Lefko on UFC 143: Diaz against the world
Posted February 3, 2012 8:57 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He is 28 and in the prime of his professional career, with fame and fortune within his grasp at a time when the UFC is poised to make its greatest move into mainstream sports. And yet you get the impression Nick Diaz would just as soon find a place to escape and hide.
Diaz has become the anti-hero in a drama he helped to author, along with some circumstances that have all come together in a crazy kind of way.
Diaz will fight Carlos Condit on Saturday night at UFC 143 in Las Vegas, the winner receiving the interim welterweight belt to go alongside the one Georges St-Pierre has worn so proudly around his waist for more than three years after numerous defences. St-Pierre is sidelined indefinitely following major reconstructive knee surgery in December, but will be in attendance for the fight adding an interesting subtext, hoping Diaz wins to settle a score that could culminate in one of the biggest fights in mixed martial arts history.
St-Pierre has been the consummate professional and goodwill ambassador for the UFC for a long time, his name respected among people who follow MMA. But for reasons that have never fully been explained, Diaz decided to disrespect the champion. While being interviewed following his win over BJ Penn in the main event last October at UFC 137, Diaz called out St-Pierre and accusing him of faking an injury so he didn’t have to fight him.
If this were the Wild, Wild West, it would have been the equivalent of the bad guy challenging the good guy.
If anything, Diaz should have been grateful just to be in a main event after the ongoing drama begun when he missed two scheduled press conferences for what was supposed to be the title fight against St-Pierre. Condit was substituted in Diaz’s place, but when St-Pierre couldn’t fight because of the injury, UFC president Dana White decided to postpone their bout until this Saturday.
What should have been a lesson in professionalism for Diaz, particularly when White put him back into the main event, either didn’t register or didn’t matter. Diaz had decided in either a fit or rage or a rush of adrenalin to verbally attack an individual who had done nothing wrong. While St-Pierre accused Diaz of being unprofessional for failing to show up for the press conferences, effectively taking away precious time to train, it could hardly be considered a tipping point to spark a war.
It really didn’t make any sense.
And in the press conference afterward, when asked if he felt the victory over Penn was bittersweet because of all that had happened to him leading up to the fight, Diaz didn’t comprehend the question. So White explained it to him by asking him in a clear and concise way if he felt good about the win after being screwed by him — except White used some coarse language that had the entire room laughing.
“Everybody wants to have jokes and laugh,” Diaz shot back. “All you guys laugh at me. That’s not funny.”
Through all that has happened, including his chance at a title shot only a few months after it appeared he kayoed his chance at a title shot, Diaz has become the talk of his profession and the object of much discussion. He is a polarizing figure, the kind of person you either love or hate but are drawn towards. Because of all that has fallen into place to put Diaz in the biggest moment of his career, his life has changed dramatically.
He became the focus of TV feature about his life — it also included Condit, but to a far lesser extent — portraying the rough and tough neighborhood in which he grew up in Stockton, Calif. He described it as being full of “gangsters and cranksters,” and early in his life he had to fight to protect himself.
He did so well that he was recruited to be a gang member, but wanted no part of it. He loved mixed martial arts and the controlled violence in the cage. That became his world, perhaps his escape. The UFC Primetime special also showed that Diaz is a fitness freak, who loves the challenge of a triathlon.
“If they paid me to race triathlons as much as they pay me to fight, I probably wouldn’t fight,” he once said.
St. Pierre is renowned for his daily fitness regimen, something which is almost an obsession, and for that he has been lauded and held in high regard. But whatever you want to say about Diaz’s character, he is no less deserving of respect for the time and effort he takes to keep his body in peak condition.
For whatever reason — and it could be as simple as a case of anti-social behaviour or anxiety — Diaz has trouble communicating outside of his comfort zone, which is to say all the media requirements and personal appearances that are demanded of him. If he beats Condit, Diaz will be expected to do even more promotional work. Even if he loses and is allowed the time to go back to his private world of training surrounded by the people he knows and trusts, there will come a point when he will be asked to once again do some appearances with St-Pierre. This time there will be no excuses for failing to show up.
It’s been rumoured Diaz stands to make $1 million from Saturday’s fight and potentially four times that amount in the bout versus St-Pierre. And yet this may be an example that money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness.
“I love athletics and mixed martial arts and competition,” he once said. “It gets me right and puts me in the right place to get in shape and stay healthy. I love to do well. I love the competition and everything, but as far as fighting for money, it’s not something I’m in love with.”
Diaz has said he doesn’t like to shake hands with opponents on the pretense they are friends, when in fact in his mind they are enemies who will want to pound each other or force the other into submission. Whether it’s the culmination of this week or a slight changing of his guard, Diaz appeared to change his philosophy.
He did not go nose-to-nose while posing with Condit for photographers on Thursday following a press conference and shook Condit’s hand when it was offered. They posed again on Friday after the weigh-in. Neither one extended their hands this time, but there was no sign of provocation either. At best it could be described as strictly professional.
“I’m here to represent (trainer) Cesar Gracie,” Diaz said. “I’m here to take my ass-whooping or just whatever.”
It was a sarcastic comment, a kind of “me against the world attitude” mentality, for the people who want to see him pummeled for his comments about St-Pierre. It should be interesting to see what happens.
