Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Check out these photos of UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko through the years.
Check out these photos of [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag]’s career through the years.
“Nick had an operation very recently here seven weeks ago. So, two of the discs had ruptured in his neck before the fight.”
According to Cesar Gracie, [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag] was compromised when he made his long-awaited return to the octagon.
Diaz (26-10 MMA, 13-7 UFC) came back from an almost seven-year long layoff this past September, when he rematched Robbie Lawler at UFC 266. The bout was contested at middleweight, and Lawler was able to exact his revenge and TKO Diaz at the 0:44 mark of Round 3.
In what was an unusual fight-ending sequence, Lawler dropped Diaz in the opening minute of Round 3 and called for him to stand up. A bloodied Diaz was also asked by referee Jason Herzog to get up, but Diaz said no and the fight was stopped. Diaz unquestionably displayed some rustiness after being away from the cage for years, but his longtime coach Gracie says he also entered the bout with a neck injury, which affected his performance.
“So Nick, he went into that fight and his neck was pretty messed up,” Gracie told Submission Radio. “Robbie’s a great, tough fighter and everything. And, Nick was doing great. And then you kind of see Nick kind of just kind of fading as the fight wore on. So, Nick had an operation very recently here seven weeks ago. So, two of the discs had ruptured in his neck before the fight. So, he was having numbness of the hands. That’s why he didn’t make 170. He fought at 185, is cause it was impossible to train. He just didn’t have any strength. He didn’t have what you’re used to, the Nick Diaz, you know, he didn’t have it.
“So, we finally were able to go and he got an operation and he put the titanium discs in his neck. So, he’s feeling great from that right now. And it’s like we’re getting the old Nick back, which is really good. So, now that that’s happened, we’re waiting for the doctors. He’s got another appointment I think next month. And then he should be cleared to start his hard training again. Because right now he can only run and hit the pads and everything. But he definitely wants to fight. And the UFC, I’ve been in contact with them, they just actually called me the other day asking about Nick, and there’s some pretty cool fight options that are in front of us.”
That’s not all Diaz was dealing with before making his return.
According to Gracie, Diaz had to fight Lawler in order to pay off his debt to the Nevada Athletic Commission. Prior to his return, Diaz hadn’t competed in MMA since January 2015 when he was defeated by Anderson Silva, a fight that was later ruled a no contest after Diaz tested positive for marijuana and Silva for performance-enhancing drugs. Diaz was later handed a five-year suspension by the NAC.
“What people don’t know is that the commission in Vegas was still demanding their money from, remember the marijuana test that we didn’t pass,” Gracie said. “Right. Yeah, OK. So, this is a new thing for you guys too. Even though it’s legal, they said ‘You still owe us that $75,000.’ I think it was some insane amount. You know, it was like ‘What? You still have to pay it? Even though it’s legal now?’ When that happened, it wasn’t, and we want to, and so we gotta. You’re gonna have to deduct it from your fight purse. And Nick really hadn’t signed the best contract in the world.
“And so what happened was, they said, we’ll pay you more money, but you have to fight this fight here, and on this date. It was a thing. It was like, if you don’t take that fight, you’re almost gonna fight for free, you know, by the time (you pay taxes and the fine). Obviously, people know, that’s not a secret, he had some tax issues in the past. He had to pay that fine, which, you know, it was just, you had to do it. It was like, well, Nick, he had his back on the wall. And it was one of those unfortunate things where he had to fight, and that’s it.”
Gracie says Diaz underwent neck surgery recently, and expects his student to return in much better form in 2023.
“He looked great that first round, part of the second,” Gracie said. “And then you started… you know. I mean, he did better than I thought he was gonna do, because literally, I can tell you, Nick’s training, before, the guy trains daily like a maniac, he runs triathlons. And I would take him to the gym and he’d do a little thing, and then goes ‘I can’t, I can’t.’ And I never knew what was that wrong with him, you know? So, after the fight and everything, we kept looking for what’s going on – cause he passed his pre-fight stuff – and finally we got these MRIs on his neck, and the doctor said, ‘Look, I cannot believe you just fought. You shouldn’t be walking.’
