Gilbert Melendez recently revealed that his longtime training partner Nick Diaz is pretty much retired from the fight game, while this video courtesy of the Stockton slugger insinuates that he only wants to party, and hurting people is the furthest thing from his mind.
Now, Nick is clarifying his fighting future, as he recently took to Instagram to say he will not be returning to action just to collect a small paycheck, saying he needs to get paid handsomely for his services.
I’m no role model, I’m 35 years old, but I definitely wouldn’t advise anybody to take a fight for less than their worth or fight for free. Which is practically what I would be doing at this point in taking a fight with some of these guys that are not on my level. Nor would I be within my moral ethics to even do that aside from you not painting me as a role model. If there was an offer I couldn’t refuse, things would be different. Until they are – I’d like to continue to think I’ve been fighting to make the world a better place, but until I can continue to do that: “I don’t want to hurt nobody, I just want to party.”
Nick was in talks to return next month at UFC 235 against Jorge Masvidal, but after financial issues held up the bout agreements being signed on Nick’s side of things the fight ultimately fell through.
Diaz hasn’t competed in three years after losing to Anderson Silva at UFC 183 in January of 2015. That fight was ultimately overturned to a “No Contest” after Silva failed a post-fight drug test. Nick also failed a drug test for marijuana and was subsequently suspended for five years and fined $165,000 by Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
After coming to a deal with NSAC and getting cleared of domestic violence charges, Diaz was cleared to fight late last year, though the green light hasn’t exactly done much to increase the odds of him returning.