Nick Diaz will defend his Strikeforce welterweight title against Paul Daley on Saturday, April 9. Diaz and Daley will meet in the main event in what will be Stikeforce's first show under the ownership of the UFC's parent company, Zuffa LLC.
While some of the fighters on the card may look at their bouts as an audition for the UFC, it's hard to fathom the two fighters in the main event ever getting the chance to set foot inside the Octagon again.
Daley's story is fairly well known, he was an up-and-coming fighter in the UFC's welterweight division when he met Josh Koscheck in May 2010. A frustrated Daley sucker punched Koscheck after the final bell, prompting UFC president Dana White to release Daley from the UFC immediately after the event.
"He's done. I don't give a s--t if he's the best 170-pounder in the world," White said after the fight. "He'll never come back here again. I'm probably the most lenient guy in sports. And this is probably one of the most lenient organizations. We're all human, we all mistakes, things happen. There's no excuse for that. These guys are professional athletes. You don't ever hit a guy blatantly after the bell like that whether you're frustrated or not. It was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. I don't care if he fights in every show all over the world and becomes the best and everybody thinks he's the pound-for-pound best in the world. He will never fight in the UFC ever again."
When Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, Daley openly considered withdrawing from his fight with Diaz, taking to twitter to post, "Business as usual, what if i don't wanna fight for DANA WHITE/ZUFFA?......Dana white bans me for life from the UFC, Then buys STRIKEFORCE, and thinks im still gonna be EASY and fight on one of the most anticipated fights of the year (vs Diaz)? Which will no doubt make ZUFFA/Dana White money. Daley vs Diaz still on?.....Someone better holla at my manager real quick."
In the days leading up to the fight with Diaz, Daley told MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani that he felt his current employer Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker sold out, by selling the company to Zuffa.
It's hard to fathom the UFC brass sitting idly by as one of their fighters calls them sell outs.
As far as Nick Diaz, Dana White has said that he considers Diaz the best pound for pound fighter outside of the UFC. He has also stated that he would be reluctant to bring Diaz back because of how Diaz conducts himself outside the Octagon.
White told Helwani, "I like Nick Diaz very much and I've said this many times, but Nick Diaz refuses to play the game."
White continued, "You have to follow certain rules and guidelines. The last time Nick Diaz was in the UFC, he got into a fist fight in the hospital, with the guy that he fought here. You can't do that kind of stuff. You know, the kid is very talented, and he probably should be in the UFC, but that kind of stuff has got to stop."
White stressed he does have a good relationship with Diaz, "I talk to Nick Diaz every time I see him. Every time I see him, he's a good kid, but its the stuff after, the stuff away from the Octagon that's tough with Nick."
That "stuff" was evident in Diaz's pre-fight interview for Saturday night's event. Diaz put Helwani in an awkward spot when he started off the interview by saying, "I wasn't going to do this interview, but they told me I had to."
Diaz then explained his reasoning behind that comment, "I feel like you (Helwani) instigate fights quite a bit. That's your job, but where I come from, people like that get slapped."
In another interview Diaz took the not playing the game one step further, showing disdain for his Strikeforce title, telling MMAWeekly.com, "I knew there was a reason I never strapped that belt around my waist. He (Daley) can have the belt, I'm fighting for money."
"I don't feel like a champion right now that the UFC bought this organization, I don't understand all that. I thought we were competing with the UFC and I thought my belt might have been as potentially as important as a UFC belt."
Again, much like the Daley comments, it would be hard to see White just laughing off comments such as these from a UFC champion.
It's hard to foresee a day that Diaz or Daley would ever fight for the UFC, but as former teammates Jon Jones and Rashad Evans have shown us, you never say never in the world of the UFC.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment