Dominick Cruz will miss his UFC 148 fight with Urijah Faber and could miss up to a year with a torn ACL. Dana White has announced that the UFC will create another interim title while Cruz is gone, once again wasting our time with a phantom title which in the end will render meaningless anyway.

Once I heard that Urijah Faber will fight an unnamed opponent at UFC 148 for this interim title my blood pressure started boiling. If there is one thing that is starting to become a pet peeve of mine it would be these meaningless UFC interim titles. Once again the UFC will try and pass this farce off as a real championship match when in the end, this title means as much as the fake belt that Chael Sonnen has been walking around with for the last several months. Quite frankly Sonnen’s belt may mean more!

It really came to a head for me when Carlos Condit “won” a phantom UFC interim championship at UFC 143 from Nick Diaz. Condit jumped into the fight after Georges St-Pierre suffered an injury that took him out of the fight and out of competition for up to a year. It wasn’t so bad that Condit won the fight but really set me off was when Condit announced after the fight that he would not take another fight until GSP returned, opting to sit out and wait to fight St-Pierre than defend his phony title. Wait, what?

Let me get this straight. The UFC went to the trouble of creating this interim welterweight title because Georges St-Pierre wouldn’t be able to fight until November. I would imagine the idea behind this would be to keep a championship belt active while GSP sat out for ten months. Now the UFC has a situation where the interim champion is sitting out nine months to wait and fight the real champion. So what is the freaking point of an interim champion when the interim champion is telling you not only does his title not matter, he isn’t fighting either?

Quite frankly the UFC overplayed their hand with the welterweight title and are about to do it again with the bantamweight title. By having an interim title, the UFC are going to miss out on the GSP vs. Diaz money fight. Instead of going right to Diaz, GSP now has to go to Condit since Condit is the interim champion. Could the UFC go with Diaz vs. GSP anyway? Sure they could, but it really wouldn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things.

The UFC is about to make that same mistake again with Faber. Faber vs. Cruz is the money fight here. They have a storied rivalry which has taken center stage thanks to The Ultimate Fighter Live. By creating an interim title, the UFC now has to bank on Faber not only winning that fight, but at least one more by the time Cruz returns. Could he do it? Yes, but the odds are against it. So what happens when Cruz comes back? A year from now he’d have to fight the interim champion and depending upon where Faber is at during that time, a championship fight may not even make sense. I don’t know how you ever get back to Faber vs. Cruz if Faber is an ex-champion in the midst of a losing streak when Cruz does come back.

The irony here is that every fighter that has ever won an interim title in the UFC will tell you flat out that the title means nothing. Every one of those fighters continued to call out the champion and acknowledge that they aren’t holding the division’s legitimate title. There aren’t a whole lot of professional athletes that would have the nerve to say otherwise.

The UFC has two options here. One would be to just strip the champion of his title and make that interim title fight an actual championship fight (such was the case when BJ Penn fought Joe Stevenson when Sean Sherk tested positive for PEDs). The other of course would be to just keep the championship belt on the champion, allow him to recover, and pick things up where the UFC left off.

I am inclined to think that stripping the champion of the belt would be the best option. Is it fair? Maybe not, but if a champion isn’t active for a year those are the breaks. The champion should be given an immediate title shot upon his return. Everyone wins here as the division isn’t put on hold, the UFC can continue booking title fights, and those title fights actual mean something.

At the same time, allowing the championship to remain with the champion while he is idle isn’t a bad choice either. Would it really kill business for the UFC to leave the bantamweight title on Dominick Cruz over the next year? No, but it would make fighters in the division cautious about picking the right opponent. No contender wants to take himself out of the game by making a bad business decision. It isn’t fair to those fighters, which makes me think that just stripping the champion outright makes the most sense.

I took a look at all of the past interim UFC championship fights. There is no real good reason in my mind that the champions weren’t stripped for their titles as opposed to creating these secondary belts. It is time to end this farce and either strip the titles from the champions or give the champs time to recover and defend their belts. The only bad choice here is to continue with these phony, meaningless title fights, telling fans they are getting something they aren’t.

