Former Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz has been found.
The Cesar Gracie-trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt went AWOL earlier this afternoon, missing a mandatory press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, to promote his upcoming UFC 137 main event fight opposite 170-pound champion Georges St. Pierre.
Diaz' absence -- his second consecutive such transgression in as many days (he also missed a similar event in Toronto, Canada, yesterday) -- as well as his inability to communicate his whereabouts, forced UFC President Dana White to remove him from the Oct. 29, 2011, pay-per-view (PPV) event.
Carlos Condit was plugged in as a replacement.
In the video below Diaz, who is driving back to Stockton, Calif., supposedly on his way back from the airport in San Francisco where he missed two flights to "Sin City," calls White's decision "ridiculous." He also says that despite the switch, he's still willing and able to fight whoever, whenever.
Diaz reminds his fans that he has never backed out of a fight and apologizes for missing "the beauty pageant" earlier this afternoon. See it for yourself:
Here's a transcript of Diaz' comments in the video (via Fight Opinion):
"Trying to get back to Stockton here, I was in San Francisco at the last minute trying to get on a airplane this morning to go to a press conference for the UFC... wanted me to fight for the title against Georges St. Pierre and now they're telling me that they're going to give the fight to Carlos Condit... which I think is ridiculous and Georges thinks its a great idea because Carlos Condit poses an even greater threat, so... I guess that just leaves me out... fighting one second I'm, um... I'm about to come into some money doing a little bit of boxing, you know... f***ing probably lose some teeth but I'm ready to get paid, you know... so I'll fight whoever and whatever and anything, you know, I'd definitely rather fight GSP of course, but... I was ready to do some boxing and they didn't like that so they got me OUT of that and they got me into a fight with GSP for, you know, same money or more money or whatever but now it looks like they get to save money and I don't get paid and locked in a new contract, all these dealmakers making deals, you know... all I know is I'm ready to fight, so... you know, I'm sorry I didn't make it to the beauty pageant but, you know, I've never not showed up to a fight and, um... I've never backed out of a fight in my life, that's not what I do, so I just wanted to throw all of that out there and... I don't know... you know, I'm ready to fight and I think that, uh... this is pretty much done here... so, peace out."
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