“So, the UFC did on his insurance thing, whatever, they paid for his operation. He went to the same place where I think Ozzie Osborne the singer just had his neck operated on. He went to the same place of Los Angeles and got that operation. And they took out the old discs, two of them. They cut you in the neck right here. They go in. They pulled out the disc, they put titanium discs in. And now the bone has to fuse with that, and it’s a process. There’s been a guy, a couple of fighters actually that have that operation. Usually it’s one disc, Nick had two. So yeah, so that’s why he fought hurt, and he had his back up against the wall, and it is what it is.”
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Georges St-Pierre doesn’t think Nick Diaz showed his true form at UFC 266.
[autotag]Georges St-Pierre[/autotag] doesn’t think [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag] showed his true form at UFC 266.
Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) returned from layoff of nearly seven years to rematch Robbie Lawler, but was stopped in the third round after he refused to get back up when he was dropped with a check right hook.
It took a while for Diaz to get going in the fight. The superstar from Stockton, Calif., looked noticeably slower than usual. He also requested the matchup be contested at 185 pounds at the start of fight week after signing a bout agreement for 170 pounds.
St-Pierre thinks ring rust was evident in Diaz’s performance and he would like to see his former foe buckle down and figure out what his true priorities are before competing again.
“It was a tough night for him because he came back after six or seven years,” St-Pierre told Yahoo Sports. “It was a long, long time. Nobody can come back as good as they were before after that much time. I’m under the impression that Nick left a lot of money on the table, unfortunately for him, because maybe his best years are behind him. For sure, he was rusty. It’s not to make any excuses, but maybe we haven’t seen the best out of him yet. Maybe he’s going to come back and get better because after seven years – I fought after more than four years. I can tell you, it’s very hard.
“There’s a lot of things that you cannot do in training. You cannot replicate in training what happens in a fight and the only way to get it back is through the experience of real competition. I think he can be better than he was. I think he can come back better if he wants to. There’s a difference between fighters that go to collect a paycheck and fighters that want to come back to become champion. I don’t know what he wants. He needs to figure it out for himself. But whatever he chooses to do, he needs to stick to it and go all in.”
Diaz himself wasn’t too surprised with his performance. Following his loss to Lawler, the 38-year-old said he knew he had it coming and that the way the fight was set up was a “bum rap.” Diaz did, however, say he was glad to be back, but didn’t specify any particular future plans.
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Joe Rogan said Robbie Lawler “was definitely getting the better of the exchanges, but it’s not like Nick Diaz didn’t have his moments.”
Joe Rogan agrees with [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag] that he didn’t have enough time to get ready for his return.
Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) came back from a six-and-a-half-year layoff to rematch Robbie Lawler at UFC 266, and he didn’t appear to be in his best physical form after requesting the fight be contested at 185 pounds instead of welterweight as originally scheduled.
Lawler exacted his revenge 17 years later from their first meeting at UFC 47, scoring a third-round TKO of Diaz after Diaz elected not to continue when he was dropped by a pair of punches. Following the fight, Diaz claimed that the way the fight was set up was a “bum rap” and that he had a lot of stress coming into it. His training partner and fellow former Strikeforce champion, Jake Shields, suggested that Diaz was pressured into taking the fight and only had six weeks to train, which Rogan thinks was evident in his performance.
“My thing about Nick Diaz is, when I looked at him physically, I was like, I don’t know how much he’s been training,” Rogan said on his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “When Nick was in his prime, he was really lean. He’s definitely an older guy now, but the thing is, I don’t think you can just jump back in that easy after six years out of the sport. I think you’d probably need more time to prepare.