There is no perfect answer here. Either way you will risk your money fights but advertising a phony title is not the answer. End the interim title fights and move on!

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Nick Diaz is not going down easy. The former Strikeforce welterweight champion has been idle since February and under suspension by the NSAC. The layoff has been long enough for Diaz and he is willing to sue his way back into the UFC octagon.

Diaz filed suit yesterday against the Nevada State Athletic Commission in what could turn out to be a ground breaking legal decision if the law finds in Diaz’s favor. If Diaz is victorious in his conquest, it could alter the authority the NSAC has over temporarily suspending fighters and how quickly they are due their day in court.

MMAfighting.com has all of the details. I am not a fan of a lot of copying an pasting so I’ll summarize, yet encourage you to go read their piece for a more detailed explanation of the Diaz lawsuit. According to the piece, there are three issues at play here.

Diaz would like injunctive relief on two issues, meaning he wants his suspension lifted immediately. The third issue is that Diaz believes he did not have due process rights and this was violated by the NSAC not giving Diaz both injunctive and declaratory relief. So what does this all mean?

The first issue is that Diaz believes the NSAC violated the statutory code NRS 23B which requires the commission to determine the outcome of a proceeding related to suspension within 45 days of the date of the suspension. 45 days have passed and there is no hearing scheduled. According to Diaz’s team, his license has been indefinitely suspended without actually being found guilty of anything as a result of a hearing.

Statute NRS 467.117 has also been violated according to the lawsuit. The gist of this one is that Diaz’s temporary suspension is illegal “because no basis has been established that demonstrates suspending Diaz was done as a matter of preserving public health.”

Diaz is hoping that these statute violations will allow him to walk without any further proceedings back inside the octagon. The court will have to ask whether Diaz was suspended illegally in the first place and if by the NSAC not acting in 45 days is in fact cause to dismiss the case against Diaz.

Diaz has also officially ended his retirement. Check out this interesting nugget from the lawsuit.

“On February 7th, 2012, the UFC’s President publicly announced that Mr. Condit agreed to an immediate rematch against me. It is my understanding that the winner of that rematch will be offered a contest against Georges St-Pierre, the current UFC welterweight champion. The summary suspension against me, made without any consideration of the merits of the Complaint, is the only reason I am aware of that a rematch against Mr Condit has not been scheduled. If the summary suspension is set aside, I would be prepared to compete against Mr. Condit or against any other opponent deemed suitable immediately.”

According to Dave Meltzer, Diaz has a hearing scheduled on May 14 seeking a preliminary injunction that would more or less lift his suspension and allow him to fight. This explains why Carlos Condit has remained idle since winning the interim UFC welterweight title from Diaz back in February. I never understood what the point was of having an interim champion if that champion was just going to sit and wait for the real champion to return and fight.

All of this drama could create an electrifying atmosphere for a Diaz vs. Condit rematch. The irony here is that their first fight wasn’t even really that good. Yet the elaborate backstory here could be enough to erase those memories from fan’s minds and create interest in a fight that disappointed the first time around.

The risk here for Diaz is that if he loses the case, he is going to make a lot of people angry on the NSAC. That could come back to haunt him if the time comes for Diaz if he has his day in court.

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The UFC is the most powerful promotion in MMA. Yet even with all of that power, they have let several big money fights slip through the cracks. Here are 10 fights that would have drawn money that for one reason or another the UFC failed to make.

This was a tougher list to make than I anticipated. A part of me wants to look strictly at money and what would draw the most dollars at the time of the fight while another part of me looks for the best matchups that never materialized. While they are usually the same for casual MMA fans, hardcore MMA fans may think differently.

I think that the UFC gets a little too cute at times when it comes to their money fights. Several times the company has passed on obvious money fights for a number of reasons. Generally the greed gets the best of them and they try and hold the fight off to create even more interest. Unfortunately that generally bites the UFC in the butt more often than not.

