] and Firas [Zahabi] — will take care of GSP and probably [Mike] Winkeljohn and some of the other guys here will take care of Carlos. But I step out of it, so I won’t be cornering either guy. They’ll fight each other. Those are the new teammate protocols. We knew this would be coming — it will probably be coming again –but this time we are very well prepared.
Jackson goes on to state that Condit will still be training in Albuquerque, but Jackson won’t be working one on one with him on the kind of game planning he normally handles. St. Pierre only sporadically trains in New Mexico these days, instead spending his time in Montreal where Jackson comes to him, and likely will not be in Albuquerque at all between now and the Condit fight
Robin…is Condit your favorite fighter these days too?
Spot on robin. I thought diaz Penn as soon as it happened. I would also accept rory fighting bj. Will still be the best card this year if either happens
I’d love to see BJ vs. Rory but I’m guessing MacDonald doesn’t have a big enough name for Dana and Joe to make that match yet!
Yeah I kinda figured that, I absolutely don’t want a fitch bj rematch.
Well Dana usually gives the fans what they want and I’m betting he’ll also take into consideration that very few people wanted to see a Fitch/Penn rematch!
Keith- yes.
This dude can fight! Exciting, passionate, cool under pressure.
Dude is the man.
GSP is going to run through Condit like a hot knife through butter. Carlos has a ton of potential but he’ll have a few things going against him come fight night:
1. Size – GSP will be massive in comparison.
2. Style – GSP does everything Condit does but he does it much better.
3. Awe – You can’t tell me that training with GSP for the last few years and watching him dismantle the 170 class hasn’t had an impact on Condit.
I applaud him for stepping up and I think the fight has potential but I just don’t see how Condit could win. I suppose there is a small chance of a Serra redux with GSP being ‘too nice’ to him but I just can’t see this version of GSP doing that.
PS – Diaz has now ducked Ebersole, Mayhem and GSP. Do we need to give him another chance?
Diaz has no business being in the UFC. The UFC is THE premier, PROFESSIONAL MMA organization. Homie can make a youtube video about the fight but he can’t make it to his own press conference to hype the fight? Just being a fighter doesn’t cut it, you have to be man too.
I love watching Condit fight. He is one of my favourite fighters but unfortunately GSP is just so far ahead of anyone in that division that he’ll make Condit look sub-par.
I don’t think Diaz will take the fight against Penn, as they’ve trained together in the past so I wonder if that will deter Diaz. It only makes sense for Penn vs Fitch 2, as much as people may not like the match up this fight needs to happen so we can forget about the first one!
Ebersole vs Penn makes sense but then that leaves MacDonald out of a fight!
How about Penn vs Hughes? I’d pay to see that fight and it doesn’t scrap either guy’s pay day.
now that I think of it…
Robin, I like your prediction. Dana put it as “Crazy” and seeing as he wasn’t prepared to cut Diaz when pulling him from the main event, I could see the Diaz vs Penn matchup happening.
It also puts the spotlight off Diaz being in a co-main event and not having the same press commitments etc.
I don’t think Penn would have any issue even if they did train together at some point. He’ll fight anyone and this really puts him back on the map for the “fair fight” rematch he’s always wanted.
Hmmm….
Bigboi Penn koed Hughes but quick.
yeah…penn vs hughes 3 lasted all of 40 or so seconds with hughes out cold.
they’ve since been training together…that trilogy is over.
One can always dream…. I still hold out hope for Rickson to come back.
Diaz is facing BJ now: http://twitter.com/#!/danawhite/status/111953183512870912
Called it!!!!!!!
26 hours ago.
Sorry to be a gloater but its a KILLER fight.
How the hell did you guess that one??
Got any Lotto #’s ??