First shit was a fantasy, then shit got real, then shit got crazy, and then shit got interesting…

In a positively shocking turn of events that no one could have seen coming, Dana White today announced via Twitter that Nick Diaz had been re-booked for a bout at UFC 137 — against BJ Penn.

With a simple swap of opponents, White deftly solved the headaches he had with Diaz and the two co-main events at UFC 137 without calling in a fighter on short notice, and simultaneously scored a huge amount of free publicity for the fight (Ed. note: Oh, the ironing.)

On top of that, White also managed to deal a pretty stiff blow to Diaz, without looking like a bad guy in the process.  Diaz now finds himself without a Strikeforce title or a fight for the UFC title, with fans jeering his own catchphrase back at him, facing a very tough veteran with a broad skill set that could very well beat him at his own game.

Ok, Nation: it’s going down.  Who ya got?

[RX]

In the aftermath of yesterday’s bombshell that Nick Diaz was pulled from his UFC 137 main event fight against Georges St. Pierre, it still isn’t clear what kind of future Diaz has in the UFC. But one thing’s clear — he’s violated Dana White’s trust, and that’s generally not a good career move.

Check out the above video interview from MMA30, in which Dave Farra gets DW’s immediate reactions to Diaz’s press conference no-show. Ultimately, White felt that he couldn’t promote a fighter who was so undependable: “This kid’s not gonna show up in Vegas, didn’t show up in Toronto — what else isn’t he going to show up for? Is he not gonna show up for the fight? I’m not gonna risk that.”

At this point, Diaz would stuff his middle fingers in your face and claim that he has “never not showed up to a fight.” But that’s not entirely true. As MMAFighting reminds us, Diaz went M.I.A. for his pre-fight drug testing when he was scheduled to face Jay Hieron in a Strikeforce title bout back in August 2009, leading to that fight’s removal from “Carano vs. Cyborg“.

As for an apology from Nick, Dana isn’t holding his breath…

Diaz wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.

The story of the week, by all rights, should have been that the UFC triumphed again and put together a huge heavyweight fight at the end of the year … until Nick Diaz wigged out and went AWOL, missing two beauty pageants press conferences and losing his shot at GSP’s title and all the riches that would follow. Now every MMA site on the web has three stories about the man from the 209, and we won’t start talking about Lesnar-Overeem until mid-September at the earliest.

Since we’re all speculating, CagePotato thought we would pass on this delicious rumor: Nick Diaz will still be competing at UFC 137, against BJ Penn.

Dana White told MMAJunkie yesterday that he was working on finding an opponent to replace Carlos Condit, and he obviously had someone in mind, saying “if I told you what I want to do with that fight you guys would flip out, so we’ll see what happens.”

Since nobody knows where the hell in Central Valley Team Cesar Gracie’s biggest introvert is, we figured why not have our readers tell us what they think Nick Diaz ended up doing the past couple days that was so much more important than doing his job.

(Too bad, so sad, Nick. Maybe ProElite will have you.)

You would think Nick Diaz would have taken Dana White’s warning that he better start “playing the game” when he re-signed him to the UFC. Apparently he doesn’t know the two golden rules: One, Dana White always wins and two, Dana White never forgets.

Case in point, after not showing up for a scheduled press conference in Toronto on Tuesday, Diaz once again went MIA for another presser today in Las Vegas, and as a result White yanked away his UFC 137 title shot against Georges St-Pierre and instead gave it to former WEC welterweight champion Carlos Condit.

An obviously infuriated White, who said that in 1600 events he has promoted he has never had such issues with unprofessionalism with a fighter, broke the news via a highlight reel featuring Condit and St-Pierre. He explained that they twice rescheduled Diaz’s flight and that neither he nor Nick’s longtime trainer Cesar Gracie have been able to reach the sociopathic former Strikeforce champion since Monday. During the event today, Gracie called White to tell him he agrees wholeheartedly with his decision to swap opponents and apologized for his fighter’s lack of professionalism. White revealed that Gracie had Diaz cornered in his house after he finally found the AWOL fighter on Monday and that Diaz snuck out the back door when his coach’s back was turned. Gracie has been chasing him all over Stockton ever since.

(“U mad, bro?” Photo via MMATKO)

Look, you can’t trust Nick Diaz — but you can always trust Nick Diaz to be Nick Diaz. The Winnipeg Free Press has the story:

Challenger Nick Diaz was a no-show Tuesday so welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was left to plug their UFC 137 showdown on his own.

