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« | Home | »

Nick Diaz gives the middle finger to American fight fans

By Zach Arnold | August 18, 2009

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The man who proclaimed that he could beat any drug test and still smoke pot somehow couldn’t find any measure of respect for Scott Coker, Showtime, or Jay Hieron to take a test to get a license to fight in California for Strikeforce’s August 15th card. Diaz had a title shot in place and instead of showing up to take a drug test, he ended up hiding ‘in the mountains’ and away from the California State Athletic Commission.

The reaction to Diaz’s antics from Coker and company make Strikeforce and Showtime look like pushovers. Listen, it’s the fight business — if you can draw money, you get more leeway, and we know that Diaz is a cult-like superstar. However, we also have learned from Dana White and UFC that like professional wrestling, the one tactic that changes and influences behavior in MMA is fear. Nick Diaz doesn’t fear Scott Coker. He doesn’t fear Ken Hershman of Showtime. He doesn’t have to fear anyone because he knows there will always be another sugardaddy ready to give him a second or a third chance and tell him how great he is.

So, with all of this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Nick Diaz now wants to fight in Japan. Coker is playing the “I don’t mind that he fights in Japan, but he fights in December for me” line. Fine. We know that DREAM and Strikeforce will have a co-promotional relationship. However, Nick Diaz and his camp are the same group of people that bitched a while back about DREAM stiffing him on money. So all of a sudden Diaz and company are going to do a U-turn and fight for DREAM again, a company they accused of stiffing them on money in the first place? What a joke.

We all know there’s no drug testing in Japan, so it’s obvious why Diaz is fighting there. What is curious is why Strikeforce, Showtime, and the California State Athletic Commission are willing to sit around and go on Cesar Gracie’s timetable here. Diaz escaped immediate suspension from the CSAC because he failed taking a drug test while getting licensed. However, you would think that the athletic commission would not be so forgiving of a man who has often made a mockery out of drug tests in such a public fashion like he did in The Los Angeles Times.

So, we will likely see Diaz versus Hayato “Mach” Sakurai in a fight that Nick will likely win, which would theoretically set up the fight with Jay Hieron that should have happened last week. Diaz has publicly stated that he wanted to fight Sakurai over a year ago.

Meanwhile, Hieron has to stay on the sidelines for the next four months and somehow put his trust and faith in Nick Diaz a) not getting hurt in Japan and b) actually bothering to show up in November or December for a drug test in order to get licensed. Why should Hieron play this game and end up with no political leverage here? With the news of Diaz fighting in Japan, it’s time for Ken Pavia (Jay Hieron’s manager) to step up to the plate and force the hand of both Scott Coker and Cesar Gracie. Why should Jay Hieron have to wait around for four months and not earn a salary? This is a man who doesn’t have time to waste in his career and has lost out on a lot of money over the last two years.

If Nick Diaz wants to watch his MMA career go up in smoke, fine, let him do it. But why should Ken Pavia let his client, Jay Hieron, sit around and watch his fighter’s career go up in smoke, too, based on what Nick Diaz is up to?

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 65 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

65 Responses to “Nick Diaz gives the middle finger to American fight fans”

  1. skwirrl says:

    Nobody has been snapping up Showtime just to watch Strikeforce. They are drawing from people that already have it for boxing or movies that happen to like combat sports in general. HBO has been boxing’s home since Tyson went to prison. Everybody has HBO specifically for boxing and a few other shows Sopranos/Entourage.

    Showtime’s # is more impressive than the amount ZUFFA got from guys sitting at home alone, bored out of their skull who decided to rewatch UFC 100.

    Also, 45, there are still plenty of challengers to Mousasi. Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Here’s one you probably haven’t heard of. Ricardo Arona.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    So a guy who who hasn’t fought in over 2 years…. And was 1-3 before he stopped competing…. Somehow is a legit challenger for Mousasi?

    Mousasi will likely be over ranked, just like he was at Middleweight. But based on his win of Babalu, he is now a borderline Top 10 fighter (purely looking at it from a rankings perspective).

    And yet, outside of Babalu, all of the other Top 20 Light Heavyweights are in the UFC.

    So he really doesn’t have any competition. Of course, if he continues to win, he will climb the ranks despite the fact that he is fighting lesser competition. It’s pretty predictable at this point…

  3. Alan Conceicao says:

    Anyone who strings together multiple wins against fringe competition while others around them lose to it deserve to move up. Some see it differently and we end up with circular logic about these rankings:

    Higher Ranked Guy loses to Far Lower Ranked Guy: Far Lower Ranked Guy now ascends way up in the rankings, and Higher Ranked Guy is just behind, because now Far Lower Ranked Guy is Highly Rated Guy from the win. Ergo, since he is New Highly Rated Guy from beating Higher Ranked Guy, it is not an embarassment that Higher Ranked Guy lost to New Highly Rated Guy when he was Far Lower Guy. Guy That Keeps Winning hasn’t fought anyone as tough as the retroactively good Far Lower Ranked Guy-now-Really Highly Rated Guy, so he should move below New Highly Rated Guy and Higher Rated Guy.

    Sounds like a familiar chain, in spite of making almost no sense whatsoever. Seems familiar though….

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    Your post made very little sense.

    It’s pretty simple….

    With everything else being the same…

    1. Fighter cannot increase his ranking without beating a higher ranked opponent.

    2. Fighter cannot decrease his ranking by losing to a higher ranked opponent.

    So if Mousasi is #10 in the world right now, he shouldn’t be able to increase his ranking unless he beats somebody who is ranked #9 or higher.

