One Diaz problem after another is reason enough to drive any man up the wall, including UFC President Dana White.
Nate Diaz, who is scheduled to fight Rafael dos Anjos at UFC on Fox 13, missed weight by four pounds at Friday’s official weigh-ins. This came after he no-showed for the event’s open workouts on Wednesday.
While a win for dos Anjos could mean a shot at lightweight gold, Diaz will likely face longer odds of getting back into the title picture, according to White in an interview with Fox Sports 1 (per MMAFighting.com):
The Nate Diaz thing is a completely different scenario. The guy is complaining about money, but he’s done tons of things to ensure that he gets fined. He is complaining about the CM Punk deal. … All he’s been doing is complaining, not showing up for stuff, and now he doesn’t make weight and he’s four pounds over. I don’t know what to do with him if he wins. There’s a laundry list of problems there.
Diaz has voluntarily sat on the sidelines over the last year due to a contract dispute with the UFC. Despite only being 1-2 in his last three fights, he felt his fighting style and overall body of work warranted a more lucrative payday.
Things eventually escalated to the point where Diaz even requested to be released from the UFC.
Apparently time heals all wounds.
After a year hiatus, Diaz is back in the fold and ready to pick up where he left off in the lightweight division. Of course, this has also brought back the cloud of controversy that typically follows him around.
In just the last couple of weeks, he has criticized the UFC for signing CM Punk, missed a scheduled open workout and failed to make weight for a pivotal lightweight fight. There was also the whole Twitter “hacking” incident regarding the UFC’s new uniform deal with Reebok.
Controversy also equals attention, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in a sport predicated around entertainment. At the very least, Diaz has proved to be a marketable fighter for the UFC in the past.
Perhaps White will just have to learn to live with the 99 problems that come with being UFC president—and Diaz is one of those problems.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com