Danaher: Bad watermelon juice had GSP vomiting all night before Diaz fight

It appears that the UFC 158 bout we saw between Nick Diaz and Georges St-Pierre featured fighters that were not at their best. On a recent Submission Radio show, Diaz's coach Richard Perez stated that someone from GSP's camp gave Diaz an IV that messed him up the night before the fight. But it seems that GSP was messed up too, at least according to his coach John Danaher.

In an Instagram post, Danaher explained that GSP's camp went very well, but some bad watermelon juice that the champ drank to rehydrate had him up vomiting all night before the fight:

The best laid plans of mice and men: As a coach one of the main aspects of my job is to conceive plans of action that raise the likelihood of an athlete winning an event. Yet despite our best intentions, there is always a good chance of things going awry that require spontaneous change and adaption in the face of unexpected circumstances. All the major MMA fight camps I have been a part of furnished unforeseen incidents and drama that could not have been predicted and which had to be overcome. Probably the most flawless and well run fight camp I ever saw was that of Georges St-Pierre in preparation for Nick Diaz (Interestingly, his prior fight camp with Carlos Condit was probably the worst). We had an excellent game plan, the physical preparation was excellent, superb choice of sparring partners, all match contingencies covered, no injuries, no backstage drama, perfect weight cut - everything was perfect - until the very night before the fight when Georges drank some watermelon juice for rehydration that had been too long out of the fridge and got a badly upset stomach. He spent the entire night vomiting. It was so sad to see such a perfect camp get ruined at the last minute by such a minor oversight. The night of the fight, Mr St-Pierre came in underweight and drained. We had to curtail the warm up for fear of exhausting him before the bout even began. There was some drama with Mr Diaz's camp insisting that both sides have their hand wraps double checked. This was done, but we did not want them to see how bad Mr St-Pierre looked, so he had to put on an act of confidence and vigor when they came in the dressing room. In the end, Mr St-Pierre showed why he was a great champion that night, putting on a dominant shut-out performance to win a unanimous decision - no one in the audience would have guessed how serious a problem he had to overcome. He used a system of pacing the rounds and timing the takedowns and allowing standing escapes to maintain the pace of the fight whilst controlling the action but at the same time, not exhausting himself. It worked brilliantly and the problem was overcome. This kind of adaptation is crucial in fight preparation at all levels.

A photo posted by John Danaher (@danaherjohn) on Aug 6, 2016 at 3:33pm PDT

dfd

If you can't read the caption, it says "The best laid plans of mice and men: As a coach one of the main aspects of my job is to conceive plans of action that raise the likelihood of an athlete winning an event. Yet despite our best intentions, there is always a good chance of things going awry that require spontaneous change and adaption in the face of unexpected circumstances. All the major MMA fight camps I have been a part of furnished unforeseen incidents and drama that could not have been predicted and which had to be overcome. Probably the most flawless and well run fight camp I ever saw was that of Georges St-Pierre in preparation for Nick Diaz (Interestingly, his prior fight camp with Carlos Condit was probably the worst). We had an excellent game plan, the physical preparation was excellent, superb choice of sparring partners, all match contingencies covered, no injuries, no backstage drama, perfect weight cut - everything was perfect - until the very night before the fight when Georges drank some watermelon juice for rehydration that had been too long out of the fridge and got a badly upset stomach. He spent the entire night vomiting. It was so sad to see such a perfect camp get ruined at the last minute by such a minor oversight. The night of the fight, Mr St-Pierre came in underweight and drained. We had to curtail the warm up for fear of exhausting him before the bout even began. There was some drama with Mr Diaz's camp insisting that both sides have their hand wraps double checked. This was done, but we did not want them to see how bad Mr St-Pierre looked, so he had to put on an act of confidence and vigor when they came in the dressing room. In the end, Mr St-Pierre showed why he was a great champion that night, putting on a dominant shut-out performance to win a unanimous decision - no one in the audience would have guessed how serious a problem he had to overcome. He used a system of pacing the rounds and timing the takedowns and allowing standing escapes to maintain the pace of the fight whilst controlling the action but at the same time, not exhausting himself. It worked brilliantly and the problem was overcome. This kind of adaptation is crucial in fight preparation at all levels."

Yeah, it's long.

It does make you wonder how the fight would have gone if both men were 100% though. Each fighter is looking at UFC returns at the moment - Diaz from an 18-month drug suspension, GSP from a period of semi-retirement. Neither has a fight booked yet.