Nick Diaz is right.
No, not when he accuses Georges St-Pierre of steroid use. Or when he blows off UFC media workouts. Or fails a drug test for marijuana use.
Diaz is correct when he says that he is being painted as the villain in Saturday’s fight against St-Pierre at UFC 158 in Montreal (PPV, 10 p.m.). Of course he is. Anyone who faces GSP is going to be viewed as the heel to St-Pierre’s good guy.
St-Pierre is the clean-shaven, noble face of the UFC. He’s polite, insightful and really just a heck of a nice guy. Barney or Big Bird might be considered the villain in a fight with the UFC welterweight champion.
Then you have Diaz. He avoids UFC camera crews like they were narcs. He starts brawls in hospital hallways, though that’s going back a few years. He curses like a sailor – a sailor from Stockton, Calif.
Is Diaz a bad guy? That depends on who you ask. Those who know him best say he’s misunderstood. He doesn’t enjoy the media probing into his life, which is not an exclusive emotion to Diaz. Trainer and manager Cesar Gracie has mentioned Diaz’s anxiety on a number of occasions.
Diaz clearly marches to the beat of a different drummer. He’s raw; he’s real. And he’ll tell you as much. When he is in front of a microphone, he’s refreshingly honest if not in a meandering, sometimes confusing way.
Honestly, Diaz is a breath of fresh air. Set aside your weed jokes for a second. The welterweight contender is so different from your run-of-the-mill fighter or even athlete that it makes for a whole different storyline altogether. In the same sentence, Diaz will rip St-Pierre and call him a good guy. It makes sense, only to Diaz.
There are no cliché, stock answers from Diaz. He doesn’t even know what that is. Yet he’s so hard to reach for media. I asked for a phone interview with Diaz leading up to this fight and was told by UFC PR “you know how Nick is.”
I do. I think we all do now. Some people are going to love him for it. Some will hate him. There’s very little middle ground.
That’s why Diaz is right when he says he’s unfairly being pegged as the villain Saturday night. In real life, one without a written story line, there are no true heroes and villains. Just people doing what they do.
Nick Diaz fits into that category. He’s just doing him and it’s up to use to decide how we feel about it.
Carlos Condit vs. Johny Hendricks
Let’s see if we can follow this. Hendricks felt like he was the No. 1 contender for Georges St-Pierre’s welterweight championship. The UFC and St-Pierre himself disagreed. So Nick Diaz, coming off a loss and a year-long marijuana suspension, got the title shot, and Hendricks was pitted against Jake Ellenberger at UFC 158. Then, Rory MacDonald, who was supposed to face Carlos Condit at 158, got hurt. Condit got moved up to face Hendricks and now Ellenberger meets Nate Marquardt.
That’s a lot of moving and shaking and we’re left with a co-main event that doesn’t make complete sense. If Hendricks wins, it’s obvious. He fights GSP next. If Condit wins? Well, he just lost to St-Pierre. If Diaz beats GSP, then a Condit-Diaz rematch makes sense since Condit beat him in a close fight last year. Either way, Condit-Hendricks is a good fight between two of the elite guys at 170 pounds.
Jake Ellenberger vs. Nate Marquardt
Ellenberger is on a really nice run right now, a winner of seven of his past eight UFC fights. A win here wouldn’t make him No. 1 contender, but it would put him right there in the mix, as UFC president Dana White likes to say. Ellenberger’s combination of wrestling and striking will be interesting against Marquardt, who is making his UFC return after being cut in 2011. Marquardt looked really lackluster on the final Strikeforce show in a loss to Tarec Saffiedine. He can’t do the same against Ellenberger or it’ll be a quick night.
Chris Camozzi vs. Nick Ring
Camozzi has quietly – very quietly – put together a three-fight win streak in the middleweight division. Beating Ring would be his most impressive victory to this point. Ring has just one career loss, to Tim Boetsch, and is another solid yet uninspiring 180-pounder in the UFC. Maybe one guy will separate himself in this fight.
Mike Ricci vs. Colin Fletcher
Both men made the finals of their respective “Ultimate Fighter” programs in the fall. Ricci was in the one here and Fletcher in “TUF: Smashes,” a battle betweem the United Kingdom and Australia. Both men also lost in those final fights. Not sure why this is on the main card.
PRELIMS
Patrick Cote vs. Bobby Voelker
Antonio Carvalho vs. Darren Elkins
Dan Miller vs. Jordan Mein
John Makdessi vs. Daron Cruickshank
Rick Story vs. Quinn Mulhern
TJ Dillashaw vs. Issei Tamura
George Roop vs. Reuben Duran
Cote and Roop are both trying to get back on track in new weight classes – Cote at welterweight and Roop at bantamweight. Elkins-Carvalho and Miller-Mein will be interesting grappling matchups and Makdessi-Cruickshank could provide some fireworks. Story is a stalwart and Dillashaw is a decent prospect. Keep your eyes on both.
PREDICTIONS
St-Pierre
Condit
Ellenberger
Ring
Ricci
Cote
Elkins
Mein
Makdessi
Story
Dillashaw
Roop
Fight of the Night: St-Pierre vs. Diaz
Knockout of the Night: Ellenberger
Submission of the Night: Mein
mraimondi@nypost.com