Nick Diaz had quite the weekend.
By this point, nothing Diaz does should surprise us in the least. As Ben Fowlkes over at MMAFighting.com pointed out, you’ve only got yourself to blame if you were upset by Diaz no-showing his Saturday night jiu-jitsu superfight against Braulio Estima.
That’s not entirely true. I was, in fact, just a little bit surprised. After all, this was jiu-jitsu, one of Nick’s great loves. He was doing it for the love of the art and for charity. Surely everything would go according to plan, right?
I guess not. I’m sure we’ll get an explanation from the Diaz camp today that makes sense on a certain level. And you can be sure his followers will buy into it, because that’s what they do. I really enjoy following Nick’s career as it unfolds—even through times like Saturday night, when he makes it increasingly difficult to be a fan—but dealing with his most hardcore of fans? That’s a different story entirely.
But in truth, Diaz shouldn’t be worried about what transpired on Saturday night. Not today, anyway. Because today is the day Diaz takes his marijuana failure case from February in front of a Las Vegas judge.
Team Diaz is attempting to score an injunction that would put an end to the temporary and indefinite suspension handed down by the Las Vegas commission after Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites after the loss to Carlos Condit at UFC 143.
This is a date Diaz simply cannot afford to no-show. If the judge on today’s case rules in his favor, Diaz will surely be free to come out of his faux retirement and take a fight immediately. A title rematch between Diaz and interim champion Condit could finally be booked, perhaps as the main event of UFC on FOX 4 in August. And Nick’s career—which came to a crashing and emotional halt after he lost to Condit—would suddenly be revitalized.
Nick might wake up this morning and decide he doesn’t really feel like going to Vegas, that he’d rather stay home and do whatever it is he does before triathlon training later in the day. He might just decide that his career and future aren’t worth taking the few hours he’d need to travel to Las Vegas and appear in front of a judge before returning home.
But I hope he gets out of Stockton today. I hope he goes to court. He’s got a very real chance to beat the Nevada commission and return to the cage, and that’s the one place he shines.
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