No, the biggest puzzle here is not why the organization blew up Diaz vs. St. Pierre -- that part was perfectly justified -- but why the UFC still wants to have anything at all to do with Nick Diaz. If White can “never accept Diaz’s word” again as he’s said, why keep him around at all? And if he can’t be trusted with the responsibility of a UFC title shot, what happens if he beats B.J. Penn next month in Las Vegas?
About these things we can only speculate. White’s Friday interview with Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole didn’t shed a ton of light on how Diaz went from the brink of being out of a job to being back in a fight that will feature prominently on the UFC 137 pay-per-view, but it did at least give some clues about why the company still wants him.
Perhaps with different expectations from everyone, a second attempt at a fight between Diaz and St. Pierre could still work. In fact, the storyline kind of books itself, as one of the UFC’s most favored sons would prepare to take on the troubled child who refuses to play by the company’s rules. Certainly, Diaz is still a very marketable fighter and, in a weird way, this latest debacle has arguably made him even more interesting to the fight-watching public. But will the UFC ever again have enough confidence in him to put him in such a high profile spot?
If it does, at least now the fight promotion knows it will have to do most of that aforementioned marketing itself. It’s certainly not going to get any help from Diaz.
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