Nick Diaz Interview Part 1

Pitbull · 04-02-2007, 02:39 PM

An in depth interview with Nick Diaz.

Courtesy of ThaFormula.com
World's Best Source For That Ol' Boom Bap

-March 2007

thaFormula.com - How did your connection start with Ceasar Gracie?

Nick Diaz - I went to Tokay high school in Lodi and a friend of mine was always talking about how his older brother did Jiu Jitsu and trained with like a Lions Den or Shamrock or something like that in Lodi. So when I was like 16, I stopped by there to lift some weights and then I found out that they were doing choke holds and **** like that in there, so I went in there and started learning how to choke people and learning Jiu Jitsu and stuff like that from a guy named Steve Heath, because he trained Jiu Jitsu under Ceasar Gracie and he was a blue belt and its real hard to get a blue belt under Ceasar Gracie. Everybody that's a blue belt is really, really good. It's like you might as well be a black belt almost in other schools if your a blue belt under Ceasar Gracie. So I learned alot from this guy and he took me right up there to meet Ceasar right away, because I choked most of the guys that he had trained and taught because he had his own group of guys there that he was working out with, cause he was gonna go fight Chuck Lidell. So I helped him to go train to fight Chuck Lidell when I was real young , like 16 and he had a group of guys and I would beat all those guys so he brought me up to meet Ceasar right away and then Ceasar started putting me in fights when I was like 16 or 17.

thaFormula.com - So was Jiu Jitsu something you felt was natural to you?

Nick Diaz - As far as Jiu Jitsu, yeah I think it was and I think that's why I took that Jiu Jitsu path instead of that like Lions Den type of way that everybody else was going towards. There was alot of body builders in the sport right when I started. Alot of like athletic people from like wrestling coaches and wrestlers and I moreso wanted to learn Jiu Jitsu and I was into boxing. So it was a little bit different for me. So I was choking alot of these guys and stuff like that and uh we had Jens Pulver training with us too. For like my first 3 or 4 months of training, I trained with Jens Pulver. Him and Steve Heath and that was before he went to the Militech team, and so he went to the Militech team and I went to the Gracie academy and started learning Jiu Jitsu.

thaFormula.com - How was Pulver back then when you started to train with him?

Nick Diaz - Well, I would train with him and I would roll with him and I had never done anything, and he had already been fighting in the UFC so he taught me alot about boxing, because he was a more experienced boxer, so he taught me alot about boxing right away and how to wrap my hands with long hand wrap and he had good boxing fundamentals, which is really surprising because alot of people in MMA had never had any boxing experience, but apparently he was pretty good I suppose because he had this boxing experience that he had gone through and he was a pretty established wrestler to, so he would get in there and box guys and sprawl and beat em up and knock em out and take them down and pound on them. He had some good wrestling, but he got me going really well on my boxing. He got me jabbing and moving really well to my right. Actually I started out sparring conventional, he got me jabbing with my left and circling to the left and it got me moving really well circling around the guy and throwing a jab and moving and stepping out of the way of the right hand. Another good thing is I was right around the area from some good pro boxers and Ceasar Gracie took me to the boxing gym. The difference between me and alot of MMA fighters is I went to the boxing gym and I trained boxing. I'm a pro boxer too and I have had some pro boxing bouts and I have trained with alot of pro boxers. I would actually have alot more pro boxing bouts if I had the time and if they paid as much money as I'm getting paid for MMA right now, but fortunately I'm getting paid alot in MMA and I know who I'm going up against alot of times and what I'm dealing with.

thaFormula.com - Now you started your career with 4 victories in a row which I'm sure felt great at the time. In your 5th match you fought Jeremy Jackson. Did you know the type of fighter you were going up against when you stepped in the octagon with him and were you prepared for him?

Nick Diaz - No I wasn't. The reason why I took Jeremy Jackson so lightly was because I have a training partner named Jake Shields and Jake Shields had finished the same opponent earlier in another organization. He fought Jeremy and it was a easy fight for him. They took him really, really, lightly because he had no wrestling credentials and Jake is a wrestler, so he's dealing with the wrestling game and they are only worried about wrestlers. So they took him lightly because they knew it was just a double leg and then a mount and then a finish. So I go in there to fight this guy and he had some good boxing skills. I'm about 17 or 18 years old in this show. This guy he has some good boxing skills and some serious good boxing fundamentals and a serious idea of what to do with these fighters he was dealing with and he also had a good look at me before this show, and its not so much that I didn't do my homework, but there wasn't youtube back then like there is now and you couldn't just look up who you are fighting. So I didn't know who I was fighting and I come out there to fight this guy, I didn't come out there to double leg him and hold him down the whole fight. So he popped me with a stiff jab and dropped me in the first round and then I got back up, then I get dropped with another one and then I got back up and after that you know I took quite a few punches on the ground. I still wasn't out but I wasn't there you know. I was just taking punches and they stop the fight on me. As far as I'm concerned, that's my only loss that I have had to deal with and I feel like I lost. The rest of the fights, I'm like whatever you know. They know they lost and I don't feel like I lost and I know they don't wanna fight me again. I'm trying to get a rematch with everybody I lost too and that's the last thing I'm sure they wanna do.

thaFormula.com - So looking back at that Jeremy Jackson fight, do you look at that fight as you just being really inexperienced at the time?