Here are ten fights that I think the UFC should have pulled off for millions of dollars, yet failed to do so. Some aren’t their fault, such as failing to sign the most polarizing heavyweight fighter in MMA history to guys just being hurt at the wrong time. Regardless, these are ten fights that the UFC failed to make that could have made them millions.

Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar III - Quite frankly this fight was the catalyst for this list. I watched Brock’s promo the other night on WWE RAW and was reminded about how great his UFC 100 Countdown promos were leading up to the Mir fight. It was one-sided domination, but these two guys could have easily talked the UFC audience into a rematch. UFC 100 drew the biggest buyrate in UFC history and a lot of that had to do with this fight. According to numerous reports, the plan was to go with Mir vs. Lesnar for the JDS-Lesnar The Ultimate Fighter season but it never materialized. As fun as it was to see Overeem vs. Lesnar, I think the UFC cost themselves millions by passing on this fight before Brock retired.

Josh Koscheck vs. Chris Leben - I don’t know if the UFC would have drawn millions of dollars from this fight, but you can’t tell me it wouldn’t have been huge. Fans watched a real grudge play out on national television during the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter. Koscheck won a one-sided fight on the show but both fighters have gone on to become superstars since those early days in the UFC gym. Hardcore MMA fans don’t forget and I think with the right Countdown special, a replay of their old segments on TUF 1, that this fight could have been huge. According to one report I read, the fight was on the table but Koscheck turned it down.

Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz - The UFC has nobody to blame but themselves for not cashing in on this obvious choice. The UFC got cute last year when Diaz skipped a couple of press conferences and pulled the fight. It was a big gamble because if Diaz beat Penn, the fight would be bigger and vice versa if Diaz lost. Now you could tell me that GSP was hurt and would have pulled out anyway, but who knows? Fate could have played out differently but we will never know and at this rate, this fight looks further away from happening than it ever did before.

Frank Shamrock vs. Chuck Liddell - Frank Shamrock retired as the undefeated UFC light heavyweight champion in 1999. The Iceman entered the division shortly thereafter and become the dominant force in all of MMA once he hit his stride a few years later. The personal issues between Dana White and Frank are well known, but imagine how huge this fight could have been if Shamrock came back to take this fight? I think this would have shattered records for the time period and could have helped move MMA closer to the mainstream. Unfortunately personal issues got in the way of what could have been the biggest fight up to that point in MMA history.

Anderson Silva vs. Lyoto Machida - In 2009 Joe Rogan proclaimed the UFC light heavyweight division the “Machida era” after he knocked out Rashad Evans to win the UFC championship. Anderson Silva was already regarded as one of the greatest, if not the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Silva was already doubling in the light heavyweight division and the fight seemed like a natural. In retrospect, it probably would have been a one-sided win by Silva but you never would have known that then. This was a case where the UFC needed to strike while the iron was hot because the flame on that iron went out pretty quickly thereafter.

Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelienanko - This is a tough one to pin on the UFC because according to all reports, they went hard at Fedor. I remember the buzz at the time of negotiations being that Lesnar vs. Fedor was already penciled in on an upcoming UFC show. Unfortunately for fight fans, Fedor wound up signing with Strikeforce for less money (some would say to avoid the fight). Should Dana White have given in and allowed M1 to co-promote? Maybe, maybe not, but the decision not to do so cost the UFC arguably the biggest money fight in MMA history. Think Mayweather vs. Pacquiao and you got Lesnar vs. Fedor in 2009.

Randy Couture vs. Anderson Silva - I can’t remember ever seeing anyone write about this one so let me be the first. I have certainly been critical of Couture and his place in MMA history but I won’t deny that the guy could draw money. I was just watching his UFC heavyweight title win over Tim Sylvia on Fuel TV the other night and thought, “Wow imagine the hype if he ever moved down to middleweight to challenge Silva or meet Silva at light heavyweight?” I am certain that it would have been a massacre but the intrigue seeing Couture try and pull of the impossible is a Rocky-like storyline that could have set records.

Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo - Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that this fight would bring in the kind of money Brock-Fedor or Machida-Silva would, but this is a fight that had legs a couple of years ago. A video went viral in the MMA world of Jackson and Mo having words and all of the sudden a feud was born. Of course Mo was in Strikeforce at the time but once Zuffa bought Strikeforce, the fight could have been made. I’ll be honest and tell you that I never had the interest in seeing this one that some did, but I think that these two could have talked themselves into some big money if the UFC made the fight. Unfortunately for all, I think that time has passed.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Chael Sonnen - If the UFC was pro wrestling, this would have been Sonnen’s first fight following his loss to Anderson Silva. The fight was a natural with all of the trash talking that Sonnen did on Brazil and Brazilian fighters. Silva was and remains one of the most popular fighters in the UFC. A video also went viral in the MMA world of Sonnen and Silva in a car together with Silva just ripping Chael apart right to his face. While I do think that Chael would have destroyed Wanderlei, the hype leading up to the fight could have been some of the best in recent memory.

Roy Nelson vs. Brock Lesnar - This odd freak show of a fight could have wound up making the UFC a whole lot of money. Both fighters wanted the fight after Brock’s UFC title to Cain Velasquez but for some reason (most likely Lesnar’s injuries), the fight never happened. It is a shame that Brock is retired because this fight would have been a lot of fun to watch and talk about. Whether the UFC didn’t strike while the iron was hot or Brock was just never healthy at the right time, this was a money fight right in their backyard that they failed to pull off.

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This piece will undoubtedly curse at least one of the fighters mentioned in it. To anyone who is injured over the course of the next few months and is rendered unable to fight for (or defend) the UFC title in his respective weight class?

Consider this a preemptive apology. You are a professional mixed martial artist, however, so you probably know the risks involved. Therefore, my conscience is free and clear! From Rashad Evans pulling out of UFC 128 with Shogun to Brock Lesnar’s ongoing diverticulitis to GSP’s torn ACL in late December, it is safe to say that 2011 was a year of Madden Curse-like series of unfortunate events.

Given this injury-laden 2011, I am happy to say, with as much exuberance as I can from my computer, that “It’s title season!” for the UFC. Try to imagine that sounding like Vince Vaughn saying “It’s wedding season!” to Owen Wilson in the 2005 hit comedy Wedding Crashers. Anyway, two weeks ago at
UFC 144, Ben Henderson kicked things off with a very close decision win over Frankie Edgar to claim the Lightweight belt. This set off a flurry of “Who Gets the Next Shot?” blog posts, Facebook updates and tweets…until Edgar was awarded the rematch (and rightfully so, but we’ll get to that later). In the meantime, let’s take a look at the calendar:

UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans
Other than Silva/Sonnen, you’d be hard pressed to find a more heated rivalry in the UFC right now. We all know the story: training partners, close friends, betrayal, severed alliances, schedule delays and now the upcoming showdown (sounds like a really bad daytime soap opera). With Evans finally healthy and coming off back-to-back wins against a briefly-revitalized Tito Ortiz and a talented-but-still-green Phil Davis, he’ll get his shot at the most dangerous fighter in the UFC and arguably all of MMA. Jonny “Bones” Jones has torn through everyone he’s faced and will have a significant size advantage (I do expect him to win handily). However, and I preface this with the fact that Jones and Chuck Liddell are very different fighters at what would be different points in their respective careers, Evans did ruin the party for The Iceman the last time he was in Atlanta so you never know what could happen if he somehow finds his way inside Jones’ Stretch Armstrong-like reach.

UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Overeem
UFC 146 will take place on May 26th at the MGM Grand and features Junior Dos Santos defending the Heavyweight belt against Alistair Overeem. Please forgive my use of the following term, but this fight has “fireworks” written all over it. You can now throw up somewhere over my use of the “fireworks” cliché and comeback to your computer. On one hand you have a champ with some of the best boxing in MMA who’s finished 6 of his 8 opponents in the UFC taking on the 265-lb Dutch kickboxing behemoth in Overeem, who has not lost a mixed martial arts contest since 2007. I know his competition has been less than stellar with a TKO win over a checked-out Brock Lesnar, an ugly decision over a flop-happy Fabricio Werdum and a KO over the grossly overmatched Todd Duffee, just to name a few. Still, with his K-1 background, size and brutal use of knees in the clinch, he’s still earned the #2 spot in the weight class. Plus, with the UFC giving some collective marketing power to the pay-per-view by adding an all-heavyweight main card? This is a blockbuster start to summer 2012.

