Nick Diaz leaves film crew high and dry in Stockton

It appears that Nick Diaz is up to his old tricks, and it’s once again making Dana White furious. The UFC sent a film crew to Diaz’s home of Stockton, CA, to film an upcoming episode of UFC Countdown in preparation for Diaz’s showdown with champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158. What they found was not good news, as apparently Diaz was nowhere to be found, and on three separate instances.

White described the subject with the following:

“We’ve had a crew in Stockton for two weeks. When we don’t do an interview, you know how much it costs us? A [expletive] load of money. So we’ve got a [expletive] crew rolling around in Stockton not doing a [expletive] thing. It costs us a lot of money, and we can’t properly sell the fight or Nick Diaz.”

“He showed up for the press conference [last month], I knew something was going to go bad somewhere. That’s Nick.”

So Diaz is doing something that he is already known for, and it appears to be costing the UFC brass some big dollars. But those dollars will pale in comparison to the huge numbers UFC 158 will garner in March. For that reason, the UFC will most likely roll with the punches and let Diaz be Diaz.

In response, Diaz’s lawyer Jonathan Tweedale issued this statement to refute White’s claim:

“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.”

Diaz’s camp denies any wrongdoing, and perhaps some scheduling conflicts. Something tells me that there will be more developments on this story. It may be interesting to see just how much of this Dana White will take, however.