Written by Ralph Gonzalez
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Saturday, July 26 2008
Nick Diaz is one of the controversial and opinionated--and talented--fighters in the sport.
The great thing about interviewing Nick Diaz (17-7) is that you really don’t have to say much to get him going. You either love or hate his stream of consciousness rants but the guy’s never boring. When I mentioned K.J. Noons and the debacle that ensued on Elite XC’s last broadcast on Showtime, he was annoyed at first but eventually warmed up to the topic.
“More stuff happened the day after,” Diaz said. “They’re really big posers you know. K.J. Noons and his camp. They try to act all tough in front of the camera but if I had walked in there with my whole team they wouldn’t have been so quick to jump.”
Diaz was led into the ring after K.J. Noons stopped Yves Edwards in devastating fashion. It’s common for promoters to bring a prospective opponent into the ring after a fighter’s victory in order to intrigue viewers and hype up the future promotion. According to Diaz, Noon’s family and friends were instigating a confrontation.
Diaz says he would’ve handled things differently. “If I brought my family and my girlfriend into the ring, I wouldn’t even look at my opponent. I wouldn’t antagonize him or try to start sh*t,” Diaz said. “I’d tell my girlfriend to shut the f*ck up and not egg things on. It wouldn’t go down like that. I wouldn’t jeopardize the safety of my family. But like I said, they’re amateurs.”
In order to understand Diaz’s viewpoint you have take his environment into consideration. He was brought up in Stockton, California among the gang culture that has a strong presence in that particular part of Northern California. In gang culture, it’s all about respect. The run in with Noons, the day after the fights and away from the cameras, almost escalated into a full fledged street fight. “He was giving me dirty looks. He was looking straight at me and I wasn’t about to look down or look away,” Diaz recalled. “So I flipped him off and he got out of the car and we were about to fight. He says ‘did you flip me off?’ and I said ‘Yeah, what the f*ck are you doing trying to mug on me when you’ve got your family with you?’” Knowing he was outnumbered, Diaz stopped the confrontation from escalating.
The issue of his first fight with Noons is a sore subject for Diaz. Diaz lost by TKO when the doctor stopped the fight after Noons slammed a knee into Diaz’s face as he rushed in for a takedown. “I can’t believe the stupid doctor ruined my fight. I was thinking you son of a bitch. He popped me in my eye. Now I have to whoop your ass while I’m bleeding,” Diaz said. “But this doctor who never stopped a fight in his life, he was saying ‘Oh the fighter can’t continue because the fighter can’t see’. I was saying ‘I can see just fine.’ The way I see it, I’ll beat that f*cker with one eye or at 100 percent. It doesn’t matter.”
The 24 year old and Cesar Gracie Jujitsu Black Belt is coming off a third round stoppage over Muhsin Corbbrey. It was his second fight since he lost by cuts to the aforementioned Noons in November of 2007. Diaz’s prior victory over Katsuya Inoue was a brutal display of striking. He devastated his Japanese opponent with boxing skills not often found among the great Brazilian Ju Jitsu practicioners.
Diaz is confident in all of his abilities. He stated that he’d be happy to meet up with Noons in a boxing ring. “I would love to fight K.J. Noons in a pro boxing match. I’ll beat the piss out of Noon in a boxing match,” Diaz said. “There’s nothing he can do. He’d end up in a corner all beat up. It would be a stoppage that’s the way I see it. There’s not many that can box like me. If he wants to rematch me in M.M.A. or boxing, I’d fight him right away. I wouldn’t be ducking anybody. Talking about having to fight other fighters. F*ck you. You didn’t beat me.”
His contempt for Noons goes beyond the ring. “He’s not even from Hawaii and he’s telling everyone ‘oh I’m from Hawaii’ and he shows up in a suit and it drives me insane,” Diaz said. “I can’t afford a suit and I can’t afford the time to get a suit. I don’t even know anybody that f*cks with suits.”
Diaz stated he would change his game-plan if he fought Noons again. “I wouldn’t be so quick to rush in on him. What I realized is that if you don’t catch these little f*ckers, they’re quick. They get in and get out. I got caught and then I was like whatever. The doctor saved your life motherf*cker.”
Although Diaz is an outspoken critic of anti marijuana laws, he’s had to stop ingesting his favorite smoke in order to keep fighting. “I actually am not smoking. Which is ridiculous that people would go ahead and f*ck with your freedoms that way,” Diaz said. “But I plan on testing clean (for the commission) for all my fights.”
He believes that his hometown cultivates the best cannabis flowers in the state. “I’m not smoking but of course Stockton’s going to have the best weed anywhere,” Diaz said. “People say, ‘Oh I have the best’ But no. You don’t. Here in Stockton everyone has a weed plant in their closet. And it’s legal by the way.”
Diaz who will be taking on Thomas “Wildman” Denny at the Stockton Arena in Stockton says that fighting in his hometown brings him some pressure but ultimately he considers it an advantage. “I’m happy I don’t have to travel for this fight. I end up getting really antsy and bored,” Diaz said. “And then I eat and then I have to cut weight. So I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that.”
Apparently, going to Hawaii was no vacation. “It was the worst time ever. I had to go though a lot,” Diaz said. “And the fact that I was able to have a decent performance really is amazing to me.”
When asked to comment on the Affliction: Banned show he responded without hesitation. “You mean the fight that I could give a rat’s ass about? I just think the heavier fighters get too much publicity,” Diaz said. “I think that the best fighters pound for pound are the ones in the 160 and 170 pound range. And I think they should get more recognition. People ask me about these heavyweight fights and I say to them whatever. Who gives a sh*t?”
Diaz will be part of Elite XC’s M.M.A. event to be televised on the CBS Television network on July 26. He promises viewers a treat. “I’m the real deal. If you want to see a real fighter, you gotta come see me.”
The main event of the card will feature “Ruthless’’ Robbie Lawler defending his EliteXC middleweight title against Scott “Hands Of Steel’’ Smith in a highly awaited rematch.
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