UFC 147: Silva vs. Sonnen 2
As I’d mentioned earlier, Middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen have the most intense rivalry in the UFC other than Jones/Evans, but for different reasons. While Jones/Evans is composed like a Shakespearean tragedy with their “friends to enemies” storyline, Sonnen’s trash-talking dismissal of Silva’s skills, accomplishments and country escalated their first contest to new heights to a pro wrestling faceoff. He became the perfect foil to the oft-demure Brazilian with his contrasting personality and stellar wrestling background that could potentially have been Silva’s Achille’s Heel (and it was for most of the fight until Silva’s jaw-dropping Hail Mary triangle win in the final frame). Sonnen’s suspension due to elevated testosterone levels delayed the sequel, but with both fighters rattling off two straight since their first go ‘round and, more importantly, with the fight expected to take place in Silva’s homeland of Brazil? Grab some friends, do a few shots of aguardiente and get excited for this one.

UFC 148: Cruz vs. Faber 3
Last Friday night the newly reformatted season of The Ultimate Fighter kicked off on FX. Current Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber will spend the next six weeks coaching their respective fighters and their frequent interaction will most certainly add fuel to the fire en route to their rubber match, slated for the July 7th in Vegas. Cruz avenged his only MMA loss by out pointing Faber at their last meeting at UFC 132 and then followed it up with a decision win over now-flyweight Demetrius Johnson at UFC Live in October. Faber rebounded with a submission win over Brian Bowles, earning him another shot at Cruz. With both fighters known for a breakneck pace and a penchant for exciting fights, unwind from your 4th of July debauchery a few days earlier and watch what should be a fitting end to the trilogy.

Without a date:
Four cards out should be enough, but we all know there are several more belts that may not have dates on paper, but will happen (again, barring injuries) this year:

- Henderson/Edgar II was recently confirmed and with Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller and Nate Diaz waiting in the wings, the Lightweight division continues to prove it may be the most stacked division in MMA

- We should have a confirmed final for the inaugural Flyweight tournament that took place last week, but the judging error (read: basic math) from Ian McCall and Demetrious Johnson’s fight left semi-final winner Joseph Benavidez without an opponent. Dana & Co. have assured us the Johnson/McCall rematch will happen and we’ll have a new Flyweight champion in 2012, which I must admit, excites me more than I thought it would. I mean, who doesn’t like watching what are essentially uber-athletic horse jockeys on speed throwing down in a cage?

- The most famous acronym in mixed martial arts (GSP) will return from injury to take on the always hungry interim champ Carlos Condit…if Condit doesn’t defend (and lose) his somewhat useless belt between now and the end of the year. HOPEFULLY, we’ll have a definitive, unified Welterweight champ by the start of 2013.

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It appears there is one guy that isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of a Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva UFC Super Fight. Unfortunately that guy is Anderson Silva. However, there is one Super Fight that the Spider has no problem accepting.

Silva gave an interesting interview to UOL Esportes. Silva talked about a number of subjects, but the subject of Super Fights is what really grabbed my interest. Silva was asked about fighting UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in what has the potential to be the biggest fight in UFC history. Whether it is posturing or truth, the UFC middleweight champion said he has no interest in the match.

“I don’t plan on moving up in weight anymore. He’s in a different weight (class). I train with bigger guys, such as Lyoto Machida and Big Nog and I know how complicated it is. …Every time I see Jones I tell him to keep focus, because if he does that, there’s no opponent for him. He’s better than everyone. He’d have a lot of advantages (over me), he’s much younger and it wouldn’t be something interesting (for me).”

