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However, with Diaz testing positive for marijuana, that bout was taken off the table, and now Condit will indeed wait out a fight with the UFC Welterweight Champion.
"We don't know when Georges is coming back yet, but Carlos isn't going to fight another fight," UFC President Dana White said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com.
Of course, a Twitter account attributed to the Diaz brothers last week made the claim that Condit only accepted the rematch after finding out about Diaz's positive test, never intending to actually take the fight. But White completely refuted that notion, and scoffed at the notion that he needed to "protect Condit's image" with the story.
"Just for the record, to clear this whole thing up, I was in Brazil filming 'The Ultimate Fighter,'" White said. "I got up one morning, and I called Carlos. I said, 'Listen, dude. We don't know when Georges is coming back. I don't know what your position is, but I think you should do a rematch.' He said, 'I'm in. I'll take the rematch with him.' I said, 'I get back in town Friday. Come to Vegas, and let's get this deal done.'
"I filmed 'The Ultimate Fighter' that day, and I'm literally driving home that night, and I get a text from one of the guys in my office: 'He failed the drug test for marijuana.' I called Cesar. Cesar [expletive] knows this, too. This is a [expletive] fact. Cesar Gracie knows this. I called Cesar, and I said, 'Cesar, are you [expletive] kidding me? This kid blows this huge opportunity? Condit accepted the [expletive] fight today. He accepted the [expletive] rematch. It's on. It's good, and now he does this? Because it's a second-time offense, you know what's going to happen to this kid? He's going to be out a year, and they're probably going to take 40 percent of his purse.'"
"Cesar knows Condit accepted that fight, and now they're playing all these [expletive] games like Condit didn't," White continued. "Why would I lie? What do I give a [expletive]? What, I'm out to protect Carlos Condit's image? And Carlos Condit won that fight. If he didn't want to [expletive] rematch Nick, he doesn't have to rematch him. Condit won the fight. He won the right to fight Georges St-Pierre. He won the title. But I swear to God on my children's lives, if you think there's some conspiracy here or something, he accepted the [expletive] fight."
The rematch was ultimately a fight that would have worked because of the close nature of the first fight and the controversy that surrounded it. Again, however, it won't happen because of Diaz's second slip-up in trying to cleanse marijuana out of his system before a pre-fight drug test. White thinks that's especially unfortunate with a turnaround he felt was coming for Diaz in terms of fan sentiment and acceptance.
"I'm bummed out because I think that this kid, because of the 'Primetime,' people actually started to like Nick Diaz and started to turn," White said. "People who hated him turned around and started to like him. I think he gained a lot of fans, and a lot of people are interested, and he blew a huge [expletive] rematch. He could have had the opportunity to fight Condit again and possibly get another opportunity to fight Georges St-Pierre. Condit was going to do it.
"Nick Diaz is still a UFC employee, but nobody hurts Nick Diaz worse than Nick Diaz does. I don't even know what to say. It's just disappointing. It's very disappointing."
Penick's Analysis: Hopefully that will put to bed the conspiracy theorists attacking Condit and his camp. The whole situation is really unfortunate for everyone involved. Condit picked up one of the biggest wins of his career with a smart gameplan to set up the biggest fight of his career, but instead of being able to enjoy it the following week and a half has been filled with controversy and attention to Diaz's story. Now, Diaz's failed drug test was a major story, of course, and deserved the attention it received, but for Condit's sake it's too bad that the week has been filled with a completely different conversation than his Interim Title win. On his front, waiting out a fight with GSP makes a lot of sense, because it is the biggest fight he can be involved in right now. A rematch with Jake Ellenberger would be a great fight, but business-wise isn't anywhere near what the GSP fight can bring him. Hopefully St-Pierre can indeed return in 2012, but there's still no official timetable for him at the moment.
[Carlos Condit art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_12509.shtml
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