“[St-Pierre] said, and I quote – you’re going to think I’m full of [expletive], but this is the truth – I quote, ‘He’s the most disrespectful human being I’ve ever met, and I’m going to put the worst beating you’ve ever seen on him in the UFC.”
– Dana White, UFC 137 Post Fight Press Conference
Georges St-Pierre got a lot of people making wiseacre remarks over the past couple days over Twitter when he discussed that he was going to a “dark place” for his fight with Nick Diaz. It was kind of funny considering GSP is normally the consummate professional when it comes to fights: everyone is a “tough fight”, he’s “never prepared this much in his life” for the fight and he “doesn’t know if he can win” are the usual standard types of lines from him. He markets himself as a professional athlete, not a fighter, and it’s why he’s gotten as much success from a monetary standpoint. GSP is a marketer’s dream, a former bullying victim who turned to martial arts for self defense who then turned that into a career when it turned out he was good at fighting.
He’s been among the best in the world regardless of weight class since before MMA exploded into the mainstream, as well. He wins and there’s an aura to him most fighters would kill to have. Every fight with him is a big one and there’s always an air of professionalism around him; you know what to expect when he does the media tours, et al. GSP does every interview and has the same talking points he hits without fail.
Much like Chael Sonnen has his shtick to hype fights GSP’s has always been of a reluctant trash-talker. Guys like Josh Koscheck, Dan Hardy and others have tried to rattle his cage over the years to no avail. He shrugs it off and does his job to the point where you know what to expect out of the man before a fight. GSP being the consummate boring professional is standard fare leading up to a fight.
It’s why his war of words this afternoon with Nick Diaz was so entertaining … because this is the sort of GSP we wish would come to every press conference.
Nick Diaz has touched something inside GSP that makes Dana White’s words about the current welterweight champion putting a beating on him more than just idle talk or the Zuffa boss putting words into GSP’s mouth to hype a fight. GSP, the man who does everything with a level of professionalism you wish every fighter would bring, doesn’t like Nick Diaz on a personal level. GSP telling Nick Diaz that Diaz’s English is worse than GSP’s in spite of the champion’s heavily accented French-Canadian accent wasn’t a simple taunt to bring up the buzz on a fight. This (and his back and forth with Diaz) weren’t from someone who isn’t just getting ready for a fight to see who the better man is. This isn’t a professional level of dislike, enough to want to hurt someone during a fist fight on a Saturday night … and only on pay per view.
This is GSP wanting to fight someone because he doesn’t like them, pure and simple.
Nick Diaz has managed to bring out something in GSP that no other fighter has ever been able to do: the truly angry version of GSP. Normally St-Pierre is renowned for his ability to stay calm in every situation, to be the consummate professional in a sport where trash-talking and self-promotion are the norm. GSP has always spoken of MMA as a competition, about how he wants to be the best and to win, but his words weren’t of someone who wants to prove he’s the best in the world. He wants to prove he’s better than Nick Diaz and earn that visceral level of respect he feels lacking from the Stockton product. This is personal and next Saturday night will truly be a real dark place for Nick Diaz. He poked the monster … and now he has to deal with the repercussions.
