(Video courtesy of YouTube/HDNet)

HDNet caught up with Nick Diaz this week ahead of potentially the biggest fight of his MMA career against BJ Penn this weekend at UFC 137 and the former Strikeforce welterweight champ revealed the biggest key to beating the resilient Hawaiian. According to the surly Stockton native, he needs to first and foremost go into the fight not looking at Penn as one of the guys he looks up to most in the sport or else he might show him too much respect Saturday night.

“For this fight…my biggest obstacle I think is kind of overcoming my own personal faith in BJ Penn, because you know, after all he’s pretty much a guy I, you know… I don’t look up to a lot of guys, but I’ve looked up to BJ Penn for a long time, but he came from my school, okay? You understand? He came from my academy. Whether he says he does or whether he says he doesn’t, that’s where he came from, so… That’s where he started learning jiu-jitsu,” Diaz explained. “I actually had his first mixed martial arts fight on video. I don’t even know if he’s ever seen it, but I had it on a tape — like a cassette tape and I used to watch that before anyone even saw him fight in the UFC. We’ve trained together, too before so that’s kind of… a lot of that is really the difficult part about this fight, other that that he’s a great fighter. It’s probably going to be a lot harder for me fighting this guy because…it makes it a lot easier for a guy like Georges [St. Pierre] to go out their and hold him, stall for the rounds, but I go out there and I fight. He knows me and I know him too. He knows what I do and I know what he does too, so…I wouldn’t have picked this fight if I had my choice, that’s for sure.”

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

We’re not sure if it was creative editing or if Nick Diaz has had a change of heart about his views on the PR obligations of being a fighter, but Stockton’s favorite son almost seemed happy doing this pre-UFC 137 promo for UFC.com.

Arguably the most interesting tidbit from the oft misunderstood former Strikeforce welterweight champ in the brief clip is that his UFC 137 opponent, BJ Penn is his favorite fighter.

“He’s my favorite fighter. He’s better than they are. He’s better than everybody. I know where he came from; he came from my school. As far as I’m concerned he came from where I came from and that’s why he’s here. I gotta win these fights. I don’t think it matters what I do; I think I have to win. I love competition. It gets me right. It makes everything work,” Diaz explained. “I know who’s in this sport. It’s shit…not what I do. MMA fans, in general, are looking forward to this fight. I kind of think that we have some of the same style, therefore we have some of the same fans and I respect his style of fighting.”