For 24 hours Nick Diaz was out of UFC 137.
Now, he is back on the card, but not with his original opponent.
UFC President Dana White announced via Twitter that Diaz (25-7, 1 NC) will be facing former UFC Lightweight and Welterweight Champion BJ Penn (16-7-2) at UFC 137 in Las Vegas.
When fighters are given the opportunity to fight for a world championship, 99.9 percent of them would do everything above and beyond to maximize the chance they were given. When you say 99.9%, who would the .1% be? That would be Nick Diaz.
Dana White had no other option than to pull Nick Diaz from his championship fight with Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137 when he decided not to show up for the press tour. His replacement was none other than Carlos Condit. The fans immediate reaction was very negative towards Nick not showing up, but from this video that Nick released yesterday you can see that they should not be judging too soon.
We don’t know the facts so to judge someone like Nick Diaz right off the hop, like so many have done, is wrong. As of right now the UFC is not saying much. All we know as fans is that Nick Diaz no showed two large press conferences to promote his fight with GSP at UFC 137 on October 29th. The reasons? Time will only tell. Caesar Gracie stated today that Nick is not a fan of press and media before a fight and that he deals with a disorder. We have seen Nick Diaz pull stunts like this before but not to this degree.
After plenty of speculation as to who Brock Lesnar would be fighting for his comeback fight and whether the UFC would sign Alistair Overeem, those speculations have been put to rest.
Former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem chat with MiddleEasy.com about his future and the fact that he is in talks with the UFC. He states with his belts and his records he deserves a UFC title shot.
Anderson Silva was all smiles Saturday night, having dispatched Yushin Okami in highlight-reel fashion, having retained his UFC middleweight title, and having extended his records for consecutive victories and title defences in the promotion. As MMASucka columnist Trevor Dueck said, he may very well be the sport's Muhammad Ali. When Kenny Florian asked Silva who his next opponent should be, he answered with a wry smile “my clone”.
Dana White sounded just like a kid on Christmas morning as he announced the UFC's debut fight on the Fox network. The one hour prime time special will feature just one fight, a heavyweight title match-up between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos. The fight itself is almost certain to be a barn-burner; and while that will certainly add to White's happiness it's clear the UFC President has his eyes on something bigger than just a heavyweight title fight: mainstream acceptance.
At this point you wouldn't blame Brock Lesnar if stayed up at a home he owns in Canada for the rest of his life, so he wouldn't have to hear all the rumors about him all the time. Today, another one got shot down.
“We are going with the most prestigious championship in all of sports, the heavyweight title. So on November 12 at the Anaheim Honda Center, the UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez will take on the No. 1 contender Junior Dos Santos on the number one network in America, Fox.”
