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Diaz abandons boxing career for St-Pierre talks

Nick Diaz has cancelled his boxing debut to go after a super-fight with Georges St-Pierre © Getty Images

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Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz has turned his back on an arranged boxing contest to focus on his MMA career - with a blockbuster clash with UFC champion Georges St-Pierre looking increasingly likely.

Diaz was due to enter the ring to fight former super middleweight world champion Jeff Lacy in the autumn, but the promoter of that fight announced on Monday that the contest will no longer be happening - saying the 27-year-old has "an opportunity of a lifetime" to consider in his MMA career.

"Nick is a good kid and a very exciting fighter," Chargin stated. "Right now, he has an opportunity of a lifetime as it pertains to his MMA career.

"While I don't doubt that Nick and his team were serious about taking the big step into boxing, it only makes sense for him to finish what he started and see how far he can go in MMA before he does anything in boxing."

Diaz had previously stated that he would be very tempted by a meeting with St-Pierre - who is currently recovering from an eye injury sustained in his last fight against Jake Shields - with reports suggesting a clash in December had been tentatively pencilled in.

But UFC president Dana White denied that any agreement for a super-fight has been made, insisting there are many points that still need to be discussed between the two fighters and organisations.

"We will see," White told MMAjunkie."There are still a lot of hurdles."

However, Diaz's manager Cesar Gracie echoed Chargin's comments, denying that the move into boxing was a stunt designed to draw out more lucrative MMA offers but confirming that a "chance that comes along once in a very long while" was on the table for Diaz.

"There are some people that have said we were just posturing to go into professional boxing, and they don't understand that this thing is something we had been working on since 2009," Gracie stated. "It wasn't just out of nowhere, but at this point in time, there's a certain chance that comes along once in a very long while and it only makes sense to stick to MMA as of right now.

"Nick's been working really hard to get to this point in his MMA career and it wouldn't make sense for us to make that transition into boxing right now."

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