Nick Diaz
Three-part series features UFC 143 main event welterweights
The latest edition of “UFC Primetime” premiers Friday night featuring the clash in two weeks between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit.
“UFC Primetime: Diaz vs. Condit” airs tonight at 11 p.m. Eastern, immediately following UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller. The “Primetime” episode will be the series’ debut on FX, one of the UFC’s new cable homes in its new seven-year network deal with Fox.
Tonight’s episode will be the first of three featuring former Strikeforce welterweight champion Diaz, who fights Condit at UFC 143 on Feb. 4 for the interim UFC welterweight title. Current champion Georges St-Pierre was scheduled to meet Diaz at the event, but a torn ACL and subsequent surgery and rehab will have him sidelined for much of 2012.
Parts 2 and 3 of the series will air over the next two Fridays, Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, each at 11 p.m. Eastern. In addition, replays of the show will air on Fuel TV, the UFC’s other cable home, also a Fox-owned station.
The back story leading to Diaz vs. Condit has been among the most unique in UFC history. Diaz vacated his Strikeforce belt to come to the UFC to challenge St-Pierre. But when he missed multiple press obligations for UFC 137, UFC president Dana White pulled him from the title fight and put Condit in against St-Pierre instead. Diaz was booked for a fight with BJ Penn, Condit’s original co-main event opponent. But an injury to St-Pierre knocked him off the card. Diaz fought Penn in the main event and won while Condit waited for St-Pierre to heal.
But at the post-fight press conference, White announced he had asked Condit to step aside so Diaz could again be booked for St-Pierre. The fight was made for Super Bowl weekend at UFC 143. But when St-Pierre suffered a second injury in early December, Condit was back in his title shot – albeit for the interim belt.