Larry Brown Sports

Nick Diaz has spent the entire week leading up to his fight with Georges St-Pierre trying to get inside the champion’s head, and the trend seemed to continue in the hour before their fight at UFC 158 in Montreal Saturday.

UFC middleweight/welterweight Jake Shields, who trains with Diaz under Cesar Gracie, complained before the fight that GSP’s wraps looked “shady.”

I checked GSP’s glove and the wrap looked shady…now commission won’t let me back.Not saying he’s cheating but wtf?!

— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) March 17, 2013

Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole later reported that Shields went to talk to UFC president Dana White at ringside. According to what White told Iole, a UFC official went to check GSP’s wraps along with someone from the commission. Diaz’s camp apparently didn’t like the way GSP’s hands were wrapped, though the commission didn’t seem to see an issue.

I don’t know what the implications are for the complaint, but Diaz may have a built-in excuse if he loses. Now we can add hand wraps and steroids to the list of complaints Diaz has against GSP.

Nick Diaz is getting reckless with his accusations against Georges St-Pierre.

The two will meet Saturday at UFC 158 in Montreal, and now there is something fresh on everyone’s minds — accusations from Diaz (pictured) that his opponent is using “plenty of steroids.”

Diaz hinted during the pre-UFC 158 press conference Thursday that GSP is on steroids. That caused an angry St-Pierre to respond.

“I’m not on steroids, man,” said St-Pierre. “I never cheated once in my life.”

“We’ll see if they test who for steroids or what,” Diaz responded.

“I hope they do. I hope they do,” GSP shot back.

“You hope they do? What, for me to test positive for steroids?” asked Diaz. “Ain’t gonna happen.”

Later in the day, Diaz did a radio interview with “Tim and Sid” on 590 The Fan in Toronto and continued his accusations.

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There’s a reason Dana White gets so frustrated when Nick Diaz skips his media responsibilities before a fight. On Thursday, we saw exactly why.

Diaz baited Georges St-Pierre several times throughout Thursday’s UFC 158 media conference call, prompting angry responses from the champion while successfully promoting their Mar. 16 fight in Montreal. Diaz commented multiple times about GSP’s alleged privileged lifestyle, leading to several heated exchanges between the two. GSP denied Diaz’s accusations and fired back at his opponent, calling him an “uneducated fool.”

Diaz’s rant seemed to be inspired by GSP’s revelation that he has never tweeted and that he actually has staffers who handle that for him. That seemed to set off Diaz, who dropped several curse words throughout his incoherent rambling.

You can listen to the exchange below. Beware that the language is NSFW:

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Georges St-Pierre is denying a report that says he wants $50 million to fight Anderson Silva.

Last week MMA reporter Mike Straka said on “The MMA Beat” that he heard St-Pierre wanted $50 million to fight Silva because he felt he needed a huge monetary guarantee to face such a dangerous opponent.

GSP said on Sunday that he had not heard about the report, and that it’s false.

“I have not been informed of this, it is not true,” St-Pierre said in French (translation provided by Google). “Nobody told me about it and I am in France now, I have not seen the article (Mike Straka). I will not comment.”

We chose not to share the original report from Straka because it seemed loosely sourced and we did not find it credible. St-Pierre is one of the highest-compensated fighters in the UFC (probably the highest), so it would not be surprising to hear him demand around $15 million for a fight of this caliber, but there is no way he would be demanding more than what Floyd Mayweather makes in a fight. That just doesn’t seem right.

Glove touch to MMA Mania

Those who were hoping to see Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva fight next year will likely be left disappointed.

UFC president Dana White said in September that a GSP-Anderson Silva superfight was close to happening, and likely to take place at Cowboys Stadium. While Silva is busy filming his first movie, GSP is coming off a win over Carlos Condit that was supposed to be the precursor to the superfight. St-Pierre says that fight isn’t as close to happening as many thought.

During an interview with Radio-Canada’s “Tout Le Monde en Parle” on Sunday night, GSP said a fight with Silva would happen on his terms. Here’s a translation of what he said via MMA Fighting.