Nick Diaz - Absolutely because everybody else told me to take him down and I said, yeah whatever. I didn't know what I was dealing with. I fought him twice after that and of course I wasn't trying to have a standup war with him once I knew what his weakness was, and how he didn't have any grappling coaches or any good Jiu Jitsu around him, so it was gonna be real easy to take him down and finish him and do the job like that, so there wasn't no need to box him. But I got to box and spar with Jeremy later and you know I got alot better with my boxing. I feel like I do alot better then Jeremy boxing and alot better then most do boxing in MMA and if I wasn't fighting MMA I think by now I would be fighting pro boxing, regardless of whether I would be making a good living or not.

thaFormula.com - The first time I saw you fight was when you fought lions Den fighter Joe Hurley at WEC 6. Do you think that victory was the fight that really put you on the radar seeing that Hurley was a big favorite and an up and coming fighter?

Nick Diaz - Well you know it was a big show and people I'm sure wanted to see Frank Shamrock, so yeah probably because it had a few stars there and I won a belt that day. So yeah it was a really good show for me. Joe Hurley is a really underrated fighter by the way. My brother fought him too and this guy just cant catch a break. The Lions Den just kind of fell behind after a while and they didn't come from a strong background and that's what happens. This is a team sport believe it or not and these guys I'm sure really didn't care about each other and they didn't have a strong team. At one point in time this Lions Den was good but then they would move it to San Diego and here and there and see that doesn't really work out like that. Then their is Joe Hurley, who is a good fighter. He deserves to fight somewhere like Pride for instance. When I started fighting, I went to go watch Joe Hurley fight, Joe Hurley knocked some guy out and everybody is screaming, "Hurley, Hurley, Hurley." This guy is crazy you know. Big pale eyed, pale faced bigheaded dude with this Shamrock tattoo on the side of his arm and I was like 18 at the time and this guy was seriously like a scary fighter. I didn't know I was gonna end up fighting him a year later. If someone had told me I would have probably been ****ting bricks. As far as I knew he was unstoppable, and then now he just falls off because the sport grows real quick and no one is helping this guy out. If he trained with us, this guy would be huge.

Pitbull · 04-02-2007, 02:40 PM

thaFormula.com - Yeah, I remember no one gave you a chance against him?

Nick Diaz - Yeah absolutely. They were shocked probably that I even won. Every time I beat somebody everybody is shocked that I won. I don't understand it. Every single time I fight everybody around is shocked. I'm like what the **** do you think? Everytime I always come out with a consistent same type of performance, everytime! I'm the most consistent mother****er around here and they are trying to suspend me right now for some bull****! I don't wanna be suspended, I really don't wanna be suspended. I wanna fight in 3 months like I always do. That's the thing too, I have fought every fight every 3 months ever since the first time I fought. I never had no half a year break. Every other fighter has taken a year off or a half year break. No one has been as consistent as me. I know I am probably the most featured fighter from UFC 44 through 62 considering that they dropped the lightweight division for half that time and the heavier guys weren't as consistent and they don't expect to see me whoop somebody's ass everytime. They don't wanna see me fight for the title and nobody wants to talk about me fighting for a title and they all doubt me. I'm like what if I just knock somebody out, what if one of those guys don't match up well against me and they take an ass whoppin'! I know George don't wanna see me and I know ol' Matt don't wanna see me. The other guys gave me a hard time that I fought, these younger guys, but those other guys especially don't wanna fight a guy like me. I'm the worse guy to fight. They don't wanna fight some guy that is gonna throw hooks to the head on them and they got to watch out for serious knees coming, and they are not gonna be able to hold down and manipulate. They might win but that's gonna be a whole fight, a very discouraging night and a ass whoopin' win or lose, an ass whoopin! If it were Pride I would win for sure cause its not a game over there. You can actually fight in Pride. Your not actually concerned about the scoring. and like I said, nobody comes from a big background, so these guys will fall off and their steroids you know uh, they are gonna burn out and that only leaves the MMA world with a handful of us. Then when they run out of chumps for George to fight, they are gonna need to call me up. They are gonna need somebody to call up for a title fight and they should just go ahead and give me a call, cause I'm right here ready to go. Because when they run out of chumps, I'm gonna be right here in good shape. I say the sooner the better for them because the longer they wait, the more Imma be in shape and the harder and better Imma be going. Because the way I feel right now, I feel like there is no stopping me right now. They are talking about the cut on my eye or whatever, my eye is not even messed up. I was sparring yesterday you know what I mean, because Imma whoop somebody's ass next fight.

