By Carlos Arias
Orange County Register
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is one of the nicest guys in the UFC and one of the most popular fighters in MMA.
He always conducts himself in a professional manner and doesn’t get involved in the verbal sparring that often accompanies the promotion of major fights.
That’s what makes the build-up to St-Pierre’s long-awaited showdown against Nick Diaz at UFC 158 on Saturday in Montreal so unusual. St. Pierre has called Diaz the most disrespectful fighter in the sport and he said he wants to make Diaz retire.
Where did all the bad blood come from? UFC president Dana White was a guest on “The Jim Rome Show” on Wednesday and he revealed it stems from an incident that happened in 2011 when Diaz called out St-Pierre at UFC 137 following his victory over B.J. Penn. Later that night, Diaz was literally stalking St-Pierre in the event’s host hotel looking to settle things outside the octagon.
“There’s more to this story that hasn’t been told,” White told Rome. “Nobody has talked about this, I haven’t said anything about it, but at one of the fights, the one where he really starts calling Georges out, he was chasing Georges around the hotel and like yelling at him and stuff. Georges thought he was going to try to fight him in the hotel. He was just waiting for the elevator doors to open and see Nick Diaz. Like at the last fight where he said all that stuff about Georges, he was really messing with Georges bad at the fight, like trying to fight him at the hotel. That really (ticked) Georges off.”
It wouldn’t be such a stretch of the imagination if Diaz had actually started a fight with St-Pierre in a hotel. He once got into a brawl with Joe Riggs in a hospital following their fight at UFC 57 in 2006.
“I don’t think that would ever happen, but Georges St-Pierre felt like it was,” White said. “Georges has said publicly many times when he was younger he used to get bullied. That’s what got him into martial arts. He just has this crazy thing about bullies and he thinks Nick Diaz is a bully.”
Both fighters went on rants on last week’s pre-fight conference call for UFC 158. Diaz said St-Pierre is “pampered,” among the many insults he hurled at the champion. St-Pierre called Diaz an “uneducated fool.”
Diaz followed up that infamous rant by missing Wednesday’s open workouts. White said there will be serious repercussions if Diaz doesn’t show up for Thursday’s final pre-fight news conference.
“If he does not show up tomorrow for the press conference, it’s not going to be good,” White said. “I don’t know what to say, or what’s going to happen, but let me tell you what, it will not be good.”
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