Nick Diaz just made UFC 158 a lot more interesting.
Diaz (26-8) faces Georges St. Pierre (23-2) for the welterweight title this weekend. On a radio show after the press conference Diaz made some startling allegations. He claimed GSP takes “plenty of steroids.”
This comes after GSP called Diaz the most disrespectful fighter in the UFC.
Is UFC 158 all hype or will Diaz/GSP be a fight of the year candidate?
UFC president Dana White is getting tired of Nick Diaz. He’s been unreliable and has failed two previous drug tests for marijuana. Diaz is a medical marijuana card holder and is able to use it out of competition, but if he doesn’t stop close enough to a fight and fails a third test, White confirmed Diaz would be terminated.
White does love banter between fighters leading up to a pay-per-view. All of the “bad blood” fights have high buy-rates. He even said in an interview that “Georges isn’t Georges right now.” Claiming that Diaz could be in GSP’s head.
Mind games have yet to work on GSP. He’s only had one, controversial, loss in his last 17 fights spanning back to 2004. He beat Carlos Condit in November to win the welterweight title. He never lost the title in the first place. He had to vacate it when he injured his ACL. He was out of action for over a year before beating Condit. He didn’t look as explosive, but it’s been five months since that fight.
I expect GSP to take Diaz’s venom and use it as motivation. No matter the outcome, I don’t see these guys shaking hands at the end of the fight.
There are some good fights rounding out the rest of the UFC 158 card.
In what is expected to be a fight to determine the #1 contender for welterweight title, Carlos Condit faces Johny Hendricks. I’ve caught the last four Hendricks fights. The most impressive being his 46 second first-round knockout of Martin Kampmann.
The rest of the card includes:
- Jake Ellenberger vs. Nate Marquardt
- Chris Camozzi vs. Nick Ring
- Mike Ricci vs. Colin Fletcher
- Patrick Cote vs. Bobby Voelker
- Antonio Carvalho vs. Darren Elkins
- Dan Miller vs. Jordan Mein
- John Makdessi vs. Daron Cruiskshank
- Ricky Story vs. Quinn Mulhern
- T.J. Dillashaw vs. Issei Tamura
- George Roop vs. Reuben Duran
Check out the latest ‘The Tommy Toe Hold Show’ episode hyping Diaz vs. GSP.