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into your match with Robbie Lawler. Was that a match you were told you would receive if you won in the UFC or was that a short notice type match. Break that match down?

Nick Diaz - I was in Japan and I was cornering Jake Shields. I think I had just fought and I was still training a little bit. They called me and they told me while I was in Japan that I was fighting Robbie Lawler and I just wanted to go home and start training right away, but I didn't expect them to call me for a serious fight like that. I knew they might bring me back though. So I started training boxing immediately for that fight and I was really confident for the fight. I was ready to have that fight. See cause I remember watching Robbie Lawler fight and sitting at home and going, I really wanna fight this guy cause people are looking at me whenever Lawler was on TV, like oh that guy will whoop your ass. So that right away made me want to fight this guy because I know I got better boxing skills then this guy, and I know I'm gonna have better Jiu Jitsu skills then this guy cause I'm training Gracie Jiu Jitsu, and I have a good Jiu Jitsu coach, and you know good training partners in Jiu Jitsu. So automatically I wanted to fight Robbie Lawler. I was just totally pumped for that fight and it was a huge fight for me.

thaFormula.com - I remember so many people thought he was way too much for you and that you were gonna get knocked out by Lawler?

Nick Diaz - You see this is really cool that we get to talk about this, because that's the thing about the way they promoted him. It's so huge the way they promoted this guy. It wasn't so much that he was overrated, it was that he was over promoted and alot of times this Militech team can be over promoted I think little bit, but actually not so much even that. He was really huge at the time and everybody's favorite fighter for a minute you know. He knocked everybody out so he was huge. So I was like here is my chance if I knock this guy out.

thaFormula.com - During your training for the fight, did you think that you would knock him out sometime during the fight?

Nick Diaz - I thought that I would be able to win the fight as long as I didn't get cut, and if we ended up on the ground, I knew I was gonna put the arm bar triangle all the way on him and he's gonna try and pull me back up and I'm gonna throw more punches at him. I also felt that he wasn't gonna be able to be in as good as shape as me and he wasn't gonna be as sharp as me and Imma have reach on him. Also, I was sparring a southpaw that was ranked 5th in the world you understand! "Smooth" Rodney Jones just had a world title fight recently with Cory Spinks. He had a tough fight and lost a decision . So I had this really, really seriously good boxing training and I was doing a really good job sparring boxing with this world ranked boxing partner, and I knew that Robbie Lawler wasn't gonna do 3 rounds with this guy. So this is what gave me alot of confidence going into this fight. I knew he was gonna box with me, so it wasn't gonna be like he was gonna take me down and hold me like the other guys that I fought knew to do after watching me fight. And then the thing I wanna talk about also, is how over promoted he was and how he was like the poster boy. Then I beat him, but then like they don't promote me like that! It wasn't like that now. See what they did was, they automatically were like, "man we ****ed up", and they were pissed off or something, and now they got like Karo Parisyan and their like alright well then we will go with Judo. Their like, we know how to get rid of this kid quick, we will put this judo on him. I said, why can't you give me 5 ****ing scrubs like you did Robbie Lawler and let me knock them all out, cause I'll ****ing knock every ****ing mutha****er out! or just put me with Matt Hughes cause I will knock that mutha****a out right now! Cause I was really ready to fight Matt Hughes at that time, really ****ing ready to fight Hughes. But I just kept my mouth shut like a good kid, like I was supposed to keep my mouth shut and not talk trash. See cause I don't have alot of trash to talk dude, I'll let my fighting do the talking, but sometimes I'm just like I need to get a reaction out of some ****ing people or something cause this is ****ing ridiculous!

thaFormula.com - Now so many people judge you by all the **** that you talk sometimes. Does alot of that got to do with the frustrations you go through behind the scenes?

Nick Diaz - Yeah, honestly most of it is frustration and I know it's me against the ****ing world and its always been that way. Its all odds against me, trust me. I already know that though. I already know that I am going in all odds against me. You don't understand how I felt when I started this thing, like I had no chance. I didn't realize I was gonna be doing halfway decent and I feel like I'm doing pretty damn decent, but regardless I'm against all odds in this. That's just how I take it, how I look at it and that's just how I train, like I still don't have a chance to win. Because the only way to win is if your not afraid to lose and I ain't afraid to lose. I ain't afraid to fight none of these m***********, especially the way it looks out there with these m**********.

thaFormula.com - Was there ever talk about a Lawler rematch and was that something that Lawler wanted?

Nick Diaz - I don't think so. Robbie Lawler looks like he's doing a good job right about now anyways and he's fighting at a higher weight and I never heard anything about that, but **** that! I don't even wanna hear about that because we don't even talk about me rematching m********** that I beat! What about Karo Parisyan, this mutha****a does not wanna fight me again dude.