“I don’t know how much time he had to prepare and why they agreed to do a fight on short notice, because I think it was only six weeks’ notice – which I think is fine if you’re Michael Chandler, if you’re in peak form right now and you’re ready to go and someone gives you six weeks. I bet you can get ready for a fight. But if you’re a guy who has been off for that long, you’re gonna need more time, I think. I’m just guessing. I don’t know how much time it took him.”
Rogan, who wasn’t on commentary duty at UFC 266, thought Diaz gave a decent account of himself but would like to see him put the adequate amount of time into his preparation before taking another fight.
“My point was, he didn’t do that bad for a guy that was out six (years),” Rogan said. “Robbie Lawler was pressuring him, and he was putting it on him, and he was definitely getting the better of the exchanges, but it’s not like Nick Diaz didn’t have his moments. He definitely did. He would just have to have way more time to prepare, and he would have to be really ready to go. Like the old Nick Diaz, like the Nick Diaz that fought Anderson Silva, like the Nick Diaz that fought Georges St-Pierre, like the Nick Diaz that fought Paul Daley in Strikeforce, that dude was a f*cking killer.”
He continued, “Can he still do that at 38? Well, maybe. We don’t know if you just have one fight. You need time. If you’re body hasn’t been used to this stuff and you haven’t been training as much as you were when you were in your prime, if you still want to do it again legitimately, physically he probably can. But it’s like, you run a marathon, when you start out and you run a mile and you’re dead, and you’re like, ‘I can’t believe anyone can run 26 of those,’ but if you do it over and over and over again, you build up. I don’t think he had a chance to build back up after being off for that much time. I think you get back to where he was Nick Diaz at his best, he’s got to have some time.”
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UFC president Dana White has a stern directive for boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya: Stay out of our business and worry about your own.
LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White has a stern directive for boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya: Stay out of our business and worry about your own.
Following this past weekend’s UFC 266, De La Hoya took to Twitter to suggest featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski was grossly underpaid for his gutsy win over Brian Ortega and that White should “have some f*cking respect for yourself and these fighters and pay these warriors what they deserve.”
Hey @alexvolkanovski you just won a brutal battle for @ufc and made 1/20 of what you’re worth. @danawhite have some fucking respect for yourself and these fighters and pay these warriors what they deserve
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) September 26, 2021
On Monday, White responded to De La Hoya on Instagram, and following Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series 41 event at the UFC Apex, the UFC boss went on a fiery rant.
“I said it to (De La Hoya) yesterday, and I’ll say it to him again: He accomplished a lot of great things in boxing. Outside of the ring, the guy’s an absolute f*cking loser,” White said. “He’s a liar and many other things, and I can’t tell you – maybe you can tell – how much I despise this human being, but that’s the only reason that I’m even f*cking doing this. This is it. This is the last time. I’m not going at it again.
“I mean, last time he did it, I was on SportsCenter and I laid out how he lied and facts, and then here we are again, you know? Yet this guy keeps opening his big f*cking yap.”
While White has previously discussed the pay rates for UFC Hall of Famers Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell for their trilogy match, which was hosted by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in 2018, this time he addressed a more recent event by the promotion. White brought copies of the pay sheet from a June Golden Boy Promotions hybrid card held in California and distributed them to the media before discussing its contents.
“So what you’ve been handed, I could have brought 30 of these,” White said. “I brought one because it’s June 9, 2021. OK, this was a fight that just happened in June. It’s a Golden Boy Promotions fight that this d*ckhead put on, OK? There were nine fights, 18 fighters. The total purses paid for every fight was $36,500. Total. The average purse per fighter is $2,000 on a Golden Boy-De La Hoya card.
“He’s concerned about Alexander Volkanovski. OK, before we pay $1 in f*cking purse money, right, Volkanovski got paid more to wear his UFC Venum kit than Oscar de la Hoya paid the entire f*cking fight card. Do you understand what I’m saying? To walk out with the Venum fight kit on, he was paid more than Oscar paid the entire f*cking fight card. I could go on, but I think we all get the f*cking point: He’s a liar.”
