Nick Diaz is set to face Carlos Condit in the main event at UFC 143. When that fight concludes, Diaz will either walk out of the Octagon as the UFC’s interim welterweight champion or he will leave the Mandalay Bay Events Center with his first loss in 12 fights.
Win or lose, Diaz may also leave Las Vegas as the next big thing in the UFC, whether the notorious brawler from Stockton, Calif., likes it or not.
I’m sure some will be dismissive of that statement based on Diaz’s past antics and his clear disdain for the spotlight, but the fact remains that Diaz may very well be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the UFC’s new partnership with FOX.
With an FX fight card and a FOX fight card airing the two weeks prior to UFC 143, the promotion has the ability to build interest in the Diaz vs. Condit main event, and that means the potential for more fans to see a Nick Diaz fight for the first time.
This is not an insignificant thing, as Diaz can always be counted on to deliver not only an exciting fight, but also some “interesting” sound bites in the days leading up to the fight. If the UFC can convince first-time pay-per-view buyers that Diaz is something special, that’s a win-win for the promotion as well as for Diaz.
Let’s face it; Diaz is a draw for the UFC. Longer-term MMA fans either love him or hate him, there’s no middle ground. Diaz’s detractors label him a miscreant who does nothing but complain and continuously paint himself as a victim even when he’s cashing checks for $200,000.
Diaz’s fans praise his honesty and willingness to say whatever is on his mind whenever he is pressed on a subject that he is passionate about.
However, the attitude is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to Diaz. The second aspect is his skill as a mixed martial artist. Even his most ardent critics would be hard pressed to say he is not an entertaining fighter.
Hell, even Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who once spent months trying to get a fight with Diaz, admits that Diaz is one of his favorite fighters. When you combine the brash attitude with the willingness to fight to his opponent’s strengths and yet never seem to be happy with, well, anything, you have all the makings of the perfect antihero.
Diaz is the antithesis of the scrubbed, squeaky-clean images of champions such as Georges St.-Pierre and Jon Jones.
A great number of fight fans can identify with Nick Diaz. He’s the black hat-wearing loner, the bad guy that spews whatever is on his mind without caring about the repercussions. He’s the fighter that rebels against anything and everything, just because it’s in his nature.
By the same token, those that detest him do so because he doesn’t play the game. They feel he’s a malcontent, rewarded for behavior that should be abhorred, not condoned. In their eyes, he’s the rebel without a clue.
Through all of this, both sides have one thing in common; they’ll tune in to see Diaz fight. His fans want to see him prevail, the ultimate outsider who does things only on his terms. His detractors want to see him fail in spectacular fashion, tumbling into history, only to be spoken about in the past tense, never to be heard from again.
UFC 143 will mark the biggest opportunity in the MMA career of Nick Diaz; it will be very interesting to see what he does with this chance.
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