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into that fight with Karo because that was a great fight?

Part 2 should be posted soon.

Flying Triangle Choke · 04-02-2007, 02:42 PM

Pitbull's unprecedented streak of finding stuff continues.

Pitbull · 04-02-2007, 06:27 PM

As usual, I ripped this interview from the UG.

I can't wait for Part 2. Although I don't agree with alot of the things he says and does, I still love watching the guy fight. I don't think there has been one fight of his that I've found to be boring.

sitnspin · 04-02-2007, 07:05 PM

True. As much as I love the respect and class in the sport, it's also nice to have some CRAZY dudes like Nick Diaz. Remember after the Riggs fight when they ended up having round four at the hospital? LOL.

Pitbull · 04-03-2007, 02:06 AM

Oh yeah, I remember. I wanna say I read somewhere that Nick hit Riggs with bedpan which makes the story even funnier.

Pitbull · 04-26-2007, 02:07 PM

Part 2
World's Best Source For That Ol' Boom Bap

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into that fight with Karo because that was a great fight…

Nick Diaz - An ass whoopin', this guy took an ass whoopin’ in the fight. I know he can’t show that fight to people and be like “oh yeah look I did a good job.” Its like “damn yeah you sure lost though man.”

thaFormula.com - What did you think of his grappling skills though?

Nick Diaz - Oh no, he is an excellent grappler. I will not knock his judo or his grappling, but the fact of the matter is that I was in better shape then him in that fight. He took more punches, he took more damage, he ****ing whined and cheated saying I poked him in the eye. I never poked him in the eye. I was feeling him about to go right there too. That was my time you know I had him on the fence and it was the only time I grabbed him. If you notice also in this fight, I'm the only guy that he didn't do his judo on. If you ever notice on the video clip, it's got like him rushing me, double legging me. I'm the only guy he's ever fought in the UFC or any other fights that he never threw. He never threw me. He can't throw me, thrust me cause I won't grab him. I won't grab that mutha****a. I don't need to grab him to whoop his ass. He doesn't wanna fight me anywhere, on the ground or standing up. He didn't know what he wanted to do in that fight. He did all sorts of different **** trying to run away from me and stall. If that was Pride they would have yellow carded him and they never would have scored those takedowns and he would have lost. It's hilarious. I can go on all day about this and I'm like thinking there is just about no way to prove me wrong. I figure the only ones you can argue are the Riggs fight and the Diego Sanchez fight.

thaFormula.com -Now after your loss to Parysian, you came back to beat Fickett, Koji, and then came your fight with Diego Sanchez. It seemed like you might have underestimated Diego, seriously, did you?

Nick Diaz - Oh yeah, absolutely I underestimated him, but that doesn't mean I didn't train as hard as I would have anyways. I feel I could have done some things differently in training, but I could have only known that after the fight. I didn't have a good game plan going into that fight at all. I would have the total opposite game plan if I fought him again. It probably would be a totally different situation if there was a rematch with Diego Sanchez.

thaFormula.com - Have you had a chance to look at that fight again and when you watch it now, do you think that you won that fight, lost the fight, or how do you think it went?

Nick Diaz - Yeah I have watched that fight quite a bit and the important thing to me is if he would have won the fight or he was going to win the fight if the fight keeps going. Like if there is no time limit on this fight and this fight is going all night or basically if you throw us in the jungle together and only one of us is coming out, I feel like that night it would have been me. So this sort of thing is what's important to me and like I said before, Jeremy Jackson was a better man that one night. I give him his props for that, but Diego Sanchez is one of the best grapplers that I have ever had the experience of getting into the mix with. I knew he would be an excellent grappler from seeing a lot of his videos and I remember hearing about him. I remember he was my size though, and then he got heavier because I had a student of mine go up against him and he beat him by like 4 points or something. Rudy Hernandez was his name and he was a tough kid and lives in (Las) Vegas now. He used to train with me and went up against me. It was funny because Diego was in the Grapplers Quest and he was like in the novice or intermediate division and I was in the advanced division. I was like “man that’s funny,” because a lot of guys that night were afraid to get in the advanced division. So he was in the intermediate and I was in the advanced. Of course I didn't win, I got my guard passed by a really good jiu jitsu guy. I don't remember his name or I would plug him right now. Then Jake beat that same guy and won that tournament. Matt Hughes was in it that year and went up against a really good guy that I train with, his name is Val Ignatov. He is seriously one of the best grapplers I ever grappled with. He is basically by Sambo and Judo teacher as far as that goes.

thaFormula.com - But how do you feel that you underestimated Sanchez exactly?

