The long awaited super fight between the mean mugging Strikeforce Welterweight champion Nick Diaz and the reigning UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre is now tentatively rescheduled for the annual Super Bowl weekend card. This comes after Diaz put on a spectacular performance against former UFC Lightweight/Welterweight champion B.J. Penn in the main event of UFC 137: Penn vs Diaz and demanded back the title immediately in his post fight interview. Sitting cageside at the event and hearing the insults from Diaz, champion St. Pierre himself went to UFC President Dana White and requested that his next match up be against Diaz rather than the postponed bout between him and teammate Carlos Condit that was supposed to be the headliner for this event. Condit, the final WEC Welterweight champion who is riding a four fight win streak, is now expected to fight on the same card as S. Pierre and Diaz in a bout where another victory will guarantee him his shot at the victor. Though not confirmed, a rematch between Condit and rising contender Jake Ellenberger is expected to be the resulting match up.With St. Pierre vs Diaz now tentatively scheduled Super Bowl weekend event, it is believed that this bout may serve as the co-main event with the long awaited rematch between reigning UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva and elite contender Chael Sonnen expected to serve as the main event, though that is yet to be confirmed at this time. With rumors persisting that Silva does not want to fight Sonnen, St. Pierre vs Diaz may be slotted to headline this event.
This all started back when Nick Diaz was still fighting under Strikeforce as their Welterweight champion. After his third straight successful title defense in the promotion, Diaz looked to take advantage of the clause in his contract that permitted him to compete in professional boxing, which was a contractual agreement signed before Zuffa, LLC had purchased the promotion. Seeing that the potential for a superfight with St. Pierre was more likely now that Strikeforce was owned by Zuffa, Diaz's management made a play to force the UFC to step in and set up the super fight. Getting to the point where Diaz had signed to fight a former champion in boxing, Dana White himself stepped in to convince Diaz not to go through with boxing and negotiated with his manager Cesar Gracie to have him sign a new contract that eliminated that boxing clause and officially brought him back to the UFC. Announced via Twitter by White, UFC champion St. Pierre and Diaz were slated to headline UFC 137 and to compete in this match Diaz agreed to vacate his Strikeforce title to officially become a UFC fighter once again. With much hype behind the event for the headliner alone, more hype was added when a bout between former two division champion Penn and former WEC champion Condit which would help decide who would fight the winner of that bout. All this changed when Diaz failed to appear for two pre-fight press conferences that he claims he was told about on very late notice. After failing to appear for the second conference just weeks away from the event, White made the decision to pull Diaz from the bout and replace him with Condit. Seeing that Penn now needed a new opponent, White gave Diaz a second chance setting him up against the former champion. Even after adding more hype to the event with these new match ups, the main event still did not stick after St. Pierre injured his knee while training and both him and Condit were pulled from the event, which resulted with Penn vs Diaz being promoted to headline the event, a bout which many die-hard MMA fans had felt was the "real" main event anyway. When the main event was finally about to begin, it would follow the rest of the card with seven of the prior bouts ending via judges' decision including Kongo vs Mitrione which many expected to be a Fight of the Night candidate. When the referee gave the go-ahead, the two former champions put on a performance that many critics feel saved the event from be a total bust. Even with the bout resulting in a twelfth decision for the card, the bout earned great recognition earning both fighters a Fight of the Night bonus and proved to White that Diaz did deserve his shot at the title. Diaz immediately shouted "where you at Georges" repeatedly when the fight was over and went as far in his post fight interview to claim St. Pierre was scared to fight him. When the event came to a close and the press waited for the post-fight presser to begin, St. Pierre approached White requesting that he fight Diaz next instead of Condit, which was immediately followed by White calling Condit to inform him that the UFC wanted to reschedule St. Pierre vs Diaz.
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