As MMA Junkie previously reported, Volkanovski received $42,000 in UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay at UFC 266.
White and De La Hoya have openly feuded since the former boxing champ-turned-promoter publicly told fans not to buy the 2017 crossover contest between then-UFC champ Conor McGregor and undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. White felt betrayed at the time after long supporting De La Hoya’s career and feels the boxing great’s current focus on UFC pay is unfounded.
“We were cool at one point,” White said. “I’d go to his fights. He’d put on fights, and I would literally use my social media to talk about the fight. ‘Hey, you watching Oscar’s fight tonight?’ So all the things that I had done for this guy, you know, when he was having fights and sh*t, then we do Mayweather vs. McGregor, and this guy goes on like a PR tour telling people not to watch the fight. It was a ‘disgrace to boxing,’ but he would fight Conor McGregor, right? It’s not a disgrace to the sport if you fight him?
“First of all, I’m involved in this fight. Why would you tell people not to watch somebody’s fight? What do you even care? Right? I just laid out how he pays his fighters and what he does. But you’re concerned about my fighter comp?”
Of course, De La Hoya isn’t the only one talking about fighter pay in the UFC. The promotion remains involved in a years-long antitrust suit, which alleges the UFC has long operated as a monopoly and worked to drive down fighter wages.
Plaintiffs in the suit have alleged that less than 20 percent of the UFC’s revenue goes toward fighter pay, which pales in comparison to the payout percentage of other major sports. When pressed on that figure, White declined to address the UFC’s current revenue split but encouraged anyone who didn’t like the promotion’s model to feel free to start their own organization.
“It’s none of your business,” White told MMA Junkie. “It’s none of your business how much it is. That’s it. I mean, that’s what people are always asking about. You know, ‘What about this? What about that?’ Listen, if you don’t like how we run our business, go start your own.
“There is no barrier to entry to get into this sport. Anybody can do it. Many have – a lot of smart guys, too. (Mark) Cuban. (Donald) Trump. The list goes on and on – a lot of guys that have gotten into this business. I hear there’s new guys coming out. I wish them all the best. You know, anybody can get into this business. If you don’t like how we’re running ours, go do it yourself.”
While he didn’t offer any specific figures, White did say that fighter compensation has increased since the promotion was acquired by Endeavor in 2016 and that he anticipates that trend to continue.
“Fighter comp has gone through the roof over the last five years since the sale, you know, and it’s going to continue to go up,” White said.
In closing, White vowed not to address De La Hoya’s jabs again moving forward but said he felt inclined to do it on Tuesday. The UFC boss again challenged anyone, including De La Hoya, who wasn’t comfortable with the promotion’s practices to do it better themselves and pointed towards the growth of MMA as a whole and the UFC’s investment in making it a global sport as proof that the promotion is doing things the right way.
“You don’t like the way we pay our fighters?” White asked. “Too fucking bad. Go start another MMA organization and you go f*cking figure out how to do it, and you can pay them $10 million a fight, $30 million a fight – whatever you want to do.
“We run a business. We’ve been very good at it. Not only do we run the business, we continue to grow the sport and take everybody along with us. You know, tonight, like Laura Sanko said, you know, this whole Contender Series was all foreign guys that are coming in here to fight. Everybody makes money. Everybody makes a living. You know, there are some hard stories and some sad stories. Some guy came in at this. You’re either f*cking good enough to be here or you’re not. This is the big leagues. It’s like the NFL. You can either last here or you can’t last here, but people get paid. People get paid a lot of money.”
To see the full interview with White, check out the video below.
Check out the full list of medical suspensions for Saturday’s UFC 266 pay-per-view event in Las Vegas.
[autotag]Brian Ortega[/autotag] could potentially be on the sidelines for the rest of 2021.
