Issue 033
January 2008
“I’m angry because I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m not going to play showboat like everybody else. In the end, it’s going to hurt me more than it’s going to help me. There’s always going to be an elite group that want to control things and I’m not good with authority and stuff like that. That’s why I fight – so I don’t have to have a boss.”
Welcome to the world of Nick Diaz: fighter, rebel and loose cannon.
A few years ago, when the reborn Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) butted it’s way into the mainstream consciousness, Nick Diaz was at the forefront of the action. His demolition of red-hot striker Robbie Lawler confirmed his status as a serious force. For many new fans, Diaz personified the ‘fight anybody’ ethos of this exciting sport. He continued to pick up wins, but lost out on decisions in high profile fights against Karo Parisyan, Diego Sanchez, Joe Riggs and Sean Sherk. Even if he had got the nod from the judges, Diaz doubts he would have been groomed as a poster boy.
“They don’t want me at the top of the food chain. You know- the mainstream guy with the microphone, because I’ve got a fucking mouth on me and I’ll say whatever I want. I think it’s ridiculous that you’ve got all these robots out there. It gives me a job. I know that I’m out there to fight against some of these people who are fucking mindless sheep.”
Diaz believes that an audience friendly image can be more useful than ability when it comes to career development. Exhibit A: Rich Franklin.
“He just lost again, right? See what I mean? You’re promoting Rich Franklin and this motherfucker, here he is, letting it ride and he’s just trying to uphold this image. The guy’s a fucking teacher. He’s a schoolteacher – that’s what he is. If I was going to fight him, I’d be pretty damn confident. I’m going to fight a teacher, not a fighter. There are plenty of teachers I wanted to beat up.”
Educationalists are not popular with Nick Diaz (“I didn’t want to fall into line and have my mind controlled by those bastards in school.”). They prescribed Ritalin to help him ‘concentrate’. Faced with the choice of dropping out or bowing to authority, Nick chose the highway. This early exit from traditional education certainly left a lasting impression.
He has a voracious appetite for learning and a distrust of ‘The Man’ and the crap he feeds you. Nick believes your mind and body are under attack from the twin evils of television and food additives. Organic food is his passion. “If I was President I would provide for the people who want to eat good food. I would make an organic food store in every neighbourhood. It should be a mandatory law. I would chop down half the cornfields and Soya bean fields and use them to plant fresh produce and fill some whole food markets. Fuck the fructose.”
Nick’s enthusiasm for one natural herb in particular made headline news. In April 2007 at Pride 33 Nick was put in against reigning lightweight champ Takanori Gomi. Gomi’s name is near the top of most pound for pound lists, and the Las Vegas bout with Diaz was seen as a chance to showcase him in America. Diaz didn’t just beat Gomi, he put on a dominant show before earning a submission by way of gogoplata.
The Diaz comeback train was derailed before it left the station. This time, the men in suits responsible were the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They announced that he had tested positive for THC (the main psychoactive substance found in cannabis). The news came as a surprise to Nick. “I said: ‘I didn’t know we can’t smoke pot’. What the fuck? Who the hell wants to tell me that we can’t get high and smoke weed? No one’s ever said that. That’s ridiculous. They want to come in and regulate things, but you know something. I tested positive a shit load of times and they never said anything in the UFC.”
Nick was banned from competition for six months and fined. Rather than take his medicine like a good boy, he continues to speak out. “I think it (marijuana) is highly beneficial to fighters. A lot of the time, people are getting stressed out and everybody does something. Everybody drinks, smokes or does steroids. If you’re going to do one of the three- I think it should be smoking weed.
“You’re worried about this big fight- ‘Oh fuck- I’ve got to fight Wanderlei. Wanderlei’s going to kill me. Shit.’ And then, next thing you know, you smoke a little weed. You’re like, ‘fuck, I thought I gave a shit. Who cares? Wanderlei – let’s rock’.
You can be a miserable piece of shit and walk round in circles all day and stress out on everything. Or you can just get high and go get on with your day.”
When it comes to fighting there is no doubting Nick’s commitment. His voice adopts a reverential tone when he mentions his art, and he is clearly grateful to have found his vocation. “I was blessed at a young age with knowing that I wanted to do this. I learned Jiu Jitsu really quick and I was automatically pushing hard, harder than anyone else. Then I realised, in doing that, I was working harder than everybody in the world as far as MMA went.”
His discipline and work ethic have developed under his mentor Cesar Gracie at Pacific Coast Martial Arts in his hometown of Stockton, California. “I came from a background: one school, one academy. We fly one flag and that’s how it goes. We don’t recruit fighters at my school. We build them. We make them. We don’t recruit the champions- we build them up.”
A proud Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, Diaz has a deep respect for the purity of fighting and confidence in his ability. He just wants to get in with the best and get it on. To Nick, some of the marketing and gimmicks now seen in MMA detract from the integrity of the sport. “You can’t believe everything you hear because I’m better than a lot of these motherfuckers out there that are just being promoted and advertised.
“I’m not going to say over and over again about how I’m going to kick this guy’s ass or I’m going to kick that guy’s ass because I don’t have any shit to talk.
You get guys that paint their toes and then they dye their hair. And I’m like ‘what the fuck do you have to dye your hair for?’ People hate on me and say that I’ve got a bad attitude and call me uneducated and this and that. That’s ridiculous. These guys can go out there and they can act gay and paint their toes and shit and nobody oppresses them.”
Diaz sees it as his duty to make a stand against the style over substance mindset. “No Mohawks allowed in my class. Go cut that shit. You want a Mohawk because you think that you’re an MMA fighter. You’ve been telling people and it’s going along with what you’ve been saying. I’m like…shit. There’s no painted toes here in my school. And there’s no dyeing your hair. You know, next thing you know is you’ve got all these fucking freaks, they’re fucking painting each others toenails and trading hair colours and whatever.”
Although he seems to have been around forever, Nick is only 24. His life revolves around training and teaching, with a little time for chilling at home listening to The Deftones, Radiohead and Nirvana. The young veteran despairs when he sees the antics of some of his peers. “A lot of fighters are driven by this bullshit. The television. They like these fake women, you know, with fake tits, fucking Botox. I can’t do skanky broads. Everybody else, they love whores and hookers.
“People do crazy stuff when they start fighting. They get a big head then they move to fucking Hollywood or Vegas and they live this fake reality. I just want to live the life I would’ve lived if I hadn’t done all this shit, which is probably a pretty shitty one. If I can make some money on the side, gravy.”
The great irony is that despite apparently doing everything possible to commit career suicide, Nick Diaz is now a hot property. After his suspension ended, he was snapped up by EliteXC and installed as a headliner. People are attracted to MMA because they are looking for something real. In this bland, manufactured post-Pop Idol greyness we call life, how many people really say what is on their mind, regardless of the consequences? When someone’s a genuine character, and not a manufactured fake, it shines. It sells tickets. As the marketing men he despises would put it, Nick Diaz is the real deal.
