Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Nick Diaz: “You don’t always come off the way that you want to”

By Zach Arnold | November 7, 2011

Print Friendly and PDF

NICK DIAZ: “It’s been embarrassing, you don’t always come off the way that you want to or look the way you want to. I go out there and, you know, just act up and, you know, become the evil villain and, you know, calling out guys and stuff and, you know, but it seemed to have worked. I’m getting the fights that I want. *laughs*

“Yeah, so, you know… I can’t complain right now.”

KENNY RICE: “Yeah, there’s no reason to. You know, I think it’s turned out to be… I’ve said this, I think you’re one of the most misunderstood guys out there. And I mean that, as you know, we were talking about a lot of different things backstage, had nothing to do with MMA fighting. You might also be a master public relations guy, I think I just put this together. You might be the king of PR, man, because you’ve gone from leaving Strikeforce to be a boxer to now getting a shot at GSP.”

NICK DIAZ: “Yeah, I was going to go ahead and go down that road with the boxing but uh… you know, they gave me that fight and, you know, that’s the fight that I was asking for from the beginning. But you know, I was here first, really. I’ve been a UFC fighter for longer than Georges St. Pierre has. Not a lot of people realize that. I’ve been fighting in the UFC, you know, before all them so I’ve been here first. I’ve had more fights and, you know, I’ve fought the bigger names. You know, I don’t have nothing against Georges personally but for him not to, you know, want the harder fight and to expect to really just, you know, think Carlos Condit is a hard fight is just… it may be the case but, you know, not on paper. So, got to recognize that.

“It’s all about how you come out and fight. It’s a little bit different. I can go out on bottom a lot but are going to be able to advance position? Are you going to be able to do damage from there? You going to stall or are you going to fight, you know, there’s a lot… you know, a lot of different stuff can happen and it’s up to me to try to kind of make some stuff happen and five rounds is a lot of time work with him in this one and I enjoy fighting five rounds. I work hard to be in good condition to fight for five rounds. Going back to three rounds was kind of an obstacle, you know, changing your plan up for three rounds instead of five rounds just a little bit, you know, make sure you come out on top in that first round is really important in three rounds, you know, five rounds fight…”

BAS RUTTEN: “You a game planner? You really work and look at this fighting?”

NICK DIAZ: “You know, I think it’s important to, you know, to plan everything, you know, and… my plan is to, yeah, plan for everything and that’s always… I think that’s what I’m good at, that’s what I bring to the table here so we’ll see how that goes. Now he’s fighting somebody that does everything.

“You see either GSP go out there and finish this fight, you know, go for the finish or you’re going to see me have an answer for this stalling and laying around. But, you know, I’m the one that’s in this division that’s mouthing off and talking the most… so if anybody’s, you know, in for a good whooping or it’s time for a good whupping I’m probably that guy. So, who better at, you know, not to be than the UFC champion? So, I’m ready to get this show on the road. I’m not getting any younger, yeah, right?”

Here’s BJ Penn talking about whetehr or not he is retired for good. He says that his coaches had pleaded with him to take an extended break from MMA after the first fight with Frankie Edgar. As for what he thinks Nick Diaz’s chances are of beating Georges St. Pierre… he’s not exactly bullish.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “Nick Diaz: “You don’t always come off the way that you want to””

  1. edub says:

    He’s definitely got some deep anxiety/anti social issues.

    Some of his interviews and commentary was just hard to watch. Hopefully he can get past that, and get a little better at flowing with the conversation. Because he appears to like the treatment.

    • Gunther Kanvessbacher says:

      We have’nt seen a self promoter like this since the halcyon days of Tito Ortiz Half the people want to see Pierre smash him but everyone wants to see this fight.

  2. David M says:

    God I can’t wait to see Diaz beat down GSP. I don’t see how GSP can hold him down for 25 minutes. Diaz is going to hurt him at some point on the feet, and GSP will either fold like a tent like he did against Serra, or lose his focus like he did against Shields. Either way, Diaz is going to put his ass down.

