If the names "GSP" and "Nick Diaz" weren't attached to the UFC 158 weigh-in controversy, would the perception be different?

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Remove Nick Diaz’ name from the current situation and tell me if your opinion on the statement regarding malpractice by the Regie des alcool, des courses, et des jeux (RACJ) at the UFC 158 changes.

For that matter, remove Georges St-Pierre’s name too. Simply look at it from a Fighter A and Fighter B standpoint.

Fighter A is the welterweight champion, defending his belt in his hometown. He looked a little under the weather at Thursday’s press conference, and shortly before he’s to step on the scale, a representative of the promotion informs Fighter B that the commission is going to make allowance for he and Fighter A that are not being made for anyone else. He refers to them as “off the record,” and the explanation that is put forward – “they don’t count the decimal” – is completely foreign to anyone who has watched combat sports closely over the years.

Title fights require both participants to come in at the contracted weight or less. In this case, Fighter A and Fighter B needed to make 170.0 pounds or below. Fighter B has already completed his cut; he’s under, no worries, but now, only after he’s gone through the process, is he told that that those last few fractions of a pound didn’t need to be cut. Apparently, 170.9 counts as 170.0 this time around.

Fighter B steps on the scale and registers 169 pounds. Fighter A follows, sporting black micro boxer briefs, and is announced at 170 pounds, but knowing today that “they don’t count the decimal,” aren’t you a little curious to know if Fighter A actually weighed 170.0 pounds as he needed to in order for the bout to be an official title defense?

That’s what Jonathan Tweedale, a Vancouver-based lawyer who works for the former Strikeforce welterweight champion is hoping.

On Tuesday, Tweedale released a statement on behalf of Diaz outlining their issue with the UFC 158 weigh-ins in lieu of a video that has emerged showing UFC Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs informing Diaz and his team that the RACJ will allow Diaz and St-Pierre an additional hour to make weight if necessary, and that they “don’t count the decimal” for weigh-ins. As Mersh puts it, “As long as (St-Pierre is) under 171, we should be good.”

“Well, first of all, in the regulations, that’s not permitted,” offered Tweedale, when we spoke on Wednesday morning. “The regulations say for the weigh-ins, you weigh in for the contracted weight, which in this case was 170 pounds, not 170.9. That’s required by their regulations, and they’re not at liberty to change the rule, particularly at the last minute.

“The problem is Nick has waited seven years for a fight with Georges St-Pierre, and then when it finally happens, it happens under the authority of a commission that is demonstrably unfit to supervise a welterweight title fight.

“Entire confidence of what the commission did in all its regulatory aspects is undermined, and I think the UFC would want to not have that blemish on the belt, and say, `Look – we’re not going to come back to Montreal for a while. You guys need to get your house in order, and we need to give Mr. Diaz the welterweight title shot at 170.0 pounds that he was contractually entitled to and didn’t get.’”

While Tweedale’s version of an ideal resolution – “Georges pays 20% of his purse to Nick, and an immediate rematch, but I think we would settle for a rematch this summer, in a different jurisdiction.” – may be a pipe dream, it’s hard to argue that there are not concerns that need to be addressed in regards to the RACJ’s handling of this situation.

As Tweedale said, “That’s the problem: where a commission’s independence and impartiality has been wholly and fully undermined in connection with one issue, that destroys the validity of everything else its done. We have no idea what other misconduct they could have engaged in, besides an issue in connection with drug testing that will be completely articulated shortly.”

It’s easy to look at this through the “Nick Diaz Filter” and chalk it up as another case of the misunderstood superstar of the sport complaining after a loss and questioning the actions of the commission, but if this was anyone else raising these concerns, would we be as quick to want to dismiss his claims?

Regardless of how you think a rematch may play out – and I’m of the “nothing changes” belief, personally – a welterweight title fight is to be contested at 170.0 pounds or less, and if that wasn’t met, there are procedural penalties that must be incurred. Additionally, it wouldn’t be wholly unreasonable for Diaz (or any challenger) to request a rematch, given that they were not actually afforded the opportunity to fight for the title should the champion have missed weight.

But that’s the trouble here for a lot of people: we don’t actually know whether or not St-Pierre actually missed weight. All we know is that he was announced at 170 pounds, a weight that was announced while he sported his black Under Armor boxer briefs.

Though you may be tempted to say, “If you can’t prove he didn’t miss weight, you’re not entitled to a rematch,” the inverse has to be acceptable as well. When you approach it from a legal perspective, there are comparable situations that would lead to accepting the Team Diaz view of the events and the conclusions they’ve arrived at as the basis of moving forward.

“The courts have a concept of spoliation of evidence,” began Tweedale, who has previously served on the Vancouver Athletic Commission. “Where you do something to destroy evidence, the courts will draw a negative inference about what that evidence would have shown.

“So here, where the commission says, `Okay guys, we’re not going to weigh for 170.0; we’re going to check if he’s under 170.9. We’re going to rob everyone of the opportunity to know if he made 170.0.’ That notionally is the same principle.”

As much as their push for a rematch may ultimate come up short, there is a clear basis for a complaint here, and at the very least, this situation needs to be investigated further.

Part of what seems to have fight fans and critics quickly moving to either side of this debate are the names of the parties involved.

While St-Pierre is the picture of professionalism and the poster boy for all that is good and right in the sport, here comes Diaz and his legal team, looking for another loophole to exploit in order to swing a negative result in their favour as best they can.

But this isn’t arguing about the validity of a suspension on the basis of marijuana metabolites. They’re not the ones who skirted the rules here; the RACJ is, and as such, Team Diaz has every right and reason to kick up a fuss.

Again – think about it free off the names or from a different perspective, and it becomes far easier to accept and sounds much more reasonable than “we deserve a rematch.”

It's an interesting point, IMO.

I doubt anything gets as much attention as when these two are involved so my answer is no, but I would imagine it would still raise some eyebrows if the same exact thing happened to Anderson Silva at a weigh-in in Brazil.

If you ask me personally would my perception be any different? No. I'd still see fighter X being a sore loser because he couldn't beat fighter Y and he's looking for any loophole to get himself another shot...since he indeed waited so long and he knows that actually earning another shot may take too long for his liking.

Welcome to "murica"...where you can sue for hot coffee and look for loopholes in everything.

Actually welcome to "everyday life in this world"...because this was in Canada right? Not the US?

IDK, it's likely just my Diaz fanboy speaking here, but I just can't take this lightly. This just absolutely screams cover up to me, and it seems like people just want it to go away quietly simply because they refuse to believe that GSP could be involved in something so shady.
Like FistK said; What if this was in Brazil, and what if it was Anderson Silva defending his title against Chris Weidman, and word around was that Silva was having a hard time cutting the weight. Then an offical comes to Weidman right before weigh-ins after Weidman has already cut to the required weight and says that we're gonna relax the rules and let either guy come in almost a pound over weight if need be, and it's gonna be off the record.
I find it very hard to believe that the MMA universe wouldn't be going absolutely apeshit over that and calling for everything from fines to rematches to Silva being stripped of the title.