If flying by the seat of one’s pants was a professional sport, Nick Diaz would be on a golden beach somewhere right now, amending and reamending his lunch order.
After the former UFC welterweight contender surprised plenty of onlookers by staging a reasonably successful MMA event on fairly short notice, Diaz threw cold water on his own momentum by refusing to confirm the future of WAR MMA, the formation of which he announced just over three weeks before Saturday’s WAR MMA 1 in Stockton.
“I have no set plans at this time,” Diaz told The (Stockton, Calif.) Record. “We’ll get together and lay everything out, and discuss it. Then we’ll go from there.”
It’s not exactly a denial, but it’s not a glowing affirmation, either. That could be viewed as strange, given the reasonably warm reception the event received, despite several snags. In the main event, streaking welterweight veteran Justin Baseman kept his momentum rolling against UFC alum Daniel Roberts with a split-decision win.
Following his decision loss to welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158, Diaz came apart at the seams, offering several strange excuses for the loss, telling the assembled press he didn’t pay income taxes, and indicated he would retire if he didn’t get a high-profile rematch with St-Pierre or a superfight with the likes of pound-for-pound king Anderson Silva.
Several weeks after UFC 158, Diaz (26-9-1) announced his intention to create his own promotion.
The outspoken, mercurial Diaz, 29, rose to prominence nearly as much for his antics outside the cage as for his seemingly limitless cardio and savantish jiu-jitsu and boxing skills inside it. The former Strikeforce champion re-entered the UFC in October 2011 and made an immediate splash by defeating legend B.J. Penn and then calling out St-Pierre in his post-fight interview. A St-Pierre injury led to Diaz fighting Carlos Condit instead; Diaz lost by unanimous decision. Diaz’s suspension for marijuana metabolites further delayed the grudge match and title bout.
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