Okay so Silva doesn’t want to take a fight against a guy that would put him at a weight disadvantage, I get it. Yet ironically size doesn’t matter if the opponent is moving up in weight to challenge him at middleweight.

“GSP is very educated and I like him a lot. A fight against him would be very, very, very big and this could actually happen.”

So let’s back up for a second. Silva, who has fought several times at light heavyweight in the UFC won’t take a fight against the best in that division because he would be at a weight disadvantage. Again, a division the man has fought at successfully. On the other hand, he has no problem throwing around challenges to a man that has fought at welterweight throughout his entire career. Call me crazy but this sounds completely absurd to me.

I have blogged numerous times on the Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva Super Fight and why I think it is a terrible idea. GSP has never fought above welterweight. Expecting GSP to put on fifteen pounds of muscle at 30-years old is just ridiculous. Even if he miraculously pulled that off, you would not be getting the great GSP you see at welterweight against the great Silva you see at middleweight. You’d be getting a slower version of GSP going up against a guy that will have an enormous weight advantage by the time the bell rings. Why would the UFC send one of their biggest stars off to slaughter to get massacred in a size mismatch?

Now Silva vs. Jones makes perfect sense to me. Silva has cleaned out the middleweight division and once again, has fought at light heavyweight. No disrespect to his opponents at light heavyweight, but he has never fought an elite fighter in the division. Jon Jones is regarded by some as the best in the fight business. Silva is about a year or two away from retirement. Why not make the fight? Heck, Silva did interviews a few years back talking about wanting to fight at heavyweight! To me, this comes off as a bit cowardly, but that is just one man’s opinion.

If GSP vs. Silva happens, it will only happen because GSP was pressured into it or paid an ungodly amount of money to do it. He doesn’t want the fight and it is a little unfair for Silva to continue trying to bait the fans into thinking that this will happen.

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The UFC 143 rematch between  Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit was on and off within 24 hours without much explanation. Well a new report by the NSAC fills us in and reveals that Nick Diaz failed a drug test before the fight for marijuana and will now face a likely one-year suspension.

What was speculated for the last 24 hours has finally been confirmed. The Nevada State Athletic Commission reports that Nick Diaz has tested positive for marijuana metabolites following his UFC 143 fight against Carlos Condit. Diaz will now face disciplinary action which will likely be a one-year suspension from professional fighting.

The news is crushing for MMA fans hoping to see the Condit vs. Diaz fight and Diaz fans in general. Diaz is without a doubt one of the most polarizing fighters in the UFC. You either love him or hate him. A lot of people love him and today, they are having a hard time making excuses for their hero.

As a fight fan and a Diaz fan, I am completely baffled. The kid was turning into one of the biggest drawing cards in the UFC. Early estimates for UFC 143 are at around 400,000 which is an impressive number for a non-title fight. The Georges St-Pierre fight would have hovered at anywhere between 800,000-1,000,000 buys. How anyone could throw this all away for marijuana is just stunning.

The kicker here is that if Diaz won the fight, he would have been idle until at least November for the St-Pierre showdown. He could have had plenty of time to do as much marijuana as he wanted and clean up before his next fight. Obviously the guy is smart enough to know what he was doing. Why he would put everything in jeopardy is a mystery.

This is Diaz’s second positive drug test, so he’ll get an automatic one-year suspension. Diaz was first suspended back in 2006 when he fought Takanori Gomi in Las Vegas, NV for Pride FC. It was Diaz’s first fight after leaving the UFC. That was five years ago and somehow over the last five years he has been able to remain clean. Diaz did say that he was going to retire following his UFC 143 fight. Now he won’t have a choice, at least for a year.

The irony here is that whenever Dana White was asked about Nick Diaz over the last several years, he responded that he’d love to have Diaz back in the UFC if he could play the game. In only two fights, Diaz has managed to miss several press conferences and fail a drug test. It would appear to someone like me who only took one psychology class in college that the guy has a big problem with pressure. Getting popped in his first Pride FC fight and now for a test before the biggest fight of his career isn’t a coincidence.

