Nick Diaz: "I Want To Fight Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre"

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Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz had a lot to say at the recent conference call that was setup to preview Saturday night's Strikeforce event, where Diaz is set to defend his title against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos. Despite his impending title defense, Diaz addressed a plethora of other issues that didn't include the husband of the most dominant female fighter in MMA.

"I don't like how people try to say that I didn't accept the fight with [Mayhem] Miller because I was small. I never said anything about that," stated Diaz. "I said, if I'm going to go off track, it's going to screw with my whole year and my capabilities of fighting at 170 pounds.

"If I'm going to do that, I would like to get paid full. I would like to have a reason for doing that. I'd like to get paid something extra—double, triple, something crazy for me to do something extra."

The bad blood between Miller and the Cesar Gracie clan goes all the way back to April 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee, where a post-fight scuffle ensued after Jake Shields defeated Dan Henderson.

Miller, who entered the cage uninvited, was attacked by Nick Diaz, Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields after challenging Shields to a rematch for the Strikeforce Middleweight Title.

The back-and-forth jawing between both sides has continued ever since. With Shields now in the UFC, many thought a grudge match between Diaz and Miller was a no-brainer.

"I never didn't want to sign for that fight with Miller. They were talking about making me move weight. I told them to tell [Miller] to (expletive) get in shape and make weight like I do," said Diaz. "It's (expletive) hard enough for me to make 170 pounds. He acts like he wouldn't be able to do it. He doesn't want to work hard like me. That (expletive) doesn't want to fight me. That's the problem.

"He can work his ass off and make 170 or 175 pounds, or someone can pay me a couple of (expletive) million dollars, and I'll move up to 185 pounds to fight him."

Diaz is a proven veteran and one of the top Welterweights in the world. Fighting outside of the UFC has disadvantages. The top fighters in the world compete in the UFC, and those outside of the organization don't receive the same level of notoriety. With all that he's put into the sport, Diaz is upset at his lack of recognition and big money fights.

"[Manny] Pacquiao is making 40 (expletive) million dollars. GSP is making a couple of million dollars. I'm over here driving a Honda because my (expletive) is breaking down. (Expletive) all you (expletive)," a noticeably upset Diaz stated. "I got here and started fighting before most of them, including Georges St-Pierre. I was at it first, and I was really mad when they were getting fights and recognition when I was here first. I thought it was first come, first serve."

St-Pierre's recent decimation of Josh Koscheck has caused many publications to push the Canadian past Anderson Silva as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. MMA fans may have been blown away by St-Pierre's performance over a guy like Koscheck, but Diaz wasn't impressed.

"I cornered a guy to fight against Josh Koscheck. He probably had two fights in his life, and he was setup to fight Josh Koscheck. Then he takes an ass-whooping," said Diaz. "They made easy fights for those guys. The guy got like six or seven fights of all easy guys. I never fought anybody like the guy I brought to fight Josh Koscheck."

Diaz's words became stronger in the interview as he elaborated on the ranking situation and the Welterweight "elite."

"We got some guy that doesn't even fight, drinks at a bar and then we took him to fight Josh Koscheck one day. He didn't even know who he was fighting. I never had fights like that. So, when you bring up guys like that and tell me best fighters in the world, it's a (expletive) joke. This guy may be a good fighter now, but these guys that are ranked up there, I was here first. Let's fight then."

Diaz hopes to one day get the big money fight that has always eluded him. When asked about dream opponents, he showed no hesitation in calling out the top two fighters in the world.

"I want to fight Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre," said Diaz.

Diaz is currently on an eight-fight win streak. On Saturday night, he will attempt to put forth his second consecutive title defense against Santos, who dropped from Middleweight and defeated Marius Zaromskis in his Welterweight debut in June 2010.

"[Cyborg] looks good at that weight. I think it's a lot better for him," Diaz said. "I'm always telling people they're too small for 185, and they should move to 170. I usually call people out on being too small for that weight. I would've pointed the finger to [Cyborg] along with a lot of guys he's fought too."

Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg will take place on Saturday at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The card will also feature the Middleweight Title bout between Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Robbie Lawler. A Heavyweight tilt between former NFL star Herschel Walker and Scott Carson is also listed on the card.