At the end of the third round of the UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz main event in Montreal on Saturday, challenger Nick Diaz took a swing at champion Georges St-Pierre after the bell signified the end of the round. Referee Yves Lavigne was on top of the action and prevented the post-round punch from landing, but that doesn’t change the fact that Diaz took an intentional swing at an opponent between rounds.
Following the event, UFC president Dana White said he thought Diaz should have been deducted a point.
“In my opinion, the ref should have taken a point away right there. That wasn’t like, oops, I didn’t hear the bell. It was intentional and it should have been a point,” said White during the UFC 158 post-fight press conference.
Diaz denied that he was actually trying to hit St-Pierre after the bell.
“I didn’t really try to take that shot. I just threw it across his face. I know it sounds like some (expletive), but I really wasn’t going to hit him with that. I was just being really mean out there because I wanted him to try to hurt me, try to finish me,” said Diaz during the post-fight press conference.
Diaz's antics usually entail talking to his opponents, taunting them and an occasional obscene gesture in an attempt to bait them into attacking.
“That’s his style. His whole style is to either get in your head to intimidate you or get in your head to get you to fight his kind of fight and play his game. That’s what he does,” said White. “That’s definitely his style.”
At UFC 113, which also took place at the Bell Centre in Montreal in 2010, a frustrated Paul Daley hit Josh Koscheck after the fight. He was immediately released by the UFC for the incident, but White doesn’t think what Diaz did was comparable.
Daley and Koscheck got up off the mat when the bell signified the end of their fight, and Daley made a move towards Koscheck like he might congratulate him on a good fight or something of that short, but instead cheap-shotted him with a punch to the face.
“The difference is, at the end of the round, the ref was right there. He went to slap Georges and he didn’t get the slap off,” said White.
St-Pierre retained his title against Diaz, logging a one-sided unanimous decision victory. He’ll likely face Johny Hendricks next. Diaz’ future remains unclear, as he hinted at a possible retirement.
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