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LAS VEGAS — Nick Diaz by no means has been a single to hold back again, whether it be in the cage or speaking with the media.
On Wednesday, three times in advance of he returns to the Octagon soon after more than 6 years absent, Diaz spoke of his “resentment” toward mixed martial arts, puzzled aloud why he even is competing from Robbie Lawler on Saturday at UFC 266 and maintained his very long-held disdain toward preventing.
“All the men and women all-around me and all the income and the sponsors, they won’t permit me get away from combating,” Diaz explained in a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “You can find items I could do, but that is not gonna work out. I may as perfectly just go and acquire my punches. … I will not want to search again and say, ‘Why did I not just do it?’ I you should not experience wonderful. I experience great to struggle. I you should not feel good about every thing [else]. If I never do this, I do not know how I’m likely to feel about myself.”
Diaz, 38, explained in the course of his time off he had designs to open a gym and train learners, and maybe even travel about some and do seminars. But he explained matters didn’t operate out with the business partners he was working with and that the programs had been “faux.” That is what led him back to fighting.
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“It’s just what I do,” Diaz said. “I experimented with to get absent from it, but truly it is just form of inescapable.”
Diaz never ever has been shy about speaking about his really blended thoughts toward MMA. One particular of the most preferred fighters in the UFC, he explained he is aware the admirers are excited to see him competing once more and that he enjoys them. But Diaz has claimed for extra than a ten years that he does not like to fight and that time away has not improved his intellect. Diaz has not competed since a fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 183 in January 2015.
“I’m likely in there to get,” Diaz said of Saturday’s bout from Lawler. “Do I sense confident? I never do. I by no means have. I always feel like I’m heading to get trashed out there. Each individual combat I’ve ever accomplished. ‘How do you come to feel from Robbie Lawler?’ I experience like I am likely to get the s— conquer out of me. And even when I get, I get conquer up even worse.”
Actually, Diaz went a step additional and mentioned he shouldn’t even be battling Lawler in the first spot. Diaz has previously overwhelmed Lawler — way back in 2004 — and the Stockton, California, indigenous believes he must actually be complicated Kamaru Usman for his UFC welterweight title. Irrespective of all the doubts, Diaz claimed he however thinks he is the greatest fighter in the globe. Just because he thinks Lawler might beat him won’t necessarily necessarily mean Diaz thinks he’ll shed.
“I believe I am going to conquer the s— out of Usman,” Diaz stated. “I’ll have a superior shot versus Usman than I do Lawler, just mainly because I presently defeat Lawler. This would not make perception for me to go in and struggle Robbie Lawler again. I don’t know why I’m accomplishing this. … This must not happen. Whoever established this up is an idiot. I don’t know why I’m executing this. I really don’t know why this occurred. I must be fighting Kamaru Usman — and which is it.”
One particular of the factors that added to his recent issues, Diaz said, was attending his brother Nate’s struggle with Leon Edwards at UFC 263 in June. Edwards gained that bout by unanimous final decision, nevertheless Nate practically knocked him out late. Nick Diaz, who is two a long time older than Nate, mentioned he failed to like seeing his brother taking problems in that bout and then seeing him get stitched up in the back.
“Getting absent for five a long time and coming back and observing that, that was a little something new,” Diaz mentioned of his brother’s fight with Edwards. “It really type of knocked my block off. I took more durable punches watching that than I ever did in sparring or in any fights. It is really my baby brother, you know? It’s challenging to view him combat.”
Diaz (26-9, 2 NC) was winless in 3 fights before his 6-year absence. His previous earn came in opposition to BJ Penn in 2011. Even so, Diaz continues to be a cult preferred amongst MMA lovers. He received 11 straight at a single point, is the former Strikeforce welterweight winner and is recognised for his all-action, pushing-forward model.
Diaz clearly has uncertainties about competing once more but included that Lawler “isn’t going to should have to get his ass whopped and I know I am gonna beat the s— out of him.” Diaz stated he believes he is additional perilous now than he was six a long time in the past as a competitor. But that would not transform his romance with MMA itself.
“I have a lot of resentment toward the activity for taking so substantially from me and not providing just about anything back again,” Diaz said. “This is terrific. They’re marketing this fight. I failed to anticipate to be the most important celebration or something like that.”
Diaz said he is just currently being serious. He said every fighter thinks related items on fight week, has very similar doubts and misgivings. But they you should not air it out like he does. Diaz claimed other fighters are “total of s—” and that if they are not faking currently being satisfied through fight 7 days they “ought to be nuts.”
“I adore to assist people and I appreciate to be component of the activity,” Diaz claimed. “But I will not really like what it can be carried out to me. Especially in the past seven months, the final two a long time. So yeah, I have obtained a shot at dragging some of this back again. So I am gonna go for it.
“I truly feel like that each fight. I’m variety of a dark and dim human being primary up to a combat. I just despise these people who are happy to go out there.”