The UFC offered no reason for Diaz’s absence in Toronto but the former Strikeforce champion is no fan of such media events…

“I don’t know why he did not show up. Maybe he has personal issues, I have no idea,” St-Pierre said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “I know they bought two flights (tickets) for him and he didn’t show up. I have no idea. I can’t talk about it because I don’t know what’s going on in his life. Hopefully he’ll be OK and I’ll see him in the cage.”

(Tito Ortiz tells The Voice where to stick it.)

I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff go down at my local dive bar, and yet I’ve never had a beautiful woman proposition me by giving me the finger. (Oh, but what a magical world that would be.) In honor of Wild Turkey‘s “Give ‘em the Bird” campaign — which is definitely intended for people who live dangerously — we decided to round up the greatest obscene gestures in MMA history. Enjoy these unquestionably rude photos, which continue after the jump, and shoot us some links in the comments section if we’ve left out any good ones.

(Felice Herrig puts it all out there.)

(Cuddly New York Jets coach Rex Ryan shares his opinion on Strikeforce matchmaking.)

(Props: NicktheFace via MMAMania)

With four consecutive wins including back-to-back first-round knockouts of Dan Hardy and Dong Hyun Kim, Carlos Condit is one of the hottest contenders in the UFC welterweight division. But to be a legend, he’ll have to start beating legends. The Natural Born Killer will get an opportunity to do just that at UFC 137: St. Pierre vs. Diaz (October 29th, Las Vegas), where he’ll face former lightweight/welterweight champ BJ Penn in the co-main event. With just one victory in his last four fights, Penn needs to make a statement against the young up-and-comer to prove that he’s not ready to be put out to pasture just yet.

But forget about what this fight “means.” These are two guys who go for the finish every minute of every round, and Penn vs. Condit is guaranteed to be a thriller. As the video reminds us, 96.3% of Condit’s wins come by stoppage — and Penn has still yet to be knocked down, despite a 10 year career that saw him fight across four different weight divisions. That’s kind of insane. Condit is currently a slight favorite with the oddsmakers. Sound about right to you?

After the jump: NicktheFace’s trailer for UFC 137′s headliner between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz.

(“‘aters gonna ‘ate.” Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

George St. Pierre‘s genius as an MMA fighter is his ability to put his opponents exactly where they don’t want to be. Against strikers (see: Alves, Hardy), that usually means St. Pierre taking top position on the mat and not giving them an inch of space. Against wrestlers (see: Koscheck, Shields), it usually means keeping the fight standing and jabbing them into a living death.

But in both cases, it hasn’t translated into dramatic finishes recently. Aside from his corner-stoppage win over BJ Penn at UFC 94, the last time that GSP has legitimately TKO’d or submitted an opponent was during his rematch with Matt Serra, over three years ago. Now two months away from his UFC 137 title defense against Nick Diaz, St. Pierre has picked up a reputation among some fans and observers as a “safe” fighter. One of his recent critics is Diaz’s trainer/manager Cesar Gracie, who shared some less-than-kind words to Full Contact Fighter:

(Video courtesy of MyFoxTAMPABAY)

It’s too bad we didn’t notice this charity auction item until after bidding on it ended, because we know a few of you may have been interested.

WWE wrestler-turned MMA hopeful Dave Bautista (AKA “Batista”) was offering a one-hour training session with him and a Cesar Gracie black belt (please let it be Nick Diaz) at his newly-opened gym in Tampa Bay and a follow-up lunch as part of a charity auction for Ovarian cancer. Now, I’m not sure if our valuation skills are a bit skewed, but we’re guessing that the deal isn’t quite worth the $2,500 they estimated — especially when the winning bidder had to provide his or her own airfare and accommodations for the lesson.

(You know you’ve been an ass when Captain America spanks you – Vid courtesy of YouTube/zansinigoj)

Back in the day, Tito Ortiz had the uncanny ability to piss off even the most level-headed opponents, but since he dropped off in the rankings, nobody has been paying his mouth much attention the past few years. As such, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” announced last week during a UFC 133 conference call that he’s done with smack talk and that he’s instead going to put all of his energy into training.

We’ll believe it when we see it, but in the meantime, check out what Tito had to say about the new breed of trash talkers in the sport after the jump.

(A wise man once said, ‘Success is the best revenge.’ A slightly less-wise man once said, ‘All y’all haters can blow me.’ / Photo courtesy of MMAFighting)

When Tito Ortiz choked out Ryan Bader at UFC 132 — breaking a four-and-a-half year winless streak in an upset that absolutely nobody saw coming — he immediately became MMA’s comeback story of the year. And if Ortiz can defeat old rival Rashad Evans at UFC 133 on August 6th, he’ll have earned a place among the greatest MMA comebacks of all time.

