Nick Diaz


Nicholas Robert Diaz is an American professional boxer and mixed martial artist who competes in the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Diaz is a former Strikeforce, WEC and IFC Welterweight champion and a UFC title challenger. He also notably competed in PRIDE, EliteXC, DREAM, and Shooto. Nick is the older brother of former UFC fighter Nate Diaz, with the pair of brothers being one of the biggest influences in the sport of MMA.

Background

Diaz was born and raised in Stockton, California. He is of Mexican and Anglo heritage. Nick has a younger brother, Nate and a younger sister Nina who were mostly raised by their mother Melissa as their father was not around much. Diaz began training in karate and aikido from a young age and also participated in wrestling tournaments during his teenage years. Diaz attended Tokay High School in Lodi, California, for a year before dropping out. While a freshman, he was a member of the swim team. He started training in sambo at the age of 16 under Bulgarian National Sambo Champion Valeri Ignatov. Around the same time, after seeing Renzo Gracie in the Pride Fighting Championships, he started training mixed martial arts under Steve Heath at the Animal House gym before joining Cesar Gracie's team. He was promoted to black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu by Cesar Gracie on May 8, 2007.
Prior to his debut professional mixed martial arts fight, Diaz's girlfriend, Stephanie died by suicide by walking in front of traffic. After her death, Diaz would run to his girlfriend's grave every day to tell her he would become the fighter she always wanted him to be.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Prior to his official professional debut, Diaz engaged in unsanctioned bare knuckle MMA matches. Diaz became a professional mixed martial arts fighter in 2001 just after his 18th birthday and won his first fight, submitting Mike Wick with a triangle choke at IFC Warriors Challenge 15. Diaz became a champion in his second professional fight, defeating Chris Lytle for the IFC Welterweight Championship in July 2002 at IFC Warriors Challenge 17.
Diaz was then invited to participate in Ultimate Athlete's King of the Mountain, a single-night tournament that took place two months later. He won his first two fights but eventually lost in the finals to Jeremy Jackson by TKO. Diaz fought in Warriors Quest and Shooto against Harris "Hitman" Sarmiento and Kuniyoshi Hironaka respectively before defending his IFC Welterweight Championship and winning the WEC Welterweight Championship in 2003 at WEC 6, submitting with a kimura.
Diaz returned to defend his IFC Welterweight Championship against the man who defeated him one year earlier, Jeremy Jackson at IFC Warriors Challenge 18. This bout was for Diaz's IFC United States Welterweight Championship, Jackson's IFC Americas Welterweight Championship and the vacant ISKA-MMA Americas Welterweight Championship. Diaz won the rematch via TKO in the first round. Taking notice of his success, the UFC signed Diaz over the summer and he made his debut at UFC 44, completing the trilogy against Jackson and submitting him with an armbar in the last round of a back-and-forth fight that Diaz appeared to be winning on the scorecards.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Diaz returned to the Octagon at UFC 47, set to take on future EliteXC Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler. Lawler was a heavy favorite coming into the fight but it was Diaz who took the offensive, chasing Lawler around the cage for the majority of the bout. In the second round, Diaz taunted Lawler, who swung wildly and missed, allowing Diaz to connect with a right hook that knocked Lawler out. Diaz was then matched up with judoka Karo Parisyan at UFC 49, but ended up losing a hard-fought split decision. He rebounded with wins over submission specialist Drew Fickett at UFC 51 and Koji Oishi at UFC 53 before losing for the second time in the UFC at the hands of The Ultimate Fighter Middleweight winner Diego Sanchez at The Ultimate Fighter 2 Finale.
Diaz was confident coming into the bout but was unable to achieve success in the match, ultimately losing to Sanchez by unanimous decision. During the televised post-fight interview in the octagon, Diaz continued the controversy by declaring that he respected Sanchez fighting ability but did not think he deserved to be there, despite Sanchez's win. Diaz's next fight was against Joe Riggs at UFC 57. Similar to his treatment of Sanchez, Diaz made sure that he taunted his opponent plenty before their fight starting at the official press conference at the event in which Diaz confronted Riggs and the two exchanged words. They continued their conversation at the official weigh-ins in which both fighters had to be separated by UFC president Dana White and other officials present.
Riggs prevailed in a hard-fought battle, winning by unanimous decision and giving Diaz his second straight loss. After the fight, the two were taken to the hospital for observation and post-fight tests, where they had yet another scuffle. Diaz lost his third consecutive match in a unanimous decision to future UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk at UFC 59.

Return to UFC

Diaz returned to his hometown of Stockton and participated in the International Cage Fighting Organization's inaugural event, defeating by unanimous decision. Diaz was slated to fight in his hometown again against Canadian John Alessio when he received an unexpected call the night before the fight from the UFC asking to fill in for an ill Thiago Alves at UFC 62.
After Alessio pulled out, Diaz took advantage of the opportunity, submitting veteran Josh Neer in the third round. Seemingly back in the UFC, Diaz stopped Brazilian newcomer Gleison Tibau with strikes in his next fight at UFC 65. However, even after the win and the reassurance that the UFC would give him another fight, Diaz decided to sign with the and leave the UFC. GFC had Diaz scheduled to fight Thomas Denny in January 2007, but due to poor ticket sales the event was ultimately scrapped.

