"Off the Record" Rule Changes Emerge from UFC 158 Weigh-Ins
Nick Diaz likes to spew a lot of conspiracy theories about how things go down in MMA. Diaz loved painting the picture of Georges St-Pierre being the UFC's golden boy prior to their UFC 158 meeting. It seems Diaz may have a bit of truth to go with his words.
In a video that's surfaced recently, Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs and Assistant General Counsel for the UFC Michael Mersch approaches Diaz on the day of the UFC 158 weigh-ins.
The conversation starts off like small talk with Mersch asking if Diaz is "good" but then things begin to get murky.
"Here, they're going to allow you and Georges to have an extra hour," Mersch says. "Just in case somebody doesn't make it. But the good news is, they don't count the decimal. If you're 170.2 it's 170. If it's 170.9. it's 170."
MMA fighters are given a one-pound allowance in non-title affairs but both competitors must hit the required weight exactly (or below it) in title contests.
"Why didn't we know that before?" asked a member of Diaz's entourage.
Although taken aback by the question, Mersch seems to keep going with his rehearsed spiel. The audio goes between audible and inaudible but you can make out some of Mersch's words.
"Should be fine, hopefully, other than that. Just so you guys are in the loop, if there's…" said Mersch.
Diaz's camp again asks why they weren't notified the day before but Mersch ignores the question and continues.
It's just something to keep in mind. That's kind of an off the record type of thing. But keep that in mind. As long as he's under 171, we should be good. But, there is a time period afterwards, for you and Georges only. All the other fighters have to make it the first time. Just letting you guys be in the loop, okay?
A member of Diaz's camp drops a perfect line to sum up the conversation, "that's a loophole. A Canadian loophole."
By just watching the video you can tell the conversation is very shady and something seems a little off. If St-Pierre's injured Achilles was really bad it's likely he couldn't have done as much cardio/weight loss activities as he would've liked and possibly came into UFC 158 a bit heavy.
Regardless of whether or not you think a conspiracy is afoot, it's clear that the rules were bent at UFC 158. Both Diaz and GSP were given an additional hour to cut weight and also were virtually given a pound allowance that shouldn't have been allowed.
Dana White, among others, love to point out the ongoing corruption that has plagued boxing for years but a video like this isn't going to make MMA look any better.
The weight doesn't matter the action does. Said for a while I was shocked they kept letting Diaz talk or that they put him on primetime. I'd guess he's probably a lot more correct about things than people like to admit.
I don;t think its a big deal. Did not impact the outcome of the fight in my opinion. IF GSP was that close to not making weight then his last week before the fight was probably not a good one making him weaker, not stronger and 1 hour would not help him.
Makes the ufc look bad for sure. At least they made it the same for both fighters, but still, a tweak like that right before the fight, even if done with good intentions, they have to know that smacks of favoritism.
How? By ensuring by fighters are treated the same and by doing so not protecting their golden boy's title? If they had let it become non-title it would have saved them a lot of potential headaches. People who are saying that this is shady or a sign of corruption need to take a step back and think things through.
Obvious No Contest, Diaz should get an immediate rematch, this is obvious the ONLY reason Nick did not knock George out.. more freakin wolf tickets!!!!
SO EVIL!!! They totally screwed everyone over with this! It's all a big corrupt conspiracy!!!
Seriously, the amount of money on the line, they needed to make a tiny change to make sure this was still a title fight. They let both fighters use it, it's not like they only told GSP. This is nothing compared to the potential fallout if GSP had not made weight, or if ANY champion doesn't make weight.
They made up for it (assuming GSP was actually 0.9lbs over 170, and Diaz wasn't, and I don't know of any info that makes that claim) buy not disqualifying Diaz's ass when he took dirty shots after the bell ... twice!!
If anything makes the UFC look bad is not kicking someone who would pull that shite out of the company the second the match ended, or at the very least taking points away.
Eh, I see a whole lots of 'ifs' in that article - if St. Pierre was sick and if St. Pierre was injured. I'm not about to get into a whirlwind of speculation when all we have is a deleted video and a vague article.
Personally, I don't see why Diaz's camp would be upset about this. Would they rather Diaz not have had his title match? Seems like sour grapes from a camp now trying to stir up trouble because Nick lost in embarrassing fashion. I like Diaz, and I hope he sticks around, but again... would they have cared so much about that extra hour if it meant Nick fighting for the title and Nick subsequently won? I doubt it.
This is shady. There is no a 0.9 allowance for title fights, there isn't even a 0.1 allowance for title fights. I don't care if one of them was sick, rules are rules and if you don't honor one of them you might as well not honor all of them.