“He wants to fight me so he can then retire. I would like to fight him too, but after I fight him and win the fight, what happens next? These days, yeah, there’s a lot of money to be made, but I don’t fight for the money. My motivation is to be the best. Like we said, to be the Wayne Gretzky of my sport. So if I fight him, what happens next? It will be over. So yes, I want the fight, but I want to take it when I decide the time is right, not when he wants the fight to happen.

“On top of that, he weighs 234 pounds; I weigh 188. So there’s a big weight difference. I’ve fought guys who were bigger — I’m not scared of him — it’s just that I will take this fight when it makes sense for me. I just came back from an injury, there’s money to be made, there are fights in my weight class, other challenges out there, and if I fight him, I will have to gain weight, while he will have to lose weight, and then afterwards, I won’t be able to come back to my weight class.

“First and foremost, I have things to do at 170 pounds. When I am ready and when I want the fight, that’s when it will happen.”

The thoughts from GSP come as no surprise. In March 2011, he expressed reluctance about stepping up in weight to face Silva, citing the exact same reasons. However, unless St-Pierre is talking about fighting Nick Diaz who has been calling him out, then I’m not sure what he has left to prove at his weight.

Nick Diaz was back with his dashboard cam-style videos, providing analysis for last weekend’s UFC 154 card while criticizing Georges St-Pierre.

Two videos were published on YouTube Wednesday, but the uploader indicates the videos were recorded Saturday Nov. 17 before GSP beat Carlos Condit in Montreal.

Here’s what Diaz said via MMA Mania:

“Then you look at Georges, like Georges is a f—ing p—y,” Diaz says in the video. “So if he takes a punch from Condit it’s like, ‘what are you gonna do, bro? You can’t take that punch!’ You’ll see Condit come out, boom, boom, and all of a sudden Georges has fallen victim and it’s terrible. Georges can’t take those punches like that. He’s got Freddie Roach in there babying him up, I don’t think he’s doing any serious work with anybody, I don’t think he’s giving anybody any serious work. I don’t think they would be confident having him spar with somebody that’s going to put real punches on him.”

Diaz also analyzed the Condit-St-Pierre fight and talked about the strategy GSP would likely use. His predictions were pretty accurate, though he says GSP’s techniques wouldn’t work on him.

Diaz has been calling out GSP for a while, and the two were actually supposed to fight in February until St-Pierre pulled out with an injury. Nick is currently under a one-year suspension after testing positive for marijuana following his loss to Condit. He will be eligible to fight again in February, and it seems like he’s angling for another chance at GSP.

Below is video of his comments (NSFW language):

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On Monday, we listed the top five reasons to watch Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit at UFC 154 on Saturday in Montreal (and we didn’t even get to the undercard). Today we’re going to break down the tale of the tape between the fighters who will square off in the main event.

Georges St-Pierre (22-2) – 31 years old, 5’11″, 170 lbs.
- Hasn’t lost since 2007
- Well-rounded fighter, but he hasn’t finished any of his last five opponents
- Possesses good striking skills
- Is a strong grappler (77% success rate on takedowns) and loves going for takedowns
- Well trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and has good wrestling skills
- Has very good takedown defense (88% avoided)

Carlos Condit (28-5) – 28 years old, 6’2″, 170 lbs.
- Has finished all but four of his fights by knockout or submission
- Recorded 3 knockouts in his last four fights (two KOs of the night)
- 43% success rate on strikes, including a 68% mark standing
- Vulnerable defending takedowns (only at 47%)
- Has a big height/length advantage over GSP
- Gets hit 39% of the time with strikes

GSP often sees his best success when he’s taking down opponents, and either ground-and-pounding them or submitting them. His success with takedowns coupled with Condit’s vulnerability suggests GSP will be able to take the fight to the ground. Condit’s best chance will be to keep the fight standing, where he has his greatest success rate with striking. Rather than employ a similar strategy to one he used against Nick Diaz, he will be best off trying to score a knockout against St-Pierre. He has to keep in mind that GSP is disciplined and won’t fight foolishly.

Condit will be lucky if St-Pierre proves to have lost some quickness following his ACL injury, which would make defending takedowns against him somewhat easier. That will be his main concern, because he won’t want to spend most of the fight on his back where he would be unlikely to win.