Kindly Condit in way of fight everyone wants
I don’t know much about Carlos Condit. Everyone seems to think him a nice guy. Married his longtime girlfriend. Has an infant son. Great mixed martial arts fighter. His father was Chief of Staff to former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. There is nothing wacky about Condit of note.
Which is why I hope he loses tonight.
I hope he is beaten in the main event of UFC 143 at Mandalay Bay, hope he doesn’t mess with the stars that are nearly aligned to produce Georges St. Pierre against Nick Diaz, hope that the contentious attitudes we saw again this week finally engage in the octagon instead of the media.
St. Pierre hasn’t fought since April and likely won’t again until November, so it says something about his star stature that he would dominate so many headlines in the days leading up to Condit and Diaz fighting for the interim welterweight belt.
The plan is for the winner to then fight St. Pierre, who expects to be back training full time in July from knee surgery that has not allowed him to continue defending a title he won in 2008. Let’s hope the plan works.
A popular storyline this week was whether Diaz is certifiably nuts, which there seems to be ample proof of most days. I’m not sure it matters, given no one has any idea what Diaz is talking about most of the time, but he’s good for a soundbite, if only to feel better about our own sanity or lack thereof.
St. Pierre is another story. The most popular Ultimate Fighting Championship draw now that Brock Lesnar is stalking through woods with a bow in search of whitetail buck on a full-time basis, St. Pierre just might have a little Rain Man in him as well. The Canadian is just more professional about it than Diaz.
“I stand for something bigger than myself,” St. Pierre said.
Hockey fans everywhere?
He spent an hour Wednesday conducting the sort of media sitdown he pledges to despise, sounding more like an orthopedic surgeon than a fighter whose reputation is for, well, not being the most interesting cat in the room.
He talked about graphs and muscles and fusions and nerves and blood vessels and ligaments, about new training principles that originated in the former Soviet Union. He didn’t go into great detail on the latter because I’m convinced he realized we all immediately thought of that scene in “Rocky IV” with Ivan Drago running like a cheetah on the treadmill and a beautiful blond Russian gal overseeing those nasty injections of steroids.
St. Pierre has been accused of the S-word during his career, and Diaz is one who has floated such claims.
“Nick has questioned my integrity,” St. Pierre said. “I have never cheated in my life. What lights a fire in me is a challenge. When I don’t have one, I feel dead. He is very disrespectful and needs to hate his opponent to fight him. I don’t. I don’t take things as personal as he does. But he has lit a fire in me. He has given me the drive I have not felt in a long time.
“Of course, I want Nick to win (tonight). I pray he does. It would set up the perfect scenario, the fight everyone wants to see. It would be the biggest fight in UFC history. I guarantee it. I will be on fire. I’m not afraid of Nick Diaz.”
The guy everyone says is a boring champion also wants you to know he has a complex side, that there are demons in his past, too. That he has obsessive-compulsive disorder and if he sees things not in a straight line he needs to fix them.
“People have no idea how dark my head is,” St. Pierre said.
I’m not sure if this will cause Diaz to throw a box of matches all over the octagon if the two indeed fight, but you can bet the buildup would be classic. First things first, though, and it begins with a really nice guy who no one seems to have any issues with losing tonight.
“I feel like they have planned that fight before this one,” Condit said. “That’s fine, because I have the opportunity to go in there and spoil those plans.”
I hope he doesn’t.
It’s nothing personal, but I think most would rather see Rain Man finally fight the crazy guy who talks in tongues.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
