Diaz reportedly losing seven figures due to no-shows

Dave Metzler’s Wrestling Observer (subscription required) reported this week that the rebooking of Nick Diaz out of the main event at UFC 137 likely cost the ex-Strikeforce champ to lose at least six figures due to the loss of his PPV cut.

The Wrestling Observer states that Diaz would have been paid seven figures regardless of the outcome of his fight with GSP. Now, he’s likely going to make “very slightly more” than what he would have made if he defended his Strikeforce belt against Tyron Woodley. Diaz made $175,000 in his last title defense against Paul Daley. So, he may be making somewhere around that figure against BJ Penn.

Payout Perspective:

The report is that Diaz didn’t have his passport for the Canadian press conference and didn’t realize the Las Vegas meetup was a press conference but merely a photoshoot. Regardless, these are things that a professional knows and attends. Its inexplicable. The fact that Diaz is going to fight for less on the same card has to be downright painful: emotionally and financially. Yet, it seems like these are the types of situations Diaz wants to find himself in: the establishment holding him down and preventing him from getting a huge payday.

Its still interesting that the UFC pulled the switch on the card. If the UFC wanted to punish Diaz, it could have just withheld his PPV cut and still had the match-up. The two people the rebooking helped were likely Carlos Condit (not clear if he gets a PPV cut) and BJ Penn (who likely was given a bump in pay for the switch of fights).