Megaton
Diaz didn't show up for a pre-fight conference call with the media.
He came late:
http://www.mmafighting.com/2011/10/19/better-late-than-never-nick-diaz-makes-ufc-137-call-a-memorable/ Diaz, on the other hand, sounded wholly disinterested one minute and then passionately engaged another. For instance, after initially "plead[ing] the fifth" to a question about whether he had any regrets about his earlier actions, just a few minutes later he offered a different answer to an almost identical question.
"Well yeah, of course I have regret," he said, explaining that he had a lawyer who he believed was making in excess of $100,000 who was somehow to blame for him missing the initial press conferences.
"I've got all these people, business people and big money people around me trying to make deals," Diaz said. "I don't know anything about that. All I know is somebody's getting paid like over a hundred grand just to tell me what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do. I'm like, for that much money I think I could have had somebody standing around and telling me, 'Hey, you can't miss this press conference. That voids the whole contract and then you're out. You're not making [expletive]. You're not fighting [expletive]. You ain't making no money. So you have to be at this thing.' It's simple."
Diaz seemed to suggest that the lack of a support system had cost him that time, saying "If I didn't feel like I had that, I would have probably read that [expletive] myself and dealt with things myself and been a little more cautious and then I probably would have showed up at that press conference."
As for this conference call, well, at least he made it eventually. While Penn said it wasn't a significant chunk out of his day since "I was just going to take a 30-minute jog today anyway," Diaz obviously had a different take.
"You've got to know I'm not sitting here with my phone, waiting for a call," he said. "I'm waiting for some training. I'm trying to get some relax time before I have to go back for another four hours of training. I'm training hard. I train harder than these guys, I fight harder than these guys, I look better than these guys, and that's why. I don't get no help and I don't worry about no help. That's what takes up all my time, training and trying to become the best in the world here. And that's the best in the world! That's what you're dealing with here. This is a whole world out there and ain't nobody can beat me? That's pretty bad."
Maybe it just goes to show that whether Diaz shows up to talk to the media or avoids it altogether, there's a story in it either way.
