According to his interview with MMA Junkie, apparently the UFC just asked him to come to Las Vegas without fully explaining why, and Diaz, who naturally assumed that whatever his new employer wanted from him couldn't have been that important, didn't show up and didn't bother to tell anyone.
Completely reasonable, right? Only if you're Nick Diaz, who has proven time and time again that he is firmly committed to learning absolutely nothing from his many costly mistakes, yet remains convinced that whatever goes wrong is probably someone else's fault.
This time, it's the UFC's fault. And sure, it's also GSP's. To hear Diaz tell it, the champ should have adamantly demanded that Diaz not be pulled from their title bout at UFC 137 even after he skipped two (2!) press conferences in one week, both of which St. Pierre took time out of his training schedule to attend. The fact that St. Pierre didn't do this, that he sat there at the press conference alone, looking absolutely stunned that someone could be this inconsiderate and short-sighted, proves that he is, in Diaz's words, "a little b--ch" who doesn't actually want this fight.
Did you get that? The guy who showed up to perform his pre-fight media responsibilities, the one who did what the UFC asked him to do in order to make the fight happen, is the one who doesn't want to fight.
It takes some serious psychological gymnastics to arrive at such a conclusion, but that's Diaz for you. He's been doing it for years, so why should he stop now?
Here's what Diaz told John Morgan about the infamous no-show that cost him a title shot and, by all indications, a ton of money:
"I didn't even know there was a press conference. I thought it was some PR thing. People were trying to tell me, 'You're going to do this skit' and that I was going to be a part of some PR skit where I had this part where I was walking through a hall, kind of like that scene Jake Shields did. I was like, 'What the [expletive]? Are you kidding?' So I'm thinking, 'Somebody better come over here and tell me what I'm doing and get me ready to go do it so I don't look like an [expletive].' That's how I feel when you're coming to get me ready for something I'm not ready for."
So Diaz did what anybody would do when they feel like they need more information about one of the responsibilities pertaining to their job: he turned his phone off. He didn't answer calls, didn't ask for help, refused even to speak with his own manager, Cesar Gracie, who then slid Diaz right under the bus by relating the embarrassing details of it all to the UFC and the media.
For Gracie, it was a curious time to get fed up with the exact same antics he has enabled for years. In the past, when Diaz no-showed interviews and conference calls and drug tests and photo shoots -- all of which he has done repeatedly, resulting in incalculable financial losses over the course of his career -- it was always Gracie who made excuses for him.
Nick's too busy. Nick doesn't do stuff like this. Nick doesn't have time.
And so, as he lost out on one career opportunity after another, Diaz was never forced to confront what role his own behavior was playing in causing the very problems he complained about. It's sad, really, and more than a little troubling. Is it any wonder that now, as a 28-year-old professional fighter who just threw away the biggest, most lucrative fight of his life due to his own inability to do something as simple as get on a plane, he can't accept responsibility for his own mistakes?
Diaz blames the UFC for not adequately communicating to him the importance of the press conference (or even that there was one). As if, when your employer buys you a plane ticket, they must also sit you down and carefully explain that they would like you to board that plane at the appointed time.
Diaz blames GSP for letting the UFC replace him with Carlos Condit. As if it's the champion's responsibility to make sure the challenger is allowed to blow off media events without suffering any consequences.
Amazingly, Diaz even blames the UFC for offering him a consolation fight on the same card with B.J. Penn, who he says he "was previously friends with," complaining that the UFC is "trying to make these fights out of people that aren't even trying to fight." As if the UFC should not only not punish him for wasting all that time and money, but should also work around his personal feelings about potential opponents when re-booking him at the last minute.
This is the thinking of a man who blames everyone else for his problems. This is a selfish view, a childish view. This is probably also the view of a man who needs help that he isn't getting, either because he can't bring himself to ask for it or because the people who might be in a position to ask for him are only concerned with getting him to the next fight and the next paycheck. It's a view that profits a man only the temporary comfort that comes with shifting the blame, all while costing him greatly in terms of money, career opportunities, and the respect of his peers.
If the people who are supposed to care about Diaz don't do something to confront these problems and help him deal with them, that's a cost he may end up paying for the rest of his life.
By Ben Fowlkes
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