Erm, ok, just give us a minute. If we’ve got this right, Georges St-Pierre was to face Nick Diaz at UFC 137 but Diaz no-showed at the press conferences and got demoted to face Carlos Condit, but GSP got injured so Diaz was promoted to face B.J. Penn, then GSP was to face Condit at UFC 143 but Diaz pissed GSP off, so Condit was dropped so GSP could face Diaz, but now GSP is injured and Diaz will face Condit instead. Simple really.
What it all means is that we’re going to have to wait even longer for the match-up between the two best welterweights in MMA.
Has Diaz got the skills to beat GSP? The answer is probably not. Every time someone is put before GSP and made out to possess some quality that this time may be the undoing of the Canadian MMA robot, GSP simply adapts his game and crushes them in every single round with what has become monotonous regularity. But Diaz is that rare person who has managed to get under the skin of GSP (even that little pissant Josh Koscheck couldn’t annoy GSP) and we can hold out hope that getting inside GSP’s head may force the welterweight champ into making a mistake, or at least encouraging him to take a chance to finish his opponent for once.
But we can forget about that for now. GSP is out for 10 months with a knee injury and it’s Diaz and Condit who are set to face each other on February 4th. Can Condit spoil the party and derail the UFC’s plans for GSP and Diaz? The answer, again, is probably not. What we’ll get though is a fight between two of the most aggressive guys in the sport, and one that should deliver all the excitement that a GSP fight lacks. Enjoy it.
By Richard Gadsby & Peter Simpson