In honor of the Huntington Beach Bad Boy’s return to legit contendership, we decided to look at MMA’s classic career comebacks, and the non-MMA sports comebacks that we most closely associate them with. Check out the list below, and ask yourself one question: If Tito can leave the Octagon with a victory next Saturday, would he deserve the #1 spot?

FRANK MIR

Rise and fall: The brash submission specialist earned a heavyweight title shot at UFC 48 in June 2004, against 16-0 champion Tim Sylvia. Mir famously snapped Sylvia’s forearm with an armbar and went home with the belt. Three months later, Mir was struck by a car while riding his motorcycle. The accident broke his femur, tore up his knee, and nearly cost him a toe as well. His return to competition a year-and-a-half later was a minor miracle in itself, but the “comeback” saw him get smashed by Marcio Cruz, followed by a lackluster win over Dan Christison, followed by another smashing at the hands of Brandon Vera.

Cancel the Summer 2011 XXL Awards, we found the winner.

The concept of a music label sponsoring fighters is nothing new. However, one ambitious label has decided to sponsor an entire team. According to MMAMania.com, Coalition Fight Music will be sponsoring Team Cesar Gracie, providing entrance music for the fighters. The deal is expected to begin with Nick Diaz’s entrance music for his upcoming superfight with GSP at UFC 137.

Hopefully unrelated is Nick Diaz’s cameo in Stockton rapper Ben Kaos’ music video for “In It 2 Win It (Remix)”. In the video, Nick Diaz is shown training, throwing up a Stockton Heybuddy… you know, just being Nick Diaz. As for the actual song, let’s just say that Ben Kaos is no Miilkbone. And that’s not exactly a compliment for Miilkbone.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/5thRoundVideo)

Don’t expect to see any Strikeforce champions besides Nick Diaz fighting in the UFC anytime soon.

According to Strikeforce president Scott Coker, Diaz’s crossover to the UFC was a one-off exception that was made to prevent the Stockton native from turning his back on MMA in favor of a boxing career.

If you missed the video this weekend, former UFC welterweight champ Matt Hughes let fly with a bold prediction during the Q&A session he did prior to the UFC 132 weigh-ins Friday. Besides saying that he thinks longtime nemesis Georges St-Pierre will beat Nick Diaz in October, Hughes stated matter-of-factly that he feels that the French Canadian will also take out Anderson Silva if and when the pair eventually meet.

“Against Diaz, I think he’s gonna do real good. This will be the first time that he’s gonna be facing somebody that will be in better shape than he is. Diaz is in great shape and that will be the only thing I think Diaz is gonna have an edge on is the shape. But GSP is not gonna wear out. I think Striking, submissions and ground work, he’s gonna win every one of them,” Hughes said. “I think the only thing, Diaz is so different with his striking. Maybe he’s gonna land something like he did against Robbie Lawler that one time that’s gonna kinda come out of left field, but I see GSP winning. To take that a step further, I think if he fights Anderson Silva, if GSP has his head screwed on straight, I see him winning that fight as well.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/IronForgesIron)

Well, we can add Tito Ortiz’s name to the growing list of UFC fighters who have accused MMA Fighting reporter Ariel Helwani of starting shit in recent months.

During today’s UFC 132 press conference, Helwani asked Tito’s upcoming opponent Ryan Bader what he thought about Ortiz saying he had weak wrestling and before he had a chance to answer, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” interrupted to inform Ariel that he said no such thing.

In the interview we posted earlier today on the site, Ariel asked Tito if he saw any holes in Bader’s game that he was looking to exploit Saturday night, to which he replied, “His takedowns and his takedown defense,” before describing how he saw some holes in both areas that could leave openings for him to capitalize. He didn’t actually use the term “weak wrestling,” but he did point out that certain aspects of Bader’s wrestling game were lacking in his opinion.

“I never said he had weak wrestling. What are you starting shit for, dude? I never said that. I never said he had weak wrestling. I said I seen holes in his game, but I never said he had weak wrestling. Don’t be putting words in my mouth, dog.”

(Yeah, we know that’s a different Diaz, but that doesn’t make the message any less valid. Props: jaylibbb)

After suffering back-to-back decision defeats in his last two fights against Dong Hyun Kim and Rory MacDonald, Nate Diaz will be dropping back to his original home at lightweight, according to UFC.com. Diaz’s return opponent will be Japanese MMA icon Takanori Gomi at UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage, September 24th in Denver. Gomi is coming off a submission loss to Clay Guida at UFC 125 in January, and has gone 1-2 overall in his current stint with the UFC.