  3. David M says:

    I think of the fight like this: GSP is the best striker in the entire mma world at 170 other than Paul Daley and Diaz. GSP is the best mma wrestler in the world at 170. GSP is not that confident in his grappling against a jiu-jitsu whiz. Against Jake Shields, he didn’t try to take him down at all. There are 2 conceivable reasons for this: 1) Jake Shields is the worst striker in mma history and 2) GSP didn’t want any part of the grappling with Jake, who, like Nick, is a better jiu jitsu player than GSP by a considerable margin. I think certainly both reasons played a part in the fight become a kickboxing match. GSP looked terrible thought; as Jake noted after the fight when asked about a GSP-Diaz fight, Nick is a far superior striker to Jake.

    To me, if the fight stays on the feet, GSP loses. BJ Penn is the best boxer GSP has ever fought, and after losing the first fight in the eyes of anyone who isn’t blind, GSP greased his way to victory in the rematch because he was so unsure about being in BJ’s guard. You can see the GIFs online. BJ’s legs literally slide right down GSP’s back. Anyone who think GSP wasn’t cheating, or was unaware of the vaseline, is a goddamn idiot.

    Against Diaz, GSP is going to have the same problems he had against Penn, namely his fear of being hit and submitted. The difference is that the athletic commission knows about Team Jackson’s cheating this time and has codified his cheating, and Diaz is much larger than BJ with a larger gas tank. GSP can’t simply count on tiring his opponent out. After the rematch against Penn, when GSP was giving his tainted and greasy “victory” speech, he basically said BJ wasn’t particularly strong and wanted to lean on him to make him tired. Can you ever imagine Diaz having a gameplan to lean on someone? LOL. No wonder Diaz is so much more popular than GSP among hardcore fans. GSP won’t be able to lean and grease his way to victory this time.

    On the ground, GSP won’t be able to do anything. Diaz has a slick guard and is very aggressive; this won’t be Dan Hardy (who GSP couldn’t finish) or Thiago Alves (who GSP couldn’t finish) or Jake Shields (who GSP was scared to grapple with and who GSP couldn’t finish). I would venture to say that when you factor in size and stamina, Diaz is the most dangerous opponent GSP has ever fought, even more so than BJ because of the aforementioned factors. Diaz has a great chin, never gets tired, and is going to taunt GSP and make GSP either get KTFO or get outgrappled.

    I have heard some people say that Mayhem Miller was a great grappler and because GSP beat him so badly, that Diaz is doomed. That is a terrible analogy. Miller isn’t much to write home about on the ground or the feet. Anyone who saw how Jake Shields basically made him look like a white belt knows that. Mayhem is more tv personality (and not a particularly good one) than world class fighter.

  4. edub says:

    Oh, I understand where you get your opinion from. I just think a lot of what you wrote is you inserting your own views to make the situation seem a certain way, when it is different.

    -First off minor tidbit, I don’t believe GSP is a top 3 striker at 170lbs. I would put Alves, Diaz, Penn, Daley, and maybe a few younger guys above him there. However, GSP could use leg kicks to slow Diaz down (ala Cyborg). Nick rarely checks them, and is open for them all fight.

    And let’s face it, GSP doesn’t have to worry about getting taken down by Diaz.

    -I don’t think Nick is that much better of a Jiujitsu player than GSP. And with punches involved (along with the huge disparity in wrestling), I think Georges will be quite comfortable on the ground. Claiming that he won’t be able to do anything when Diaz hasn’t fought a wrestler in close to 5 years is a pretty big stretch IMO.

    -Diaz, has used that agameplan of leaning against guys and beating them up against the fence many times. He does some of his best work putting guys against the cage, and beating them up there with knees and his boxing (which IMO is the best in MMA). Just because he says he doesn’t do it doesn’t mean he hasn’t used that strategy in the past.

    -Mayhem Miller is actually a very good grappler. His wrestling is just shit, and that’s why guys like George and Jake were able to make him look amateurish there. Diaz will run into the same problems.

    Note: I don’t think Miller is that good, and believe he will lose to Bisping.

    -The loan wipe of a vaseline covered hand on GSP’s back against Penn, had close to 0% impact on his fight with Penn. If he is doing anything it is using some type of supplement that makes him sweat a whole lot more during the fight, and that won’t be stopped by any athletic commission.

Comments to edub

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image