Issue 102
June 2013
Former Fighters Only Awards ‘Journalist of the Year’ John Morgan discusses whether the Diaz-GSP feud really was just for the cameras.
March’s UFC 158 main event between Georges St Pierre and Nick Diaz was a contest years in the making, but did it truly deliver on the hype? Was this really a grudge match between two bitter rivals, or were fans and media alike duped into buying the UFC’s now-famous “wolf tickets,” as Diaz so artfully proclaimed?
With months of trash-talking leading up to the contest, fans were expecting nothing short of an all-out war when longtime UFC welterweight champion St Pierre defended his title against his brash rival Diaz. What they got was precisely what many MMA pundits expected: a St Pierre domination for 25 full minutes, where the champ used his wrestling and jiu-jitsu defence to stay comfortably in control of positioning throughout the contest.
While it might not have delivered on quite as much action as some had hoped, UFC president Dana White said he didn’t have a problem with the strategy.
“What did everybody expect (St Pierre) to do?” White asked. “Did everybody really think he was going to stand in the middle of the ring and just slug toe-to-toe for five rounds with Nick Diaz? That would be stupid. He fought the perfect fight.”
But some complaining fans seemed to be less upset by the champ’s game plan and more so by both St Pierre and Diaz alluding to the good work each had put in hyping the fight during the build-up to the highly anticipated fight card.
“I don’t take it personal,” St Pierre said after the win. “I always respect everybody who does this job. It’s a very tough sport that we’re into. The UFC has the best fighters in the world. We all come from a different background, but to reach the point that we are in the UFC takes a lot of sacrifice. We all come from a different road, but I highly respect everyone that fights in the UFC – everyone.”
So was this really a grudge match? Afterward, the two took turns raising each other’s hand in victory and seemed to bury the hatchet. Did it ever exist in the first place? St Pierre said it’s not fair to judge the post-fight reaction as an accurate measure of pre-fight tension.
“When you finish a tough fight, there is like some sort of camaraderie that’s going on,” St Pierre said. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s something you need to live to understand. It’s like you put on a show together, you give everything you have, and that’s how it is.”
But even the always outspoken Diaz seemed to think there wasn’t that much animosity between the two.
“(Georges) is a great fighter,” Diaz said at the evening’s post-event presser. “He does what he does to win. He decided to say, ‘Hey, look, you’re the guy,’ and that’s why I’m here. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have got this fight in the first place.”
For his part, White said he remains convinced of the authenticity behind
the rivalry.
“Do you believe that was promotion?” White asked. “I know what to believe. I’ve been in the middle of this bulls***t for freaking three months.
“You guys couldn’t hear the commentary between rounds, but when Nick Diaz would go back to his stool, he’d say, ‘He hits like a b***h. Win or lose, this guy is a p***y,’ and stuff like that. He’s one hell of an actor. Maybe he should go get a part and a role. This wasn’t promotion. This wasn’t anything. It’s Nick Diaz. It’s the way he is.”
I tend to side with White on this one. Sure, both St Pierre and Diaz are veterans of the sport who realise what it takes to get fans talking about a fight – and subsequently opening up their wallets to buy tickets and pay-per-views. But it was painfully evident at the epic UFC 158 pre-event presser that St Pierre was more than a little irked at all of Diaz’s talk. As the respectful French-Canadian fighter angrily asked Diaz: “Do you really think I’m afraid of you?” before tossing the microphone down on the table, it was evident there was some real animosity between the two.
Of course, in the end, emotion and bad blood don’t make fights, especially at the highest level of the game. Styles do, and St Pierre’s was a nightmare for Diaz, who has struggled with defencive wrestling throughout his career and who was unable to overcome St Pierre’s underrated jiu-jitsu game to really threaten with any submissions.
Like it or not, MMA will always be entertainment, as well as sport. Chael Sonnen is a master of bridging the two, and others are quickly (and wisely) following suit. Occasionally, this will probably result in a little professional-wrestling-esque antics, but I don’t believe for one second the St Pierre-Diaz rivalry was all contrived hyperbole, even if the UFC did willfully exaggerate the amount of hate in both fighters’ hearts.
“Trust me, whatever they say, they’re not that good of actors – either one of them,” White said.
