UFC
Nick Diaz feels UFC 137 opponent B.J. Penn "much better" than Georges St-Pierre
Oct 24, 2011 - 12:45:15 PM Nick Diaz feels UFC 137 opponent B.J. Penn "much better" than Georges St-Pierre

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Nick Diaz once again finds himself in the main event of UFC 137 this week with the man he was initially scheduled to face, Georges St-Pierre, forced out of the card with an injury. However, while he is no longer facing the man considered widely to be the best welterweight in the world, Diaz actually believes he's facing a better fighter in B.J. Penn.

"I think B.J. is a lot better fighter to be honest with you, on a technical standpoint," Diaz said during last week's media teleconference. "He's much better at jiu-jitsu, boxing, even on a physical level I wouldn't count him out."

"I think he's a much better fighter than GSP all-around.”

That doesn't mean Diaz is happy about his opponent switch. He lost out on his shot at St-Pierre after no-showing consecutive press conferences in September, and now that he has to face Penn it's not something that's sitting well with the Strikeforce Champ.

"I'm not happy about it at all," Diaz said about fighting Penn. "I'm fighting a guy that's my friend, or was my friend and now I'm fighting this guy. I signed to fight [St-Pierre]. I thought we had a deal. That's kind of where [my head is] at on it."

Diaz said he would still rather fight St-Pierre, and the reason he came to the UFC was to fight for the belt and to make more money.

"I would have preferred to fight GSP, of course, because it's not like I'm fighting somebody that I already know," Diaz said. "I'm fighting for the title. That's why I started this. That's why I'm fighting for the UFC, because I came to fight for the title. I came for the money. I came to fight for the title. That was the GSP fight. Now I'm not getting that fight."

To add to that disappointment, he has trained with Penn in the past and the two fighters had been friendly with each other. Those outside factors don't sit well with Diaz, but now there's nothing he can do about it and he'll step into the cage anyway.

“I'm going to deal with it. This is hard times, just like it's been. I'm not expecting it to get any easier. This definitely doesn't make it any easier. I don't like fighting people that I already know, or I've already met, or trained with, or have video on me. We've spent a lot of time training together. It's kind of shady feelings going into fights like that. I'm just doing what my manager says.”

Penick's Analysis: Diaz is firmly in the camp that believes it was only St-Pierre's size that led to his second win over Penn, and he'll continue to disrespect the UFC Champion until he gets a chance to prove his theories right in the cage. Still, Penn does have a very good skill set and a very well rounded fight game that Diaz knows he needs to contend with in this fight. What I'm wondering from comments like this is how he's going to perform against Penn. He's legitimately unhappy about having to fight Penn, so much so that there were rumblings he was going to back out of the fight just a few weeks ago. With having trained with Penn before and feeling the two were friends, how will that affect how Diaz approaches the fight? That's going to be one of the intriguing storylines that plays out in Las Vegas on Saturday night.