Nate’s brother Nick previously faced Gomi at PRIDE 33 in one of the greatest bouts in MMA history; Diaz wore Gomi down in a gritty slugfest before tapping him in round 2 via gogoplata. The win was overturned and ruled a no-contest when Diaz tested positive for marijuana in a post-fight drug test. But come on, bro, we all saw what happened.

(Dana White runs down some current events with Ariel Helwani following the press conference. Props: MMAFighting)

The UFC hosted a press conference in Vancouver yesterday in advance of UFC 131, but the most interesting announcements had nothing to do with Saturday’s “Dos Santos vs. Carwin” event. Here’s a recap…

Five-round non-title fights: UFC president Dana White announced that the UFC will make non-title main event fights five rounds from now on; previously, only title fights were worthy of the five-round distinction. The rule doesn’t apply to non-title main events that are already booked — Dos Santos vs. Carwin, or Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis at UFC 133, for example — but it will apply to every non-title main event signed in the future, even for UFC Fight Night and UFC Live events.

Flyweight division in the works: According to White, the UFC will be adding a 125-pound division “really soon,” possibly by the end of 2011. He expected that some of the UFC’s current bantamweights would make the drop.

Potato Nation, sometimes it’s hard to entertain you. Frankly, there are some weeks we hope that War Machine stabs a dude during pre-release just because there’s no real news. There’s only so many ridiculous KO videos to go around, you know?

That is not, however, the reason you’ll find us posting an entertainment piece that is (mostly) fiction. Nope, that’s got nothing to do with it.

Truth is, one of you suggested we try our hand at an MMA version of “The Dugout” over on WithLeather. If you dig sports in general, chances are you’ve seen some of their work. If not, allow us to turn you on.

Long story short, we reached out to Brandon Stroud over there, and offered to exchange links if he would let us play with his toys. He’s a cool guy, so we went to work. Check out WithLeather, play nice, and, if you’re interested, come on in for the first mega-sized edition of CagePotato’s new exclusive feature: Keyboard Warriors.

Special thanks to Brandon and justchris/lenny/something. Enjoy!

[RX]

(Post-fight press conferences are about to get even more uncomfortable for Ariel Helwani. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle)

Following up yesterday’s bombshell about Nick Diaz‘s October 29th return to the UFC against Georges St. Pierre, USA Today and MMAFighting checked in with Diaz’s manager Cesar Gracie and picked up a couple more details. Here are the brass tacks…

- Diaz has signed a new eight-fight deal with Zuffa, which allows him to fight for both the UFC and Strikeforce. But the plan for Diaz isn’t necessarily to jump back and forth between promotions. Asked if the new deal marked the end of Diaz’s run in Strikeforce, Gracie replied, “Hopefully. If he’s back in Strikeforce, I would imagine that’s because he lost his next fight.”

UFC president Dana White made an otherwise slow news day into an exciting one that fight fans have been waiting for for a long time with a simple tweet that was succinct and to the point.

“U wanted it! U GOT IT!!!”

What we will get will be a welterweight showdown between UFC champ Georges St-Pierre and Strikeforce champ Nick Diaz at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Although he didn’t say whether or not both (or any of the two for that matter) titles will be on the line, does it really matter?

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

Dana White’s fight week video blogs are back for UFC 130 this weekend, but the most interesting part of this edition is something that happened at UFC 129 last month in Toronto.

At around the 1:00 mark, White has a brief interaction in the locker room with Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz and to say it was awkward would be a major understatement. Dana tries to make smalltalk with Nick and it seems like he’s trying to talk to a child.

(Props: Heavy.com)

Despite recent rumors that Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz are slated to face off at UFC 140 — and were the most likely candidates to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter — UFC president Dana White wants to make it clear that it ain’t happening. As he tells travel-size interviewer Megan Olivi in a new interview (quotes via FightOpinion):

“That fight is not a done deal and I guarantee you that those two will not be coaches, not even close. All this stuff that’s out there about that fight and the meeting that we had here is all bullshit.”

Asked if GSP vs. Diaz would be happening at the UFC’s return to Montreal in December, DW responded with a simple “no.” Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time that the UFC has denied a report just so they could announce it themselves later — but at the very least, relying on Nick Diaz to coach TUF for an entire season seems like way too much to ask, when he can’t even get through an eight-minute interview without threatening to slap somebody.

(The “Ace”: Coming soon from Trash Talkin’ Kids.)