    Kind of like you have to beat the man to be the man.

    Now, there is always the retirement, fluke win (which will typically be corrected within a year), or obvious that the fighter is a shell of his former self. But that is more of a case by case basis.

    Just to further my point. Let’s say #5 ranked fighter in the world goes 0-4 and does so against the Top 4 guys in the world. He is still the #5 ranked guy (assuming none of the top 4 guys lose during that time period.

  5. Alan Conceicao says:

    Just to further my point. Let’s say #5 ranked fighter in the world goes 0-4 and does so against the Top 4 guys in the world. He is still the #5 ranked guy (assuming none of the top 4 guys lose during that time period.

    In other words, someone doesn’t have to have a significant win for years and can stay in your top 5? Gee, I wonder if Tito Ortiz is back in your top ten now?

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    Ortiz is not in my Top 10. That guy get’s fed more old guys to keep him relevent. I have never been a defender of Tito Ortiz.

    What I wrote is a more extreme example, but it still stands. You got to beat the man to be the man. Whether that means being #1 ranked or #100 ranked. like I said, there are always exceptions to the rules, but in general that’s how it goes.

    When 9 or 10 of the same guys are all working for the same company and able to fight each other…. The one 1 outsider should not benefit from not fighting that level of competition.

  7. Alan Conceicao says:

    Why isn’t he in your top ten? He’s only lost to current or ex-champions. He has as many meaningful wins in the last 2 years as Randy Couture. At least he’s a decade younger. I mean, last I checked, Randy is in your top ten, right?

    The gimmick shows, dude. BJ Penn rose to #1 in the lightweights without beating a single top 5 lightweight that hadn’t been hit for juicing. Matter of fact, Kenny Florian rose to similar heights in the division without fighting any of the key guys from PRIDE who once were at the top…oh, wait. “Case by case basis”. Well, at least you built an out.

  8. Chuck says:

    [i]Just to further my point. Let’s say #5 ranked fighter in the world goes 0-4 and does so against the Top 4 guys in the world. He is still the #5 ranked guy (assuming none of the top 4 guys lose during that time period.[/i]

    But what if guys 6-10 start winning matches? Do they stay under number five, even though he is 0-4 against #1-4? It can’t work like that. And as Alan said, by your logic then Tito Ortiz should be in the top 6 or so because he only lost to current or former world champs in recent memory.

    Speaking of wacky rankings, why is Shane Carwin a top ten heavyweight? Who did he beat? People complain about Josh Barnett being ranked so high, but he actually beats top 20-ish guys. The only top 20-ish guy Carwin beat was Gonzaga. He definitely has the tools to be a top ten guy, but he shouldn’t be there yet.

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    Tito Ortiz hasn’t fought for over a year. Out for a year = no ranking.

    I’ve seen Carwin as high as #7 I think. Which is just about as bad as Overeem even being in the Top 10. Neither have beaten a current Top 10 fighter.

    So many bad rankings there are, that’s for sure….

  10. Alan Conceicao says:

    If he comes back and beats Mark Coleman, then what? The results say he belongs. He and Randy have the same number of fights over the last 2 years. Randy didn’t fight for over a year and then came back and lost. So, why did Brock get to enter the top five by beating a guy with no ranking? “Case by case”?

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    Enough guys have wins that would put them above Ortiz…. He wouldn’t be in the Top 10, even if he beats Coleman….

  12. Alan Conceicao says:

    A) What 10 fighters deserve to be above Tito, should he beat Coleman, according to you?

    B) Why do you rank Couture highly if he took over a year off and come back only to lose badly to a guy who was then barely in the top 10? He’s your #5 guy, last I checked.

  13. 45 Huddle says:

    I’d have to go back in time a lot to get the exact order, but the Top 11 at least above Ortiz is:

    Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson, Maurcio Rua, Chuck Liddell, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva, Keith Jardine, & Rich Franklin.

    It’s funny, because Babalu himself bumped up in the ratings basically only beating Soko since his loss to Jason Lambert. He really didn’t deserve the Top 10 ranking himself. Which means Mousasi hasn’t beaten a Top 10 guy at Light Heavyweight either. Neither has Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a very long time. Luiz Cane might be in the Top 10 based on his win over Soko…

    With the Light Heavyweight Division, there was a lot of turnover. Meaning a lot of guys have gone ahead of Ortiz since he last fought.

    With Couture, that turnover never happened at Heavyweight. The guys ranked above him were never beaten by guys since he exited to put more fighters ahead of him.

    That’s mmalogic for you….

  14. Alan Conceicao says:

    Rich Franklin and Shogun I seriously question. If Ortiz is out of the running because he lost to Liddell, then why not count the Griffin fight?

    With Couture, that turnover never happened at Heavyweight.

    So, him not fighting, him not winning when he does fight against lower ranked fighters, and him being old doesn’t figure into the way you rank? Completely expected, but funny to see you admit. Since he’s fighting #4, I guess he’s not moving down even with a loss, either, LOL.

  15. Mr.Roadblock says:

    This is just my own two cents. Alan and 45 you are both being equally ridiculous with each other and as a result with this forum in general. If you’re going to have personal flame wars and continue to change stances just to argue, please swap email addys and do it in private.

    Rankings are meaningless because of exactly the points you are both making above. Also the infrequency of competition, 3 times per year for most guys, negates any way to really have legitimate rankings.

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