BJ Penn: UFC Drama Not Important, Fighting Diaz Is

UFC president Dana White mentioned offhand that in putting together BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz, he had to deal with two of the most difficult camps in the sport.

Though he's mellowed slightly in recent years, Penn has never had a problem voicing his displeasure with the company or going head to head with UFC boss Dana White. In proof of that, Penn recently caused some ruckus (it may not have helped that it was a slow news week) by releasing a video which alleged that the UFC hype team tried to bait him into talking trash about Nick Diaz -- with whom Penn is friends and occasional training partners -- to which the UFC responded by releasing the following uncut footage of the interview, where Penn talks directly with the interviewers, which seemed to contradict Penn's claim.

Never one to be outdone, the Penn camp then released this video which depicted the UFC interviewers trying to drag a soundbite out of The Prodigy.

Bored yet? Well, BJ Penn is too.

"I have no idea how this UFC interviewer situation got this big," Penn said on his website BJPenn.com. "I never wanted to attack the UFC, people were calling and telling me Diaz wasn't going to sign and I got paranoid thinking they were going to use that clip to get him to sign the contract, my bad. The real truth is, I'm not focusing on this at all, this is not important, whats important is fighting Nick Diaz at UFC 137. He will be by far the most dangerous opponent I have ever stepped inside the Octagon with."

Penn and Diaz square off in the co-main event of UFC 137: St- Pierre vs. Condit, which goes down at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 29.

Mark Wayne is the head writer for FightLine.com. He can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/_MarkWayne.