Nick Diaz's extreme distaste for speaking engagements and propensity to disappear for hours on end with no word to anyone led to his removal from the main event of UFC 137 on Oct. 29 against Georges St. Pierre. It also led to Carlos Condit's removal from his fight against B.J. Penn, scheduled for the same night, so he could take Diaz's place.

It's only fitting that the Stockton slugger would take Condit's vacated spot to battle "The Prodigy," right?

Well, that's exactly what happened and according to Penn, it was basically a simple process of elimination. After all, there are only four top welterweights in the world right now and if any of them want to advance, they have to fight each other:

"Diaz, he had his whole thing with his social disorder and all that, you know, it's tough with the media. He ended up getting switched up. You know there's like four top guys in the world right now -- Georges, Condit, me and Diaz -- so I guess everybody just looks at it like they can't advance if they take any other fight. That's the fight game, strictly business."

We're essentially right back where we were at this time last week, just with a little rearranging for the Halloween weekend pay-per-view event. All involved parties appear to like their new match-ups anyway, so no harm no foul.

After the jump, Penn talks about fighting Diaz, the chances Condit has against St. Pierre and explains a nasty cut he got in training recently.