UFC
Dana White says Nick Diaz vs. GSP not certain, but Diaz no longer set to box Jeff Lacy
May 23, 2011 - 7:00:10 PM Dana White says Nick Diaz vs. GSP not certain, but Diaz no longer set to box Jeff Lacy

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Though UFC President Dana White is attempting to throw some cold water on a potential fight between UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz, all signs are pointing towards that fight taking place at some point this year.

In comments made to MMAJunkie.com's John Morgan, White said that there are still "a lot of hurdles" in getting Diaz into the UFC for this fight, and also added that the two of them coaching on The Ultimate Fighter is "not even a though" at this point, but one hurdle that has been cleared is a potential boxing bout with Jeff Lacy.

Diaz's boxing promoter, Don Chargin, sent out a press release on Monday stating that Diaz will not box Lacy due to an "opportunity of a lifetime" for the fighter in MMA. Another reporter for MMAJunkie, Steven Morocco, posted on Twitter that Chargin told him the "opportunity of a lifetime" is indeed a fight with GSP in December, from what he's been told.

Said Chargin in the release, "Nick is a good kid and a very exciting fighter. Right now he has an opportunity of a lifetime as it pertains to his MMA career. While I don't doubt that Nick and his team were serious about taking the big step into boxing, it only makes sense for him to finish what he started and see how far he can go in MMA before he does anything in boxing. It's all about timing... we began these discussions over two years ago and nobody would have imagined the type of demand that there currently is for Nick as a mixed martial artist."

Diaz's trainer Cesar Gracie also commented in the release, and made it clear that their discussions for the Lacy fight were serious, but this opportunity in MMA is what he's been looking for.

"There are some people that have said we were just posturing to go into professional boxing and they don't understand that this thing is something we had been working on since 2009," Gracie said. "It wasn't just out of nowhere but at this point in time, there's a certain chance that comes along once in a very long while and it only makes sense to stick to MMA as of right now."

"Nick's been working really hard to get to this point in his MMA career and it wouldn't make sense for us to make that transition into boxing right now. If this were a couple months ago or if certain fights had played out differently, we'd definitely be ready to go into boxing, but that's not how it played out. Don Chargin is a great boxing promoter and he understood our dilemma completely and I thank him for that."

So regardless of whatever "hurdles" White says they need to overcome, this appears to be the fight in play on all angles.

Penick's Analysis: White's posturing at this point, as I don't see Diaz and camp pulling out of this fight if they weren't going to be able to get this fight together. There may be hurdles and things that need to be worked out, but I don't see it being anything that will not allow them to put the fight on. This is the only fight that was going to get Diaz motivated to get back into the cage for right now, and it's a fight that's going to garner a ton of interest. And though he said the two of them on TUF isn't even a thought right now, I wouldn't count that out with filming set to start early next month. The wheels are all in motion for this fight, and though it's not yet official, I would have to imagine that it's exactly what we'll be seeing in December.