PRIDE FC

Diaz was signed to a two-fight deal with the PRIDE Fighting Championships with the first scheduled to be against Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi in a non-title fight on February 24 in Las Vegas. PRIDE 33 was Diaz's first fight in the PRIDE organization and at the weight of 160 lb. While Gomi started the fight strongly, once knocking Diaz to the ground, twice ending up in his guard, and opening up cuts around both of Diaz's eyes, the Californian dominated the stand-up battle with his boxing. At the end of the first round, apparently due to poor cardio on Gomi's part, the Japanese fighter was clearly stunned, throwing much wilder punches and barely maintaining his defense. Early in the second round, the fight was stopped to check a cut suffered under Diaz's eye. The second round saw a continuation of wild punches by Gomi, then eventually taking the fight to the ground and leaving himself open to a Gogoplata submission by Diaz and tapping at 1:46 of the round. This was the second successful Gogoplata attempt in PRIDE's history.
On April 10, 2007, the Nevada State Athletic Commission announced that Diaz failed the drug test that was taken shortly before his win over Gomi, testing positive for marijuana Metabolites. The NSAC declared the fight a "No Contest" and suspended him for 6 months with a fine of 20% of his earnings won from the fight against Gomi. The Commission felt that the result of Diaz's THC test, an enormous 175, was a contributing factor in his performance during the fight. Commission Chairman Dr. Tony Alamo said that while a result of 15 is considered positive, the NSAC has a threshold of 50 for athletes. He also believes they "feel very comfortable that everyone that tests positive in Nevada is truly positive."
Dr. Alamo went on to say, "Mr. Diaz was 175. This creates a unique situation. I was there at this fight and believe that you were intoxicated and... that it made you numb to the pain. Did it help you win? I think it did." Despite Diaz being surrounded by other athletes and video cameras for several hours before the fight, Alamo gave no explanation for why he believed Diaz had used marijuana in the hours preceding the event. Diaz himself dismissed the assertion that marijuana was a Performance-enhancing drug, or that he was smoking it prior to the fight.

EliteXC

Diaz made his debut for EliteXC in Hawaii on September 15, 2007 on Showtime. He won a hard-fought split decision over his opponent Mike Aina. MMA Weekly reported that Nick Diaz signed a two-year deal with EliteXC and in his next fight, fought K. J. Noons for the vacant 160 pound title. Once the fight began, the two exchanged rather evenly on the feet until Noons dropped Diaz with a well timed right counterpunch. Diaz attempted several takedowns, all of which were stuffed by Noons, on one occasion with a swift right knee which opened up a notable gash on Diaz's face, eventually resulting in a loss via doctor stoppage due to multiple cuts on his forehead. A disappointed Diaz left the arena immediately and on his way out he flipped off the doctor from the arena entrance and shoved the camera out of his face.
After losing to Noons, Diaz had surgery and had the bone filed down on his eyebrows to mitigate any bad cuts in future bouts. Diaz came into his next fight at EliteXC's "Return of the KING" event in Honolulu, Hawaii against Muhsin Corbbrey 9 pounds over the weight limit. Diaz earned a tough win over Corbbrey, following the main event an altercation between Nick and his brother Nate broke out with K. J. Noons and his corner. EliteXC executives asked Diaz to come to the ring and make a statement about a possible title rematch with Noons. Noons, a native of Hawaii, asked the crowd their opinion, resulting in an echo of boos for Diaz. After Nick spoke over the microphone to Noons, saying, "don't be scared homie," Karl Noons, K. J.'s father, lunged at him prompting Nate Diaz to throw a water bottle at Karl. The Diaz brothers were quickly escorted out of the cage by a group of security staff. During interviews the next day Nick claimed Karl was intoxicated and overreacting. Meanwhile, Karl claimed his incident was prompted by the thrown bottle. Video replay of the event showed Nate throwing the bottle after Karl jumped at Nick. No one was injured as the Diaz brothers left the arena entrance "flipping the bird" to the fans and Noons's corner.
Nick went on to face Thomas Denny. After a sluggish start to the fight, Diaz found his range and dominated Denny during the latter half of the first round. Diaz continued to keep the fight standing and maintained a high-paced tempo for the remainder of the fight, earning an impressive knockout victory over the veteran Denny 0:30 into round two. Diaz was rumoured to have a rematch against the current EliteXC Lightweight Champion K. J. Noons, airing on CBS October 4, 2008. However, Noons and his camp refused to accept the match. Mark Dion, Noon's manager was quoted as saying, "As far as Nick Diaz, he's not the No. 1 contender out there." Diaz was scheduled to face Eddie Alvarez for the EliteXC 160 pound title on November 8, 2008 before the company ceased operations.