5 UFC fights that were hugely overhyped

#4 Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz – UFC 158

Did the UFC sell "wolf tickets" when it came to hyping GSP vs. Diaz?

By the time 2013 came around, Georges St-Pierre had reigned over the UFC’s Welterweight division for some 5 years, making 7 successful title defences – a divisional record – in the process. It looked like surging contender Johny Hendricks would be next in line, but instead the UFC turned to a man who was supposed to fight GSP a little earlier – bad boy Nick Diaz.

The GSP/Diaz fight had fallen apart in 2011 due to a serious knee injury to St-Pierre, and Diaz had consequently lost to Carlos Condit and hadn’t fought since. But the fans wanted to see the fight, largely because the feeling was that Diaz would bring the fight to St-Pierre like few others had before.

Diaz had already talked a good game to build the initial fight – claiming GSP was scared of him – but by the time the hype for the clash began, even he seemed to see through it somewhat.

St-Pierre was actually the one talking more than ever – claiming that Diaz’s trash talk had taken him to a “dark place” and that he’d be more aggressive than before – but Diaz simply said that the UFC – and St-Pierre for that matter – were “selling wolf tickets”; in other words, overhyping the fight and the rivalry.

In the end, the fight wasn’t bad per say, but it certainly wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for GSP. ‘Rush’ simply used his usual tools – his tremendous takedowns, top control and jab – to outpoint Diaz over five rounds with little difficulty. But it wasn’t an angrier, “dark” GSP at all, and for all of his own talk, Diaz wasn’t massively aggressive too.

Had there been little hype coming in, the fight would’ve been decent. But due to all of the trash talk and the heavy promotion going in, it was hard not to be disappointed.