Issue 114
May 2014
The return of Nick Diaz to the welterweight division would throw a silver spanner back into the works. Disagree? Name me another fighter on the roster who gets folks talking as much…
Gareth A Davies
MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, on Nick Diaz, TRT and Travis Browne, and Jessica Eye
Diaz versus Jake Shields would be difficult to organise without the biggest bank heist in history, of course, but Diaz against any combination of Tyron Woodley, Matt Brown, Demian Maia, Rory MacDonald or Johny Hendricks would see the internet warriors getting armed for battle on the chat forums. No one polarises fight fans quite like Diaz right now, save Vitor Belfort, and perhaps Alistair Overeem, in the same manner.
And with Georges St Pierre gone, Diaz becomes a factor again.
Like him or loathe him, and to be fair most people like Nick, he is somebody people will pay to watch, and pay in the hope of seeing him get beaten. He knows it too, and so does Dana White, although the PR versions of this fact have a disconnect when both men discuss ‘the comings and goings of Nick Diaz’ in front of a media scrum.
Diaz slinked quietly through the media room at UFC 170. I had a word with him, and he was clearly there to up the ante to get another UFC fight. His whispers were telling. He also looked refreshed. He said so, too.
“It’s weird what you get after 11 years of straight fights. It’s really weird and I feel a lot different now having a little bit of time to see how the world works not fighting every three months.” In Diaz-speak, he’s had a break, chilled out, now he’s ready for more.
He also believes, and this is where I agree with him, though some will see this as controversial, that he is one of the UFC’s biggest stars. He wants a title fight, he said. In fairness, a semi-final-type fight would suffice. Then a title fight. In truth, there are six or seven top-level 170lb fights sitting there for him.
“I might not be on the front cover of magazines like I should be, or on advertisements, no one calls me for this and that, but it’s still the bottom line. It’s still realistic. It’s what’s going on here today.”
White and Diaz, that night in Las Vegas, again talked about the disconnect between them. But behind the scenes, Diaz would be on speed dial on any promoter’s phone.
TRT RIP & Travis Browne
It had to come. The TRT stance by the Nevada State Athletic Commission is a great start and will gather momentum. But it is just the start. The witch-hunt to rid MMA of PEDs is finally here.
I have to doff my cap to Travis Browne for his attitude, when I spoke to him not long ago. He recently tested low for testosterone, for his age. “I got tested. I did a full blood test to see where my body is, where the deficiencies might be, to see if I might be lacking in anything.
“They asked if I wanted my testosterone checked, too, so I said ‘Sure, let’s see where my T-levels are.’ For my age, I am low. I could go and get TRT if I wanted to, but why? It’s going to give me an excuse to lose. I don’t need that.
“It’s mentally weak. I don’t care. I don’t care if I’m lower here or higher there. I’m going to fight you either way. I’m going to punch you in the face either way.”
That, my friends, is the attitude of a champion.
‘Evil Eye’ an angel
Over the past year this column has been in praise of the female fighter in MMA. Jessica Eye was called “an angel” when I spoke to Randy Eye, her father, in Las Vegas recently. Bear in mind they have not always been close, and he admitted he was “the original evil eye.”
They came to blows several months ago. But when Jessica learned of her father’s cancerous brain tumour, she reconciled with him. He took his baseball cap off and showed me the horseshoe-shaped scar on the right hand side of his head, before saying: “She’s my angel. She has changed my life.”
And the lives of many others, Frank.
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