So Diaz is out until at least next February, barring some kind of miracle appeal. It actually works out well for the GSP fight. If GSP fights in November, he should be ready to fight Diaz in February win or lose against Condit. I have never been a fan of a guy failing a drug test getting a big fight in his return but there is way too much money on the table here for the UFC to lose.

Condit will likely fight the Jake Ellenberger vs. Diego Sanchez winner next. Needless to say, Condit vs. Ellenberger/Sanchez will bring in nowhere near the money of a Diaz rematch. Unfortunately that is neither Condit nor the UFC’s fault.

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Only days after one of the more controversial decisions in a long time for the UFC, Dana White will be signing a Nick Diaz vs. Carlos Condit rematch immediately. In other words, the Nick Diaz retirement lasted a grand total of four days.

One of the best MMA insiders on Twitter, @FrontRowBrian was the first to break the news. I have been critical about MMA reporters and their lack of ability to break big stories over the last year. Brian is not a reporter and probably breaks more stories in a day than they do in a month. He was right on the mark with this one.

“From industry sources: Malki Kawa and Cesar Gracie are both posturing. UFC has already approached both camps for a rematch this summer.” – @FrontRowBrian

UFC president Dana White officially broke the news on Twitter after Brian’s tweet started making the rounds.

“@justScrap85 @carloscondit @malkikawa the rumor is true. Carlos did accept the fight today and Carlos is coming on Friday not thur.” – @DanaWhite

The quick agreement is a bit of a surprise after you had Diaz retire on Saturday night and Condit tell numerous media outlets that he had no interest in fighting Diaz again. Most MMA analysts suspected that money could change Condit’s tune so it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the case.

The UFC 143 main-event ended in some controversy, I say some because there are some that thought Diaz won, while others thought that Condit won. The majority of articles and reports I read seemed to indicate that most felt Condit won, although some did sympathize with Diaz. It was nowhere close to the outrage that some felt after the first Rua vs. Machida decision or the second Edgar vs. Maynard fight, but the chatter was definitely there.

Condit taking the fight does not surprise me at all. He needs this fight, maybe even more than Diaz. Diaz can go fight one guy, get a win, and earn just as much money fighting Georges St-Pierre as he would if he fought him after beating Condit. As for Condit, the interest is minimal at best in seeing a GSP fight. Between losing the fight that the fans wanted to see and Condit’s less than exciting performance Saturday, he needs a win and a big one at that to drum up serious interest in fighting GSP.

Diaz ended his retirement in just a matter of days. I don’t think anyone really expected to Diaz to stay retired. He is too good, still young, and let’s face it, he is always complaining about money. I am a little surprised that the UFC gave in and granted him a rematch so fast with Condit. I expected him to have to work for it yet nonetheless, he and the UFC have another shot of giving the fans the fight they really want to see, Diaz vs. GSP.

Business is generally not good for rematches. The Maynard vs. Edgar III buyrate was not very good and that was arguably a much better fight that was being rematched. Fans are already complaining about paying for what they thought was a less exciting fight than advertised thanks to Condit’s game plan. This is going to be a tough sell. It wouldn’t shock me to see this one land on a UFC on Fox special.

As a fan, I am pumped for the rematch. I am intrigued to see the different game plans that these guys bring into the rematch. Diaz will have to do something different or he will just be chasing Condit around again for five rounds. Condit will have to be more aggressive if he expects to draw any money off the win with the GSP showdown. It should be a fascinating chess match for fight fans.

Update: It appears that there was a big snag in putting the fight together. While nothing official has been announced yet, it appears that something from the Diaz camp has precluded the fight from taking place.

“*BREAKING NEWS* Carlos Condit vs. Nick Diaz II will NOT happen. An issue arose from Nick’s camp last night. Nick will NOT be able to compete” – @FrontRowBrian

It also appears that Condit will sign to fight Georges St-Pierre and remain inactive until November. So again I ask, what was the point of interim champion if the champion AND interim champ will not compete for nine months?

