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Nick Diaz's inability to comply with the UFC last week has not only cost him a title shot against Georges St-Pierre, it's also reportedly cost him a substantial amount of money.
Dave Meltzer, in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer newsletter, reports that Diaz lost out on a pay-per-view cut that would have garnered seven figures. Additionally, Meltzer reports that Diaz may not immediately get a title shot with a win over Penn.
When he no-showed two press conferences last week and fell off the map, the UFC took him out of the UFC 137 main event and put in Carlos Condit. They then gave him an opportunity to keep a roster spot and offered him the fight with B.J. Penn that Condit was initially scheduled for.
However, Meltzer reports another interesting tidbit in regards to that matchup. Apparently Diaz had second thoughts about taking the fight over this past weekend, and was "making noises at not doing the match." He also reportedly "got word to the Penn camp that because of his respect for Penn that neither he nor [his] brother Nate would ever fight Penn."
He's supposedly had his mind changed, and is expected to still go through with the fight in Las Vegas on October 29.
Penick's Analysis: It's incredible that Diaz was seriously considering not going ahead with the fight against Penn. After what happened with losing his title shot, accepting and then reneging on the fight with Penn would have been the absolute worst move he could have made. I suppose it's not entirely surprising given the events of the last week that Diaz would go with an ill-advised course of action, but it appears he'll continue with the Penn fight and that's best at this point. He's lost enough with getting taken out of the main event and losing his pay-per-view cut, and he would have lost his roster spot with the UFC had he not taken this fight when it was offered to him.
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"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
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