To say Nick Diaz is a complicated man would be a serious, serious misunderstanding.
He’s as talented as they come, having recently ended his reign of terror in the Strikeforce welterweight division in hopes of conquering the UFC’s 170-pound class.
During his time spent with the San Jose-based promotion, Diaz became one of the saving graces of the organization, becoming a popular draw after memorable battles that eventually led him to claiming the promotion’s title in January of last year.
Then, Diaz defeated Dream champion Marius Zaromskis, knocking out the knockout artist inside of the first round. Subsequent title defenses over the likes of K.J. Noons, Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and the hard-hitting Paul Daley—who Diaz defeated in a first-round stunner which has since been nominated for “Fight of the Year” honors at this year’s World MMA Awards—have anchored the résumé of the Stockton native.
Riding on the heels of a ten-fight win streak, and reaching the pinnacle of his career, you would think that this would be the high point of Diaz’ career, or certainly the most enjoyable.
Nope. For Diaz, he’s unhappy, irritable and is not particularly fond of the fight game.
Truth be told, the world-ranked fighter never really was.
“I never liked doing this,” said Diaz in an interview with MMAFighting.com, in the lead up towards his main event collision this Saturday night at UFC 137 against former two-time world champion B.J. Penn.
“I don’t like not having a job, especially when I started mixed martial arts, this is all I could do…This is all I know how to do, this is what I’m good at, so it’s what I do.”
Diaz does enjoy the singular aspects of MMA as a whole. He’s a highly-touted athlete, despite not coming from any form of traditional academic sports, though his grandfather took Nick under his wing as a youth and got him into swimming and running track to keep him in shape and disciplined.
At an early age, Diaz found the Cesar Gracie academy, where his mother—a waitress by trade—would have to come home after work and drive Nick an hour out of the way to the Pleasant Hill school. There, Diaz influenced his younger brother Nate into developing a successful mixed martial arts career of his own, while pairing up with teammates and friends Gilbert Melendez and Jake Shields along the way.
It’s in those early foundations that Diaz has found pleasure, but not in any of the remedial things that have ensued thereafter.
“I love jiu-jitsu, and I love my team, I love repping Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu, and I love athletics and martial arts and competition because it gets me right, puts me in the right place to stay in shape and be healthy,” said the enigmatic fighter.
“It motivates all these good ideas and things like for instance learning how to do something else for a living.
“I can’t say that I love doing this.
“I don’t hold anything against everybody loving what they do, they love their job and they love to fight. I love to do well and I love the competition and everything, but as far as fighting for money, it’s just not something I’m in love with.”
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