The UFC featherweight contender has been given a six-month suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission unless he’s cleared by a doctor for a right orbital blowout fracture following his championship defeat to[autotag] Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] at Saturday’s UFC 266. Only with clearance will Ortega’s suspension be reduced to 60 days with no contact for 45 days.
On Tuesday, MMA Junkie acquired a full list of the UFC 266 medical suspensions handed out by the NAC from MixedMartialArts.com, the Association of Boxing Commission’s official record keeper.
Ortega is one of 10 fighters who is facing potential six-month suspensions following their respective bouts at UFC 266.
Below is the full list of medical suspensions from UFC 266:
Forgive Alexander Volkanovski if he’s not overly excited, because he’s heard this one before.
Forgive [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] if he’s not overly excited, because he’s heard this one before.
In the aftermath of Volkanovski’s (23-1 MMA, 10-0 UFC) unanimous decision win over Brian Ortega (15-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) to defend the featherweight title in the UFC 266 headliner, he found himself on the receiving end of yet another callout from [autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag].
Cejudo (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC), an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and a former two-division UFC champion, is retired from MMA competition. However, he’s said in the past he would be willing to come back for the right fight and right payday. It’s clear Cejudo thinks Volkanovski would tick all the boxes for him, because it would present an opportunity to be the first in UFC history to claim titles in three separate weight classes (via Twitter, Instagram):
@danawhite im gonna take Alexander the Average’s soul #ufc266
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) September 26, 2021
@danawhite im gonna take Alexander the Average’s soul #ufc266
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUS0bzRFLop
How can you denied what I’ve done not only in mma but combat sports. Hate the cringe but as much as I talk, my resumes speaks louder than my words! You are a perfect matchup for me you overgrown midget. Can you handle my speed and my Olympic pedigree of wrestling along with I.Q years of experience in competition in two sports. This is the only fight that really matters to me. You said you’d never doubt me @danawhite put your money where your mouth is and allow me to become the first 3 division champion in UFC history. I know you don’t want to fight me @alexvolkanovski because you don’t want to lose to someone slightly taller than you. You can come try to kill the Cringe but one thing is for sure, “I will sacrifice you in front of 60,000 Ozzy‘s.” 🖊 📄 🏆🏆🏆+🏆 =C4
Volkanovski has been asked about fighting Cejudo many times for the better part of two years. He’s always welcomed the challenge, even if the matchup wasn’t particularly logical at a given time.
At this stage, Volkanovski is hard pressed to give Cejudo the time of day. The fight has been teased so many times, but Cejudo has remained idle in retirement since he hung up the gloves in May 2020.
Volkanovski doesn’t see that changing anytime soon, but if it does, he’s the man with the gold.
“F*ck Henry Cejudo,” Volkanovski told reporters at the UFC 266 post-fight news conference. “He’s called out everyone. He’s called out females. You actually believe the sh*t that comes out of his mouth? Nah. I’ll squash the little germ.”
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Conor McGregor shared his thoughts on Nick Diaz’s unsuccessful return to the octagon on Saturday at UFC 266.
[autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] shared his thoughts on [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag]’s unsuccessful return to the octagon on Saturday at UFC 266.
McGregor (22-5 MMA, 10-4 UFC), like many fight fans, was a keen observer of Diaz’s (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) long awaited comeback fight, which was a rematch against Robbie Lawler at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Things didn’t go Diaz’s way after more than six years away from competition. He partially reverted back to his old self, but was not able to keep up with Lawler’s pace and output and opted not to continue after getting hurt with a hard shot early in the third round of the middleweight bout.
