At Friday night’s UFC on Fox 5 pre-fight festivities, Nate Diaz proudly carried on the Diaz family tradition of weigh-in weirdness.
The lightweight title challenger came in six-tenths of a pound over the 155-pound limit, then missed the limit again in a second attempt before finally hitting it on his third try.
When Diaz stepped on the scales, he initially weighed 155.6 pounds. Lightweight champion Benson Henderson—wearing a Seattle Sonics basketball jersey to curry favor with the crowd—then clocked in at 154.6 pounds. This is noteworthy because the champ probably had just a bit more weight to cut in this instance than the challenger. Or a lot more.
Diaz was forced to try again without his shorts (fighters must not exceed the weight limit at all for title fights). With his second attempt, he came in at 155.2 pounds.
Diaz then had an hour to lose the final extra mass. And on the third try, he met the 155-pound limit.
On the one hand, no harm no foul. Diaz met the limit, and he did so within the rules. It’s not something worth losing one’s mind over.
On the other hand, his last name is Diaz. Both Nate and brother Nick have had their share of weigh-in drama.
It is clear the Diaz brothers want, and maybe need, a little of that drama to get the combat juices flowing. But to miss weight for a title fight (even once) probably isn’t what they had in mind, and it speaks to a certain and persistent lack of attention to the things that are important to fighting besides, you know, fighting. Like press conferences and weighing a certain amount and all that stuff.
And if Nate Diaz wasn’t aware that fighters don’t get a pound of leeway in a title fight situation, then that is on his team and they should be ashamed. A simple miscalculation is silly; a mental lapse like that would be unacceptable.
Either way, I can’t wait to see what Nick does to top his brother when he fights Georges St-Pierre. Maybe he’ll eat a microphone.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com