UFC Quick Quote: Nick Diaz has no-showed three UFC 158 Countdown show tapings, costing 'sh*tload of money'

"Nick Diaz would be an interesting Countdown show too if we can get him to show up for those. How about if he had a professionally, shot by professionals, the best in the business, the best at cutting and producing features on athletes. Imagine how fu*king good that would be. But first we gotta get him to show up for the fu*king interviews, then we could do it. How many did he miss? Four? Three? Three. He missed three interviews. "He showed up for the press conference. I knew something was going to go bad somewhere, you know what I mean? It's just, that's Nick. We've had a crew in Stockton, for two weeks. When he doesn't do an interview, you know how much it costs us? A sh*tload of money. We've got a fu*king crew, rolling around Stockton, not doing a fu*king thing. It costs us a lot of money, and we can't properly sell the fight or Nick Diaz."

-- Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White recounts his most recent roadblock when dealing with welterweight No. 1 contender Nick Diaz in the lead-up to March's UFC 158: "St. Pierre vs. Diaz" event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. White said in a media scrum (watch it here) following the UFC on FUEL TV 7 post-fight press conference that Diaz has missed three separate interviews required of him to film the "UFC Countdown" show special that the organization puts together for every major pay-per-view (PPV) event. To White's ire, the difficulty in dealing with Diaz has made filming the countdown special much more expensive than it should be as the camera crew is will be posted up in Diaz's home town of Stockton, Calif., until the former Strikeforce welterweight champion is ready to fulfill his media duties. While such actions from a fighter would typical raise some serious red flags, White was nonchalant when asked if he was worried about it. The UFC's head honcho has repeatedly said dealing with Diaz is no walk in the park, but as long as the 29-year-old shows up to fight Georges St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight championship on March 16, 2013, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, he will be satisfied.



UPDATE: Jonathan Tweedale, a lawyer who represents the Diaz camp, got in touch with MMAmania and provided a statement that denied White's claim Diaz missed any interviews.



Here's what Tweedale had to say:

"Dana is mistaken. There is no "crew rolling around Stockton" and Nick did not "miss" three interviews.



"In fact, several earlier dates were arranged without Nick's knowledge and with no notice to Nick. When Nick learned what had happened, I assisted him in arranging a date and time directly (Thursday, February 14). Nick arrived early and was in good spirits at that February 14 date -- the one and only date he knew about in advance. Nick requires things to be done in an organized and orderly manner. That is the kind of professional he is."

And the plot thickens....