Nick Diaz - Honestly, he looked like **** in every one of his fights as far as I'm concerned until he fought me. He looked pretty good against Brain Gassaway, but you can't really judge because I never seen Gassaway fight except for in that fight. I always wondered about Gassaway because I would see him hanging out with Shonnie Carter, but I didn't know if this dude ever fought before. Apparently he had a lot of fights, but I don't know where. So I didn't think he looked that great against Gassaway, but I thought he looked threatening or like a threat or that he was a good wrestler. I didn't take a lot of things into consideration like I should have and then see, these are the type of things that make me learn about what the UFC was and what it's all about and how it works. It's not like I was taught, it's not like we worked on these things about how I would lose the decisions and how I would lose with takedowns and how this sort of thing works. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of these guys paid a lot of attention to that. A lot of their training was probably focused on stuff like this and rules and you know a lot of tricks and tactics and things like that about how the scoring is gonna go. I had no idea how that worked. I didn't know what a 10-9 or 10-8 round was, I didn't know what that meant. I never took that into consideration. Even until after the Sherk fight really. Actually before the Sherk fight is when I figured it out. Going into the Sherk fight is when I figured it out. But that's when I realized how that didn't matter because that just takes me out of my game now. It was crazy though, but I won that Sherk fight. That's a crazy one and you got to really watch that fight. I didn't take no knees, I didn't take no knees to the face. How do you score a guy’s aggressiveness or aggression? What the hell, so he was growling. grhhhhhh!! He growls at me or what do you call it? Like what, he did more work then me? I'm the one that ****ing put the defense on him. He didn't show nothing, I took him down, I showed more control on him, then he did on me and I landed more punches then him. He can know exactly what I was gonna do. If I was to fight him again I would even probably tell him and I bet you it would still happen, he wouldn't be able to stop it. I think he knows it too. But I'm not trying to knock Sean Sherk. Sean Sherk is another guy who is completely underrated and deserves to be a rich man and have millions and millions of dollars like ****ing De La Hoya or some **** because he is a ****ing workhorse and a ****ing soldier. If anybody was gonna beat me that night, it was gonna be that mutha****er and he deserves it if anybody did. So whatever on that one.

Pitbull · 04-26-2007, 02:08 PM

thaFormula.com - So before we move on, I have to know if it was true that you threw a shoe at Sanchez before the fight?

Nick Diaz - Oh, I threw a shoe, I was talking ****. They were telling me to sit down. I was just talking ****, throwing ****. I was just trying to get out there and fight because this guy is back there making funny faces at me and smiling at me and I was just like “**** you” and people were saying this and that. I was just having a hard time with that one. I don't know what it was about that one. I had a bad attitude and I should have had my head a little more clear. I was too much on kill mode. Of course he wasn't gonna trade punches with me so what the **** was that one all about and where was my head at in that one?

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into the Riggs fight. Why was the animosity so deep between you guys before and after the fight?

Nick Diaz - I don't even really wanna talk about it because it blows this mutha****er up even more every time I bring his name up. But there was a guy from my team that took off and started working out over there and I didn't like anyone from over there at the time. It was just a little thing that just triggered off a little bit more. I didn't like a lot of these guys coming from that team especially after what’s his name went over there and started training over there. Then this mutha****er is walking, giving me dirty looks and then telling me he was gonna smash my Mexican face and ****. He told me he was gonna do this and that and I was like “**** you mutha****er, right here bitch.” Just like at the hospital I said “right here bitch,” and he walks back up and tries to see me and I smacked him.

thaFormula.com - How do you feel about how the fight with Riggs turned out?

Nick Diaz - I knew all about Riggs and I knew exactly what I was getting into and I said “this is a big, bad mutha****a, but I'm a big bad mutha****er too and he's gonna have to see me and I don't think he's gonna wanna see me, and I don't think he can see me.” I've seen him get choked before, I have seen him lose before. I've seen him fight and I know about this guy and I just feel like I know what type of guy this guy is and how he's gonna fight. I felt like it was a good fight for me. I could have got more in the mix with this guy really easily. I played a stubborn game and I went in maybe a little bit cocky in this fight. I could have played the smarter game and easily been out in the first round I think. I think it would be very discouraging for him to fight me again and I think I got this guy figured out pretty well as far as how he works.

thaFormula.com - So you racked up 3 losses in row in the UFC, how were you feeling at that point after that 3rd loss in a row?

