A no-show for two previous UFC news conferences, former Strikeforce champion Nick Diaz showed Wednesday he can still make news by doing nothing.

Diaz was trending on Twitter after failing to join the start of a conference call to promote the rejigged UFC 137 main event Oct. 29 MMA in Las Vegas.

The 28-year-old welterweight from Stockton, Calif., came on some 35 minutes late, after opponent B.J. Penn and co-main event heavyweights Matt Mitrione and Cheick Kongo had said their piece.

He pleaded innocence.

"What happened? I didn't even know there was a (media) call," Diaz said. "Nobody called me in the last week of a couple of days or anything like that to say there was a call.

"I trained last night. I went home. Got something to eat. Went to sleep. Woke up. My phone was dead and then my brother's telling me I'm supposed to be on a call. I don't know anything about it."

UFC president Dana White proved to be an unlikely witness for the Diaz defence in a text to The Canadian Press.

"They called him last night!" White wrote. "U don't call diaz the nite b4!!"

Diaz (25-7-1) was originally slated to meet welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. But White replaced him with Carlos (Natural Born Killer) Condit after Diaz failed to show up for news conferences in Toronto and Las Vegas.

There was talk of the UFC cutting Diaz but he ended up taking the place of Condit in the co-main event against Penn.

And when St-Pierre-Condit fight was pulled Tuesday after St-Pierre injured his knee training in Montreal, Penn-Diaz was elevated to the main event.

Once on Wednesday's call, Diaz warmed up quickly and soon was delivering a searing semi-stream of consciousness monologue that drifted from entertaining to the irate, with a dash of Muhammad Ali-like bluster for good measure.

He painted a picture of a blue-collar fighter who had been let down in recent days by his white-collar help.

Had he made missteps?

Diaz initially opted to "take the Fifth on that," but later threw some helpers under the bus when it came to the potential blowback from boycotting the news conferences.

"I have people supposed to take care of stuff. I've got a lawyer supposed to get paid a hundred grand, I don't know, a ridiculous amount of money ... I've got all these people, businesspeople and big-money people around me trying to make deals. I don't know anything about that. All I know is somebody's getting paid over a hundred grand just to tell me what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do.

"And for that much money I think I could have had somebody standing around and telling me 'Hey, you can't miss this press conference. That voids the whole contract and then you're out."'

In hindsight, Diaz said if he had read that provision himself, he would have been "a little more cautious and I probably would have showed up at that press conference. But that's not the case."

Added Diaz, his blood pressure seemingly rising: "I train hard. I train harder than these guys. I fight harder than these guys. I look better than these guys. I do better than these guys and that's why. I don't get no help and I don't worry about no help.

"So that's what takes up all my time -- training. And trying to become the best in the world here. And that's the best in the world, all right. that's what you're dealing with here. This is the whole world out there, ain't nobody who can beat me."

A talented fighter, Diaz has not always played well with others.

A post-fight melee with Joe Riggs in hospital after their UFC 57 bout (won by Riggs) in 2006 attests to that.

Diaz, whose younger brother Nate also fights in the UFC, went 6-4 in the UFC from 2003 to 2006 before leaving to fight in Pride and other organizations.

UFC 137 marks Diaz's return to the fold after holding the 170-pound title in Strikeforce, which the UFC also owns.

Asked about the many disruptions surround the card -- some of which he had triggered, of course -- Diaz said he has just tried to focus on training and avoid everything else.

"When it's time to fight, I go fight," he said. "And that really depends on whether or not I'm ready. And that's really about me, it's not about whatever's going on in the world, or whoever I'm fighting or I'm not fighting.

"I'm not really going to have a choice on that. My job's to fight so I have to fight when I'm told to fight. That's what I do, That's what I do well."

A calm Penn (16-7-2) showed Diaz plenty of respect, calling him the most accomplished boxer in mixed martial arts.

Diaz said he appreciated the compliment, which he called "reasonable."

"I've had more boxing experience than most people in the UFC."

But he said he did not welcome the change of opponent

"No I'm not happy about it at all. I'm fighting a guy who's my friend, who was my friend and now I'm fighting this guy. ... I signed to fight a certain guy (St-Pierre), I thought we had a deal."

"I'm just doing what my manager says," he added.

Diaz said he had signed to challenge for the title.

"I think I had the right skills and the right tools to do the job in that fight," he said.

Diaz offered St-Pierre some bulletin board material in case their fight ever does come off by adding: "I think B.J.'s a lot better fighter, to be honest with you -- on the technical standpoint. He's much better (at) jiu-jitsu, boxing. ... I think he's a much better fighter than GSP all around."

Still, he said he thought Penn was better suited to 155 pounds than 170.

Penn, meanwhile, said he only heard about being moved into the main event on the Internet.

Penn, 32, is a former lightweight and UFC welterweight champion in the UFC.

Diaz's antics seemed to entertain him.

"I enjoy watching the stuff Nick Diaz does. He doesn't change. He's just always himself. That has nothing to do with me. He does always show up to the fight and fight, so I don't think we have to worry about that stuff."

Both Diaz and Penn said they would be happy to make their matchup a five-round fight, although Penn suggested someone would have to up the ante in that case.