‘The Canadian Loophole’ – Georges St. Pierre
Quebec Athletic Commission (Régie des alcools des courses et des jeux)
For this incident, we will have to rewind back to March of 2013 at the UFC 158 weigh-ins. GSP was taking on Nick Diaz in his home country of Canada overseen by Régie des alcools des courses et des jeux (Quebec Athletic Commission).
In a nutshell, what went down was just prior to the weigh-ins for UFC 158. Michael Mersh (Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs & Assistant General Counsel for the UFC) informed Nick Diaz’s camp that the Quebec Athletic Commission “doesn’t count the decimal.” Apparently, according to Mersh the athletic commission was not only going to provide an extra hour, for if someone didn’t make weight, but they were willing to round the decimal down to the championship weight of 170lbs even if it was from 170.9lbs.
Georges eventually admitted that (in an English translation originally told to the Associated press per La Presse:
“They came to us just before the weigh-ins and even I was surprised. They told us they were going to be rounding (down to the nearest pound). I was as surprised as Nick Diaz.”
GSP eventually stated though he wasn’t sure of his exact weight, he was around 170.4lbs and the Quebec Board then rounded his weight down to the limit of 170lbs. In the aftermath of the fight, Jonathan Tweedale, legal representation of Diaz’s camp stated that they’d be filing a formal complaint thanks to the weigh-in controversy.
An entire timeline of the controversy was assembled by Bloody Elbow, and is a great trip down memory lane.
