The UFC 158 pre-fight press conference just finished and while there were several fighters on the podium it turned out to be mainly Nick Diaz and occasionally GSP who were doing all the talking!
Read our keynotes from the presser below.
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– Good news – Nick Diaz is at today’s presser.
– Dana announces that the UFC have signed a new long-term deal with one of their long-time sponsors Harley Davidson Motorcycles.
– Diaz said he didn’t turn up to the workouts yesterday because he needed sleep and it was either that or miss this presser. He apologizes to the fans and says he wants to put on a show, but he’s more concerned with putting on a good show on Saturday night.
Dana takes a dig at reporter Ariel Helwani for only asking questions about Diaz’s no-show, claiming that he’s just trying to antagonize the fighter. Helwani denies that and stands his ground, but decides not to question Diaz further about it.
– Diaz thinks that a lot of time the UFC / media are just trying to portray him as the bad guy and GSP as the good guy.
Then he heads off on a classic Diaz sidetrack, complaining about the picture that the UFC chose for the official poster, saying it’s old and makes him look bad. He wanted one that was “buttered up and photoshopped” like GSP gets, but suggests that he doesn’t get that kind of special treatment.
– Diaz doesn’t like the fact that GSP has called him a bully. He hints that he too has had to come through adversity and has had to deal with bullying. He asks GSP if he’s ever had a gun held to his head, or seen one of his friends being put into a coma.
Diaz says that despite people’s perception of him, he doesn’t see himself as a violent person, only as a mixed martial artist.
– GSP and Diaz bicker back and forth. St.Pierre says he’s sure he didn’t have as bad experiences as Diaz growing up, but doesn’t understand why they are having this conversation. Diaz says it’s because of things GSP has been saying, but the champ points out that it’s Diaz who’s been using bullying tactics, trying to intimidate him. Diaz says that it was just his way of getting the fight he wanted.
– Diaz tells GSP that he’s not been hitting the big hitters like he has in his career. He thinks St.Pierre has avoided that with wrestling and backs down when he gets hit. He doesn’t like the wrestling-heavy style that fighters like GSP employ and thinks it’s bad for the sport. He hints that some of these fighters are also using steroids to give them an advantage.
– Regarding a rumored incident in a hotel a while back in which Diaz was following GSP around a hotel harassing him. Diaz said that St.Pierre shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and that when he bumped into him outside of an elevator he stood his ground and gave him a hard look, forcing the champion to move past him.
GSP asks Diaz if he really thinks he’s scared off him. Diaz says no, and that it’s not his plan to scare him. He just did what he thought he had to do in order to get the fight he wanted.
– A reporter tries to ask another fighter on the podium a question, but Diaz butts in and starts arguing with GSP again. St.Pierre denies strongly that he uses steroids and also suggests that the media have twisted his words about certain things in the build-up to the fight to portray him in a certain way, just the same way that Diaz claims has been done to him. He tells Diaz that’s just the way it goes and that’s what will help make them both a lot of money on Saturday night.
– Diaz wanted to do a private workout immediately after his plane journey yesterday to get rid of what he calls ‘toxic water’ that you gather in your body when you’re flying and after that he needed to sleep. He thinks it was the right decision to do that rather than turn up to the media workout as he feels 100% today.
He laughs at the idea that GSP was complaining about him not showing up to the workouts, pointing out that St.Pierre actually lives here so it was easy for him to be there.
– St.Pierre is tired of answering the same questions all the time, especially when he’s trying to cut weight in the days before the fight, but he’s glad it’s going to be over soon. Despite what Diaz is saying he claims he’s not angered and is only focusing on what he can control which is the fight itself.
– Finally someone else gets to speak! Johny Hendricks appears to have moved on from the fact that he was overlooked by GSP for a title shot, and is instead focusing on his fight at the weekend with Carlos Condit and believes a win there will get him a title shot.
– Diaz apologizes if he fails a drug test for marijuana this time around, but thinks he should be fine this time due to the way he’s prepared. He takes another pot-shot at GSP, saying he doesn’t think they really do much testing for drugs here anyway.
– Diaz claims he was going through a lot of personal issues prior to the last time he was supposed to fight GSP in 2011 and that’s why he failed to turn up to the press conference on that occasion.
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Watch the full video from the pre-fight presser by clicking HERE.