Thanks so much to everybody who sent in submissions for last week’s Trash Talkin’ Kids t-shirt design contest. We were overwhelmed by the number — and sheer stupidity! — of your designs, and we honestly had a blast going through them. With the help of our friends at Trash Talkin’ Kids, we picked out eight finalists based on humor, creativity, and effort. To see all of the submissions, head over to facebook.com/trashtalkinkids, where they’ve uploaded the finalists plus a bunch more entries that didn’t quite make the cut.

And now we need your votes to make this thing official. Please check out the Elite 8 after the jump, and vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of the page. The two highest-voted designs will both be receiving actual TTK shirts. Winners will be announced Thursday. Aaaaaand go!

(If triathlons allowed you to punch other racers, and the participants got paid millions of dollars to do it, well, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Props: CombatLifestyle.com)

Despite that totally official press release claiming that Jeff Lacy had already signed for the fight, Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz will not be facing Lacy in a boxing match. In fact, Diaz will be sticking to the sport that he seemingly can’t stand — and it’s becoming very obvious what’s convincing him to stay.

According to a new press release, Diaz will continue pursuing his MMA career instead of professional boxing, “as it has been deemed that it be in Nick’s best interest to focus on his primary combat sport and profession…an opportunity arose for Nick to make a different sort of history in his primary field of fighting.”

And don’t even get me started on the so called “birth certificate” of our president, you guys. Guys?

Well, that didn’t take long. With GSP vs. Diaz looking more likely by the day, you had to figure that someone would have a problem with it. Yesterday Jon Fitch let it be known that even though he is out of action due to a shoulder injury, and he kind of has a rematch with BJ Penn waiting for him when he gets back, he should be next in line to fight GSP. Jon Fitch was prompted to voice his displeasure for Nick Diaz by a rapture joke (seriously), and kept going on his Twitter account from there. All thing’s considered, it’s pretty entertaining. The results are after the jump, in chronological order.

(One of the instances when we’d overlook the flagrant violation of Zuffa’s “business as usual” policy)

Montreal is being targeted as the site of UFC 140 on December 10 according to the UFC’s director of Canadian operations Tom Wright who revealed the news on Ringside Report Radio Wednesday night.

“We’ll do Vancouver on June 11 and then most likely we’ll be back in Montreal on December 10,” Wright said.“We know how important this market is to us and putting on great fights. [Bell Centre's]  a great venue, it’s a great fan-base, it’s a great environment. The energy in that building is as good as any building in North America. We’ll always have a soft spot for Montreal.”

(Apparently, California’s hands-free law doesn’t apply to giving both fingers to a videocamera.)

By Jason Moles

For quite some time now Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz has complained at great length about how he wants more money. Apparently earning a cool $175,000 (not including sponsorships) for treating Paul Daley like a punching bag just isn’t enough.  Who could blame him though, what with gas prices topping over $4 a gallon? All kidding aside though (yeah, right!) here are the top six reasons Diaz needs to get some Mayweather money:

Hire A Personal Interviewer

As we’ve said in the past, Nick Diaz is the best/worst interview in the entire world.  However, after taking Dana’s advice about learning to play the game, Nick is going to have to hire his own private interviewer/translator. With a new found favor in the media’s heart, he’s sure to finally make bank. Warning to anyone who takes this job: Don’t start $%*#, won’t be $%*#!

Pay Exorbitant Amount of Money for his Sponsors

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MiddleEasyTV)

- Pat Barry blows his top at Brock doubters (FightersOnly)

- The top 29 cities to visit (AskMen)

- The Gina Carano sweepstakes (Fightlinker)

- 10 things that repel women (MadeMan)

- Zuffa’s Twitter policy is a matter of playing with fire (MMAOpinion)

- Win an AOC Aire black LED monitor (GameFront)

- Brock Lesnar says fans can be like pulling a tampon out of a drain (DeathClutch)

- ‘Real Steel’ trailer (TheRugged)

- Anonymous former Pacquiao training partner says he injected Manny with roids (Thisis50)

- 25 story lines to introduce Ashton Kutcher to Two and a Half Men (HolyTaco)

- HDNet and It’s Showtime ink deal; K-1 soon to return (MMAFighting)

- Deniro to play most sinister role yet: Bernie Madoff (ScreenJunkies)

- NFL players seeking $707 million in damages (TheScoresReport)

(Video courtesy of YouTube/NCAASteve)

Urijah Faber was on Steve Cofield’s ESPN radio show last week and he revealed an interesting nugget that shed some light on the tumultuous relationship between Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz and UFC president Dana White.

According to the former WEC featherweight champ, the UFC tried valiantly years ago to convince Diaz to join fellow UFC fighters Tiki Ghosn, Pete Spratt and Tim Sylvia as contestants on Blind Date, but the Stockton native had no interest in making an appearance on the dating reality show.