File this one under "least surprising thing to happen today."
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today held a conference call for the media to promote its upcoming UFC 137 event that will take place on Oct. 29 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thanks to a knee injury suffered by Georges St. Pierre, the B.J. Penn vs. Nick Diaz fight was bumped up to the main event, which, naturally, means Diaz will have to fulfill a few more promotional duties.
The first of which was today's call but, surprise surprise, the Stockton slugger was nowhere to be found.
When asked, UFC Director of Communications Dave Sholler confirmed that Diaz was, in fact, supposed to be on the call and that steps were being taken to find out where he is.
Finally, 45 minutes into the call, Diaz was located and joined the call. And immediately he claimed he had no idea about a call taking place today:
"I didn't even know there was a call. I was sleeping then my brother tells me there's a call so here I am."
UFC President Dana White expressed his frustration at the situation on Twitter by saying, "I'm hearing UFC dropped the ball on the Nick Diaz no show today!! SUCKS."
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Diaz's opponent, B.J. Penn, actually bothered to show up for the call on time and of course he was asked what his thoughts are on Diaz's disappearing act. Here was his response:
"Nick is Nick. That has nothing to do with me. He does always show up for the fight."
Thankfully, this means everything will go ahead as planned, which is good because this card could not have handled another high profile fight dropping out.
Especially this one.
"All's well that ends well," said Sholler about Diaz waiting so long to join the call.
Diaz maintains that he does what his manager tells him, nothing more, nothing less. He just wants to train and fight and that's all there is to it.
If only that were so, right?
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