Nick Diaz (Matt Erickson/HeavyMMA)
Former Strikeforce champ fights for interim welterweight belt
LAS VEGAS – Nick Diaz has heard the word. He’s heard it plenty. For years. And he wants you to know whatever you think of him, “crazy” ain’t it.
The enigmatic welterweight has been a permanent fixture in the UFC spotlight the last few months, ever since he was booked for a title fight against Georges St-Pierre but was pulled by Dana White when he failed to show for a pair of press conferences promoting the event. Now with GSP on the shelf for most of 2012, some of the oddest circumstances in UFC history have led Diaz back to a title shot – for the interim championship against Carlos Condit.
But the resident bad boy of the UFC, and really all of mixed martial arts, said he’s mostly misunderstood – that how he comes off publicly in terms of his relationship with opponents doesn’t make him crazy. In fact, he says, he might be more normal than everyone else.
“People say I’m crazy, but I think other people are crazy for acting all nice around people they’re supposed to fight,” Diaz said Wednesday after a short workout at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, site of Saturday’s UFC 143 pay-per-view. “I don’t put on a show. What you see is what you get, and some people can’t handle that. With me, you get the real me, real martial arts and a real warrior mentality. I don’t act friends with anyone I’m going to fight. That’s crazy. I don’t understand that.”
As evidenced in part by his no-shows at press conferences last fall and comments throughout his career, Diaz famously just wants to fight and has little interest in the media duties that go with being one of the guys under the spotlight. If he wins Saturday, setting up a possible title unification bout against St-Pierre, those lights will only get brighter and Diaz knows it.
But just because he has more attention on him, he’s not going to change who he is.
“I don’t act one way in front of a camera and another way when I’m not,” Diaz said. “I’m emotional, but I don’t stage anything. Some people aren’t mature enough to understand I don’t want to put on an act for the cameras. I’m real. I’m acting natural.”
Diaz has had cameras on him most of the last three weeks while the UFC filmed its three-part “Primetime” series, which concludes Friday night. And while Diaz has been mostly respectful of Condit – on Thursday, he said it makes him “sick” that Condit wasn’t featured more on the “Primetime” show and that the consensus is that this is just a fight to get Diaz-GSP booked – he said his mentality when it comes to any opponent boils down to something very simple.
“I’m not crazy. In my opinion, everyone else is crazy. It’s real fighting, real martial arts,” Diaz said. “Carlos is a very well-rounded guy. He’s tough and it’ll be a fight. I’m cool with him, but like always I don’t want to be around him because I’m fighting him. I don’t want to be friends around a guy I’m about to fight. This isn’t soccer, it’s fighting. I’ve got no problem that this is a sporting event and being respectful, but it’s a fight.”
For Condit, the road to the UFC 143 main event has been the one thing Diaz says he isn’t – “crazy.” But for anyone making plans to see Diaz vs. St-Pierre later this year, Condit calmly says they shouldn’t get their hopes up. And that includes St-Pierre, who openly says he is rooting for Diaz on Saturday so he can fight him.
“It’s been a crazy roller coaster this last few months,” Condit said. “First I was fighting BJ Penn, then Georges St-Pierre for the belt, now Nick Diaz for the interim belt. I just know I’m ready. I’m ready to spoil the plans for GSP to come back and fight Diaz. I understand Diaz has said things to upset Georges, I understand he wants to fight him, but it won’t be next. When GSP comes back, I’ll be the interim champion.”
UFC 143 takes place Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas with Diaz-Condit as the main event. The co-main event features heavyweights Roy Nelson and Fabricio Werdum. The main pay-per-view card airs at 10 p.m. Eastern and is preceded by a four-fight prelims special on FX at 8 p.m. Eastern. Two additional fights can be seen on the UFC’s Facebook page at 7 p.m. Eastern. Additionally, UFC 143 can be seen in theaters in 3D.