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#4 Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz
The feud between Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz might’ve felt a little one-sided at times – with Diaz aiming a ton of barbs at the French-Canadian legend prior to their clash at UFC 158 in March 2013 – but there’s no denying that at the time, it was huge. And it did huge business for the UFC too, with the pay-per-view event drawing approximately 950,000 buys as well as an attendance of 16,523 at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Things got started when Diaz was transferred over to the UFC from StrikeForce, where he had held the Welterweight title for some time. The Stockton bad boy was booked to challenge St-Pierre at UFC 137 in October 2011, but his lack of commitment to some pre-show press conferences resulted in the UFC pulling him and replacing him with Carlos Condit.
Fate then reared its head, as St-Pierre was sidelined with an ACL tear – and Diaz ended up defeating BJ Penn in the show’s replacement main event. Post-fight, the former StrikeForce star couldn’t help but aim some fury at St-Pierre – accusing him of being scared rather than being hurt.
That wasn’t the case, though, as ‘GSP’ was actually sidelined for over a year. And during that time, Diaz was defeated by Condit in an interim title fight, putting a future meeting between the two rivals into doubt. But when St-Pierre returned in late 2012 to defeat Condit, it was a no-brainer for the UFC to re-book the highly anticipated clash with Diaz.
This time it was St-Pierre who took the lead in promoting the fight, labelling Diaz an “uneducated fool” and stating that the Californian’s trash talk had gotten him more angry than he’d ever been before – sending him to a “dark place” in his mind.
By the time the fight came around, the hype was at a fever pitch like never before for a ‘GSP’ fight – even major feuds like his ones with Josh Koscheck and BJ Penn. And when it came down to it, St-Pierre was able to overcome his rival, putting an end to the feud – on his behalf at least. For Diaz meanwhile, bitter feelings continued – and years later he would accuse ‘GSP’ of steroid abuse prior to their fight.