 

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The never ending saga of Nick Diaz has taken another strange twist following his loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143. Nick Diaz told Joe Rogan after the fight that he is done with MMA after suffering his first loss in 12 fights, ending and an 11 year career.

Diaz’s announcement came after losing a unanimous decision to Carlos Condit. Diaz called Condit’s leg kicks “baby kicks” and mocked Condit for “running away from him” for five rounds. Diaz said he gets paid way too much for this and then ended his interview by telling Joe Rogan that he would continue to help out his teammates but that he was done “with this sh*t.”

I can certainly understand the frustrations of Diaz. Condit really did a phenomenal job of staying disciplined for the full five rounds and keeping Diaz at a distance for most of the fight. I wouldn’t call it running away, but Condit did his best not to engage with Diaz. On the other hand, Diaz was a one trick pony at UFC 143. His game plan was obviously to strike with Condit and when that wasn’t working, he had nothing. I can understand Diaz’s frustrations but quite honestly he was outsmarted by a more disciplined fighter tonight.

The UFC really boxed themselves into a corner leading up to UFC 143. The company spent more time promoting a Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre fight than the actual fight that was headlining UFC 143. So now the UFC is caught in a situation where they have to sell the fight that nobody wants, including their own company. Quite frankly the company backed the wrong horse at UFC 143 and it bit them in the behind.

Condit could have saved this and made himself those missed Diaz millions. Rogan asked Condit about fighting GSP after the fight. Condit could have cut a pro wrestling style promo on the UFC and GSP for overlooking him and created a new grudge match. Instead he said it was an honor and made fans even more disappointed that they weren’t listening to Nick Diaz trash talking GSP. I admire his professionalism, but professionalism isn’t going to help promote a fight that nobody wants to see.

It really is a bitter pill for Georges St-Pierre. GSP now has very little motivation to work harder to recover from his injury. Dana White recently told Ariel Helwani that GSP would be back in action by the summertime and that he was ahead of schedule. Mike Goldberg said that GSP told him that he won’t begin full MMA training until June and was targeting a November return. How could Dana White even say such a thing if GSP won’t even begin to fully train in June? In other words, don’t count on GSP fighting in the summer.

Condit is now the UFC interim welterweight champion. I really don’t understand why the UFC created an interim title for this fight. The announcers mentioned throughout the night that the winner would be challenging Georges St-Pierre for the title and referred to GSP as the champion. If GSP is still recognized as the champion, what is the point of this interim title?

The fight business is an interesting game. It would not shock me whatsoever to see Carlos Condit suffer some kind of “mysterious” injury in September or October, setting up Diaz vs. GSP in November after all. I am not a big conspiracy theory guy but there is a lot of money on the line here and in the end, this business is about making money.

I would be surprised to see Diaz retire and never fight again. He has threatened to enter the boxing game and maybe that is what he does. However, he makes a lot of money fighting in the UFC, money he would likely never make boxing. In the end, all Diaz needs is one win to justify a GSP fight. I think he returns to fighting by the summer and UFC fans get that Diaz vs. GSP fight sooner than later.

Full UFC: Diaz vs. Condit results…
Carlos Condit defeated Nick Diaz via unanimous decision to win the UFC interim welterweight championship
Fabricio Werdum defeated Roy Nelson via unanimous decision
Josh Koscheck defeated Mike Pierce via split decision
Renan Barao defeated Scott Jorgensen via unanimous decision
Ed Herman defeated Clifford Starks via rear-naked choke
Dustin Poirier defeated Max Holloway via submission (triangle/armbar)
Edwin Figueroa defeated Alex Caceres via split decision
Matt Brown defeated Chris Cope via second-round TKO
Matt Riddle defeated Henry Martinez via split decision
Rafael Natal defeated Michael Kuiper via unanimous decision
Stephen Thompson defeated Dan Stittgen via first-round KO

Fighter: The Unauthorized Biography of Georges St-Pierre, UFC Champion

UFC 143: Diaz vs. Condit Poster

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