Nick Diaz - I feel like somebody could have thrown me a bone. Someone could have said something about how I’m fighting. The thing is that I can’t talk **** and say this and that or that someone could have thrown me a bone because it is my fault because I took these fights. No one would have said **** or known **** if I didn't take these fights, but nobody looks at that. You don't understand, I was in fight mode, I wasn't on business market mode. Everybody else is deciding on what fights is gonna be a smart fight for them. I would take any fight, anybody, and anywhere. This is my manager and coach that is gonna walk up to me and tell me who I'm fighting or not, so I'm not gonna look at this guy and tell him I don't think it's a good idea to fight this mutha****er. I'm gonna tell him “let's ****ing rock and roll bitch!! Let’s ****ing go! Let's ****ing roll with this ****!” So that's my attitude about it and when I feel like “oh this is a tough opponent,” that makes me feel stronger and that makes me fight and feel like I wanna feel as a fighter. That makes me train harder and go harder. This is what I have come to realize over the years and over time, that this is why I like fighting and this is why I'm gonna be a healthier fighter then most of these other fighters and most of these other people that don't do ****. You got a lot of unhealthy people and eaters around the world. But I'm just having a good time with a lot of this. Win or lose, I know I'm healthier and I’m having a better time as far as living than most people because I enjoy fighting. Of course I could have caught a break as far as those 4 fights in a row so yeah I know what you’re talking about. But **** that because I got dicked around or whatever and these guys didn’t ****ing win man. They ****ing just took an ass whoopin’ and they ****ing ran away with the scoreboard so it’s like whatever. Then you got these judges out there that don't ****ing know their ass. They don't know what the **** they are talking about. It’s like I shouldn't even be asked these questions. You should just go right away and say what the **** is up with these judges. Where do they come from and where did they learn about Jiu Jitsu or anything about wrestling? I'm not trying to say they don't know about boxing skills. They might know about that, they might not. I don't even know who the **** they got up there, but they don't know their ass dude and your not gonna have any MMA guys that know something about fighting up there doing the judging because they would have had to have known something from somewhere in which case would have made them affiliated in some sort of way and that makes whatever they judge or score all bull****. It’s why things are the way they are. Because this sport is a brand new sport and it's all about background and the ripple effects of where they come from. Like what the hell do you know and these guys don't know ****.

thaFormula.com - So you lost those 3 in a row and you came right back and won 3 in a row but your contract was now up with the UFC, did you want to resign with UFC at that time?

Nick Diaz - You know I'm down to resign, rematch or redo or whatever. I'm not trying to piss anybody off in an interview or ****ing step on any toes or burn any bridges or anything like that. This is just an interview and I have a manager that deals with these sorts of things. I don't quite pay attention to what I'm getting myself into before I do it, but I'm also not afraid to do it either and I just let it takes its course. Everybody else is worried about it but I don't give a ****.

thaFormula.com - So when Pride came calling, was that something you had always dreamed about?

Nick Diaz - No and its not something I had planned either. I just opened my mouth and they were calling the next morning before I even knew it. But I would talk about wanting to fight in Pride because of the rules and everything. I wasn't always as sure that I wanted to make 160, but it wasn't because I didn't think I could make 160. It was just that I was kind of occupied and had my mind on fighting in the welterweight division at that time. I was really focused on who I was fighting in the welterweight division. The way I see it is I can make anywhere from 160 to 185 and be a decent size fighter.

thaFormula.com - So it seemed like with the Pride situation, once again you were brought in to lose when they put you up against Gomi, is that what it felt like?

Stay tuned for Part 3 which will posted soon...

PINOYPRIDE · 04-26-2007, 07:21 PM

Thanks for the post, very interesting.

OneStepAhead · 04-26-2007, 07:59 PM

LOL at the shoe part. "Oh, I threw a shoe."

Waiting on Pt. 3

Good job Pitbull!

cujo · 04-28-2007, 05:44 PM

No part 3 yet?

Pitbull · 04-28-2007, 06:34 PM

Thanks for reading, guys. No part 3 yet.

About 3 weeks lapsed before the second part was released. I'll be sure to keep checkin for the third piece.

Pitbull · 05-01-2007, 01:34 AM

Part 3
World's Best Source For That Ol' Boom Bap

thaFormula.com - So it seemed like with the Pride situation, once again you were brought in to lose when they put you up against Gomi, is that what it felt like?

Nick Diaz - Oh absolutely. Yeah what the **** was that ****! No ****! Trying to do me in huh? I was about to be done for in their eyes huh? What was that **** about? But I always wanted to fight that guy. I looked at it since that's how they are trying to do me, I said "that's even better." That's what's supposed to happen then. If that's what's supposed to happen and they are supposed to do me in then that's what I get, whatever. If not, then that's what they get. I'll ****ing put an ass whooping on dude and most likely it's gonna be an ass whooping on dude judging from the looks of this dude. He's gonna take an ass whooping and that's how I felt about fighting Mr. Gomi.

thaFormula.com - But this time around did you guys take the time to prepare a good game plan for Gomi?