Some have used the loss to point the finger at Diaz and claim he “quit.” Lawler said post-fight the stoppage came as an accumulation of damage. McGregor, who was watching closely, offered his thoughts on the ending and praised both Diaz and Lawler (via Twitter):
Nick/Rob was a good fight. The spin kick at the start gave the ground on Nick but he was veteran composed and was peppering lovely shots in. He just ate some big body shots and there was more coming Robbie was strong to the body it was veteran work all round. I enjoyed thoroughly
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 26, 2021
Nick/Rob was a good fight. The spin kick at the start gave the ground on Nick but he was veteran composed and was peppering lovely shots in. He just ate some big body shots and there was more coming Robbie was strong to the body it was veteran work all round. I enjoyed thoroughly
The finishing sequence when the temple was clipped after the leg went, the evasion of the final shot, which was a blistering uppercut, was magic. Look at it. Down on one knee, observing where the shot was coming from, slip/parry, and re cente to open guard safe. Ala Daly fight.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 26, 2021
The finishing sequence when the temple was clipped after the leg went, the evasion of the final shot, which was a blistering uppercut, was magic. Look at it. Down on one knee, observing where the shot was coming from, slip/parry, and re cente to open guard safe. Ala Daly fight.
Although most of his sentiments were positive, McGregor couldn’t help but slide in a dig, too. He said he was far more impressed with the striking of Nick than his younger brother Nate Diaz – who famously fought McGregor twice – and “The Notorious” took a shot at his rival to conclude his review (via Twitter):
Nate your boxing is piss compare to nicks. We been fed garbage with your sloppy shots the last few years. Can see the clear difference between the two brothers after last night. Balance, composure. Another level the big bro is on to you. I made you.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 26, 2021
Nate your boxing is piss compare to nicks. We been fed garbage with your sloppy shots the last few years. Can see the clear difference between the two brothers after last night. Balance, composure. Another level the big bro is on to you. I made you.
McGregor, for his part, is coming off a first-round TKO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 where he suffered a broken leg in the process. The Irishman remains in the United States nearly three months later continuing his rehabilitation process as he looks to return to the octagon in 2022.
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“I don’t know how this fight got set up” sounds a lot like Nick Diaz was told to fight rather than him truly wanting to fight.
LAS VEGAS – There is one thing we can say for certain about [autotag]Nick Diaz[/autotag] after UFC 266: He is simply not the same fighter he was six-and-a-half years ago.
How could he be? In the fight game, that’s an absolute eternity for a layoff, and when the stretch ends with you returning to the cage at 38, the odds of giving a prime performance aren’t exactly in your favor.
There were signs of what to expect throughout the week leading up to Diaz’s heavily anticipated rematch with Robbie Lawler at T-Mobile Arena. That the Diaz team requested the fight be moved from welterweight to middleweight was a massive red flag. After all, this is the man who once showed up at an official weigh-in ceremony for a card in which he was not involved and openly taunted a clearly withered Johny Hendricks as he struggled to make 170 pounds for his UFC 181 clash with Lawler.
Now he’s comfortable with a 15-pound adjustment just days before a fight? That’s not the same Nick Diaz.
That Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) skipped media day was no real surprise (motherf*ckers). The 20-year veteran has made it clear for most of his career that he’s not in this for the camera time.
While it was another warning sign, his limited pre-fight comments, in which he told ESPN “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” weren’t overly concerning for those who have closely followed his career. After all, Diaz has long expressed his love-hate relationship with prizefighting – and he also immediately said afterward that rather than Lawler, he would have been better suited to face UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, the man who currently sits as the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie official rankings.
But on fight night, it was clear this was a different fighter. That became painfully evident even as he made his way to the cage.
Given the honor of a championship walk by the UFC, a true sign of the respect Diaz has generated during his Hall of Fame-worthy career, he was second to arrive. With Lawler already in the octagon, Diaz walked by, took one quick look into the fighting surface, and then immediately turned his gaze toward the floor. Compare that with the last time Diaz was in the red corner, when he stared a hole through Carlos Condit prior to entering the cage for their 2012 interim welterweight title fight.
