And during a conference call to hype up his upcoming Jan. 29 title defense against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, Diaz made his feelings very clear on the matter, saying that given the weight disparity, it's not a fight he'll agree to unless the cash is right.
The conference call followed the pattern of a typical Diaz fight: jab, jab, feel out the spacing, and then, when he was properly warmed up, he let it rip.
"I'd be happy to move up," he said. "I'd just like to be paid for it, you now. I don't like how people try to say that I didn't accept the fight with Miller because I was too small. I never said anything about that. I said, If I'm going to go off-track, it's going to screw with my season, screw with my whole year, screw with my capabilities fighting at 170 pounds. So If I'm going to do that, I would like to get paid in full. I'd like to have a reason for doing that. It's not just doing it at everyone else's convenience. I would like to get paid something extra. Double, triple, something crazy for me to do that, to move up in weight and fight at that weight.
"Moving up or moving down, I'd rather move down before I moved up," he continued. "If you want me to move to a different class, let me move down if you're not going to pay me more money for it. I might as well be moving down. That's probably better. I'll move up, but can I get paid for it? People see something great. Offer me a fight at 185, offer me a big money fight and I'll make it happen. But I'm not just doing it for free when I make the same money at 170 pounds. It's more work. Twice as much work. I never would've signed for that fight with Miller. They were talking about making me move weight. I said, 'Tell his ass to get in f---ing shape and make weight like I do.' It's f---ing hard enough for me to make 170 pounds. He acts like he wouldn't be able to do it. He doesn't want to work hard like me. That's the problem. So he could work his ass off and make 170 pounds, 175 pounds. Or somebody can pay me a couple f---ing million dollars and I'll move up to 185 pounds and I'll fight him."
The Strikeforce welterweight champion made it clear it's an issue of money over bad blood, despite the fact that he recently signed a contract extension with the San Jose, California-based promotion.
"That motherf---r doesn't want to fight me," he said. "Talking about, 'he wants to fight me' every chance he gets. He's got control of the media. I'll fight at any weight. I'll fight at 185 pounds. I'd like to get paid. Pacquiao's making $40 f---ing million, GSP's making a couple millions dollars. And I'm over here driving a Honda because my s---'s breaking down?"
Diaz also took issue with world fighter rankings, telling the story of when he cornered a fighter who had only fought twice before as he took on the UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck.
The fighter, likely former Team Cesar Gracie member Chris Sanford, who was actually 4-0 at the time, was knocked out in the first round by Koscheck (who was 2-0 and making his UFC debut after appearing on the Ultimate Fighter). Diaz, though, sees that as an example of selective matchmaking that helped several UFC stars build up strong records, and helps hoodwink the media and public into believing they are better than they actually are.
"I never had fights like that," he said. "So when you bring up guys like that to me and tell me they're the best fighters in the world, it's a f---ing joke. It's a joke to me. He may be a good fighter now, but these guys that are ranked up there, I was here first. That's fine, but lets fight then, you know? Make it happen."
Diaz, who said his dream fights would be against Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, was asked why he continues to call out fighters that it's unlikely he'll ever face while he's under contract to a rival promotion.
"Why wouldn't I get this fight?" he said. "Why are you saying it's unavailable? Because we fight for different companies? I think there's enough money involved that they can organize that sort of thing."
In the meantime, he'll have to settle for Santos, an 18-13 brawler who won his divisional debut by TKO over Marius Zaromskis in December.
"I think this is the best opponent for right now that I'd agree to," he said. "I want to fight GSP. But I think my partner [teammate Jake Shields] will take him out regardless."
Source: mmafighting.com
No comments:
Post a Comment