Nick Diaz - I actually didn't have my brother around because he was on the Ultimate Fighter show. So I didn't have my brother around and I didn't have Jake Shields and Gilbert around either. They were having a lot of things coming up with Jake's upcoming fight and they were running around doing this and that and I had my guys that were about to be fighting in a April 19th show in Sacramento. I had all my guys fighting in that by the way. But I was busy training with those guys for that fight and trying to focus on a game plan. But I pretty much knew what it was gonna be about. It was gonna be about getting down in the boxing gym and getting in shape to get ready for a boxing fight pretty much. I had a good Jiu Jitsu game for this fight against this guy and I know he is a type of a wrestler. You don't really wanna shoot on this type of guy considering who I am and who he is and how its gonna work out between me and him. I didn't wanna be shooting in on this guy and using any type of strength to beat this guy. There was no point in getting into a power struggle with this guy, so I basically wanted to get in there and throw more punches than him, just be a little more accurate with my punches and probably move my head a little better. The thing is that I had to get in there for a minute and find my range. Just like anytime I spar with somebody new, it's the same thing all the time. I get in there with a new guy and I got to find my range with this guy for a minute and I might take punches. A lot of times I will have a hard time warming up. In my future fights, I'm gonna try and have a better warm up. I would have had a really good warm up in this fight, but I thought there was gonna be an intermission and all of a sudden I'm asking about this intermission and they are telling me "oh no there is no intermission." I'm like "ah ****, oh well I got 2 fights left." So I start warming up and I figure "okay it's gonna be good because I got 30 minutes." But all of a sudden dude gets knocked out. I'm like "oh ****." So I'm like "its cool, I got another fight and I might get 15 minutes out of it." All of a sudden dude gets tapped out or choked out so I'm like "oh ****." So I went out there and I was a little bit cold but I was warming up the best I could on the way out. I had also just got up from a long nap. I just went ahead and took a nap through the day. I felt real good, laid underneath the table because I didn't have a lot of people in my room so it was nice. So when I got up I thought I had an intermission to warm up with. Anyway, I got out there and I had to wait to get caught with a hot one before I woke up. Then I started throwing punches and I found my range and it worked out a lot better.

thaFormula.com - Did you underestimate his power though, because I haven't seen you go down like that since that Jeremy fight?

Nick Diaz - You know what, I don't remember being dazed. I remember putting my hand down behind me when I was getting ready to go down. It was more so that I was worried on getting followed up on. I was off balance when I got hit and that's why it was such a good hit too and I had my chin kind of sticking out. I just didn't have my punches going right and I wasn't warmed up good enough. I didn't hit any mitts in the back, I didn't even throw enough punches in the back before I got to come out. I wasn't quite as warmed up as I would have wanted to be. So on the way down, I seen him and I was ready for him automatically. Beause I felt like I didn't wanna get followed up on and I'm putting my hand down as I sat down and I was well aware that this guy was coming. That's why he didn't over do it when he came in because he knew I wasn't hurt. He didn't wanna try and punch in on me from on top. He didn't feel like he could land good punches from there I'm sure.

thaFormula.com - Were the Pride rules as beneficial as you always imagined they would be?

Nick Diaz - Absolutely. Just that little bit of me knowing helped me fight the way I wanted to fight. I think those rules are really beneficial to the way I fight.

thaFormula.com - Was there a certain point in the Gomi fight where you felt he couldn't hurt you anymore?

Nick Diaz - Yeah, after I got up I was like "man." I think a lot of what that cut was is that a lot of guys I fight are shorter then me and he was bouncing off of the ropes a lot and I kept getting smacked in the face with sort of like a head butt. Like the top of peoples head always hits me in the face or in the forehead. Like Riggs was a little bit taller then Gomi. Gomi's head hit me in the eye. Riggs is a little bit taller and his head hit me in the forehead and then I had that blood coming down on my forehead in that fight. So people are going "oh Riggs is winning" and I'm going "mother****er!" I get head butt, I get cut every ****ing fight. So my face is swelling up and they don't put that metal on you in Pride and I don't have an experienced cut guy back there. So I had this big swell on my face and I'm going back out there to fight. Then I get hit with a little punch or something that just kind of skins across it sideways because there is no grease on there. So it just tears it wide open. Then I got this big vagina ****ing chilling on the side of my face. You know I'm not throwing punches like this guy. I'm not trying to ****ing throw some punch and miss and go flying through the ropes, I'm trying to set it up and then you gonna see those types of punches coming. From the looks of it, he was going and that's why he took me down. That's why a lot of times your gonna see a guy uh, you know I get 'em going and ready to go out and then he's gonna shoot on me? That's because he's about done. He's about ready to go and in a boxing fight your gonna see a finish. In an MMA fight your are gonna see a guy take me down and then I'm gonna have to finish it down there. The difference between me and a lot of guys is once the guy does take me down, I'm gonna be able to finish it right there. This goes along with the game plan now and he won't just be able to hold on and score points. He ain't gonna be able to elbow and he's gonna be really confused in there trying to punch me and the technical aspect is gonna come out and I'm gonna finish. See what I mean? This is the difference in the scoring and it's funny that I'm the guy, I got to get here and set this type of standard so people can understand what the **** is going on and understand that it's real crazy how it works out. It's funny, all of a sudden we got these ****ing dorks who got in there and they ****ing open their mouth and next thing you know we got these MMA terms. Like this term a "cagey veteran." Where did they get that? From the cage? What the **** is that! And that sets the standard and then that just becomes what is. Because this is MMA and this is like the beginning of ****. There wasn't MMA 20 years ago, it's now. So now when people go out there and they do something, it sets the standard. You got this Aoki guy choking people and then you got me out there choking people with the same move and then now everybody is doing the same ****ing moves. All of a sudden you got freaks everywhere doing all kinds of crazy different style grappling Jiu Jitsu and the sport grows and evolves into a whole new situation now. Then you understand how these rules come into play because of how technical people get and how everybody learns. Then you all feel like ****ing assholes and I called it 'cause I ****ing knew it. I told all you bastards and I was about the youngest one. Of course I started before everybody so it's not like I was like everybody else where the more you know the less you learn. I had a chance to kind of watch everybody and see from an outside perspective and shut my mouth cause I'm younger. I'm opening my mouth just a little bit more now because I just beat the number 1 ranked 160 pounder in the world. I would say that makes me about pound for pound the best ****ing fighter in the ****ing world, considering that I would say that the lightweight fighters are ****ing better then everybody else, even though they wanna can them half the time and plug the heavyweights. The ****ing lightweight fighters are way ****ing better. There is no way these big guys can move as fast and train as much to get as good in the last 2 years, and the last 2 years is when you had to be around to get that good because you had to see all this **** that was on TV and the Internet to have set the standards to you to learn from. See what I mean? Everything comes from a background of some sort of foundation and background beforehand. That's why I train at the Ceasar Gracie camp where we all know ****ing Jiu Jitsu and now we're gonna know how to box in a minute once I get everybody going.