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Once inside the octagon, Diaz did pace back and forth in his customary pre-fight routine, but the menacing scowl we’ve all come to love? It just wasn’t there – and what’s a Diaz fight without a little mean-mugging?
As the fight began, it was clear Diaz had lost a step. Never known for his blazing hand speed, it nevertheless looked like many of his movements were labored and a touch slower to reach the target than in previous bouts.
For all the differences, though, one truth remained the same: Diaz is a real fighter. Despite sometimes appearing to be stuck in first gear, Diaz threw an incredible 176 strikes in the opening round, followed by another 145 in the second. He stood toe to toe with Lawler and gave fans a show.
That said, it was the ending of the fight that undoubtedly gives the most pause for Diaz’s career moving forward. With momentum clearly shifting in Lawler’s favor, “Ruthless” landed a big right hand that dropped Diaz to a knee. A grazing uppercut followed, sending Diaz to his back, at which point Lawler turned and walked away, declining to engage the Cesar Gracie black belt on the floor. When referee Jason Herzog directed him to return to his feet to continue, Diaz declined.
Electing to stop fighting? This, certainly, was not the same Nick Diaz.
With his busted nose still spewing blood, Diaz opined that “I knew I had it coming.” Was that an admission from Diaz that he knew he was facing an uphill battle all along? Unfortunately, it’s often hard to know the exact context of what the former Strikeforce welterweight champion means with almost anything he says, so we might never know for sure.
As ESPN’s post-fight broadcast crew played matchmaker moving forward for Diaz, the two names that were mentioned included a 43-year-old Demian Maia, who was recently released from the promotion, as well as Ben Askren, who retired from the sport in 2019 and has mechanical replacement parts in his hip. It’s not exactly a glowing endorsement for Diaz’s potential success moving forward.
Therein lies the difficult choice for Diaz. There’s clearly something left in the tank, but how much? Matchmaking the aging superstar would require careful consideration should he elect to carry on. At this point, Diaz has done too much in his career to be simply rolled out as fodder for some Dana White’s Contender Series graduate to use to make a name, but it’s also clear that he doesn’t quite have what it takes to be competitive with the division’s best.
A pairing with welterweight champ Usman? That would be downright criminal.
And so there is no clear-cut next move for Diaz right now. That will have to come from inside, and hopefully he’s willing to stand up and be the one leading the charge, whether it be to continue competing or to walk away from the sport after a financially successful but ultimately failed comeback. But listening to Diaz say again after that bout that “I don’t know how this fight got set up” sounds a whole lot like a guy who was told to fight rather than one who truly wanted to fight.
In the end, Diaz’s final words before leaving the cage rang true: “I’m glad to be back. I’m glad I put on a little show for you.”
If nothing else, Diaz is certainly capable of putting on a show. The Nick Diaz Army was in full effect throughout the week, and Stockton’s finest remains one of the most popular fighters on the UFC roster. Hopefully the “switch-up in my whole management and setup” will lend itself to a more unified effort moving forward, and Diaz makes the decision that is best for him, and him alone.
It’s the least this man deserves for what he’s given to the sport.
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The best facts and figures to come out of UFC 266, which saw Volkanovski and Shevchenko defend while Nick Diaz suffered a loss.
UFC 266 was a loaded lineup on paper and proved to be one of the best of the year in practice. The promotion put on a spectacular event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with a main card that aired on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.
Both champions at the top of the card retained their belts. [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] (23-1 MMA, 10-0 UFC) defeated [autotag]Brian Ortega[/autotag] (15-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) by unanimous decision to defend the featherweight title in the headliner, while [autotag]Valentina Shevchenko[/autotag] (22-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) produced a fourth-round TKO in the co-main event against [autotag]Lauren Murphy[/autotag] (15-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC) to retain her women’s flyweight strap.
For more on the numbers behind the decorated champions, as well as the winners and losers from the rest of the card, check below for 65 post-event facts to come out of UFC 266.