So then you agree that Diaz should be at least DQed from the fight, and probably fired from UFC and suspended from fighting altogether for the two obvious dirty shots he took well after the round ended? "Rules are rules" are they not?
Or are some rules not as 'honourable' as others?
Oh, and how do we know that GSP was over 170? So far all we know is someone claims that the weight allowance rule was relaxed for this fight .. we don't have confirmation that this was actually the case, and if it was actually relaxed whether GSP took advantage of the relaxed rules .. or for that matter whether Diaz took advantage of the relaxed rule as well?
On the other hand we do know that Diaz took cheap shots between rounds, got caught with banned substances in his blood, misses contractual media appearances, and generally exhibits very poor sportsmanship qualities in and out of the ring.
If we are going to start holding 'rule breakers' to account, then who the hell is a more flagrant rule breaker than Nick Diaz? Both in and out of the ring?
So then you agree that Diaz should be at least DQed from the fight, and probably fired from UFC and suspended from fighting altogether for the two obvious dirty shots he took well after the round ended? "Rules are rules" are they not?
The ref decided not to DQ him so the rules were followed. I certainly wouldn't have blamed the ref if he had DQd Nick. That's completely different to making up rules on the fly though. :dunno:
The ref decided not to DQ him so the rules were followed. I certainly wouldn't have blamed the ref if he had DQd Nick. That's completely different to making up rules on the fly though. :dunno:
Taking shots after the round is a DQing offence, not DQing him was an "on the fly" decision -- twice.
And while the normal rules is "1 lb allowance" for regular fights and "no allowance" for championship fights, there are exceptions to that rule:
In non-championship fights, there shall be allowed a 1 pound weigh allowance. In championship fights, the participants must weigh no more than that permitted for the relevant weight division.
The Commission may also approve catch weight bouts, subject to their review and discretion. For example, the Commission may still decide to allow the contest the maximum weight allowed is 177 pounds if it feels that the contest would still be fair, safe and competitive.
In addition, if one athlete weighs 264 pounds while the opponent weighs 267 pounds, the Commission may still decide to allow the contest if it determines that the contest would still be fair, safe and competitive in spite of the fact that the two contestants technically weighed in differing weight classes.
So the rules were followed here as well (assuming GSP and/or Diaz were actually over the 170lb mark, which has yet to be shown, unlike the cheap shots, which there is no question about.)
Rules that Diaz got away with and no one seems to care:
Using abusive language in fenced ring/fighting area
Attacking an opponent on or during the break
Attacking an opponent after the bell has sounded the end of the round
Does make sense. It was fairly obvious that GSP was struggling for weight - he was cranky, made mention of weight cutting being a pain in the ass, and then the apparent fever and injury.
This thread will perform to the same type as most others on here these days though. Diaz fans will cry foul, GSP fans will say so what ?
As a neutral, I don't really like it at all. No other fighters get given special allowances. Or do they ? Many have struggled with weight cuts for equally justifiable reasons as illness and injury. Did any of them ever recieve specialist treatment, or were they all punished ?
I'm glad the fight went ahead, but any shortcut is leading you down a very slippery slope, imo
The commission would give them the .9 allowance. This could be standard in Montreal and just something nobody mentioned to Diaz's camp. (but something they should have looked into). Different commissions can have slightly different rules, looking at past title fights in Montreal, Thales Leites weighed in at 185 so what are the odds there was no decimal place, GSP weighted 170 against Condit and Koscheck.
And since 2008 None of the weigh ins in Montreal show a decimal in the results. Nobody weighs in at 169.5? Everybody is a round number so to me I think its something that has been in place a long time and yes something GSP was likely aware of already having fought in Montreal previously. While it may have been unfair to Nick at least partial blame could be put on the Diaz camp for not making sure they knew any minor changes instituted by the local commission. Its unair but not malicious.
if i were to guess i'd say gsp went to dana with concerns about his weight so they made a last minute adjustment to the rules for him which is why diaz wasn't let in on it until then. looks kind of shady and maybe it is but the fact is every sports league caters to their stars like that. its how you make money.
I'm wondering why both websites took the articles and video down.
The video wasn't property of the UFC, and they're supposed to be independent news outlets, and articles like these are protected speech.
That's the shady part. with no explanation of the original rule change forthcoming, I''m forced to assume they were somehow bullied into silence. that's far shadier imo than the original issue.
Is it shady as hell and proof that GSP gets pampered. Yes.
If the UFC is taking down these videos then it sure seems like it is a "big deal" to them. No?
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