Pitbull · 05-01-2007, 01:35 AM

thaFormula.com - Now I have seen Gomi lose before, but I have never seen him take so many punches standing like that and...

Nick Diaz - Yeah I fought him. See the other guys weren't trying to fight him too. I fought him and beat him how they wanted to beat him. BJ Penn is the only thing that comes close to that but he beats everybody else too and they robbed him out of fights too. He should have won that St. Pierre fight. They should have gave that fight to him. They tried to do him in too and he came from my same school. I don't think anybody knows that. Nobody plugs Ralph Gracie enough. His brother sat there in the car with me the other day and told me he was a Ralph Gracie student. He was a Ralph Gracie student before he left that place. Steve Heath was also a Ralph Gracie student. So we' re all a bunch of the same Gracie Jiu Jitsu students here and we are also the only 2 mother****ers to have the Gracie Jiu Jitsu School that knows how to fight MMA and box people right in a fight in MMA.

thaFormula.com - Finally, How do you think a fight would go between you and BJ Penn?

Nick Diaz - I think that he would just have to be in really good shape to fight me. If he got in really good shape, I couldn't tell you how that would go. I like BJ Penn, he's one of my favorite fighters. I would never like to get into an ordeal where we don't like each other. I would try to keep that as sportsmanlike as possible versus somebody like BJ Penn. But I think that yeah, if I could come into the fight in better shape then BJ, I think it would be a really good fight. I think we have really similar types of Jiu Jitsu skills. I think he's more experienced than me Jiu Jitsu wise but I think I've been more hard at work lately than I think he has as far as strong training and fighting hard lately. So that's all I can say about a fight like that with me versus BJ Penn.

thaFormula.com - What about someone like St. Pierre?

Nick Diaz - Someone like George is gonna have really big problems with me is what I think. I seen him against a guy who was a very similar type of grappler as me except I'm bigger and stronger than him. He had a lot of problems with this guy and I believe that I am a lot better of a stand up fighter then St. Pierre, so I think he would have a lot of problems with me. I think that he would probably win in a 3 round decision taking an ass whooping. If I was blessed with some better luck that day, I would probably tap him out or knock him out like in the first or second round or something like that. But at no time would I be in danger of him finishing the fight probably from anything other then a cut.

thaFormula.com - So who are they talking about you fighting on Showtime's Pro Elite?

Nick Diaz - I haven't heard anything about any opponent. I welcome any challengers. They haven't talked about any opponents for me though. They just talked about me fighting in the Grand Prix in Pride and then they are talking about me fighting in Pro Elite but I don't know who, what, when or whatever. Right now I'm just training for the Pan Ams.

Ring_Raider_07 · 05-01-2007, 02:16 AM

Man, that boy can talk! I would love to see Penn vs. Diaz.

Pitbull · 05-01-2007, 02:41 AM

Yeah, Nick does like to talk....alot, lol.

Many people like to hate on the guy, and I can see why. Complains after losing, talks a bunch of trash, etc. But, I like the fact that he's honest in his interviews and isn't going to give you an answers full of BS....but he will give you answers full of s***, f***, and all kinds of other words.