Five years. That’s how long the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided UFC fighter/enigma Nick Diaz won’t be allowed to fight. That’s more than most steroid users. All this over goddamn marijuana.
If you have friends (or enemies) who are super into MMA, they probably haven’t shut up about Nick Diaz in the past 24 hours. That is, in part, because he got popped for weed by way of a pre-fight drug test (while pot does not, by any stretch of imagination, enhance a fighter’s in-cage performance, it is still against the rules) and, yesterday, was slapped with an unprecedented five year competition ban.
But people are especially upset because of who Nick Diaz is. These days, he might not be quite as big of a name as Ronda Rousey or Conor McGregor, but he’s one of the most unique (and downright bizarre) individuals in the history of the sport. People want to see him in the cage or on the mic, not polishing a ball-and-chain on the sidelines.
Nick… who?
OK, let’s back up a bit. Despite his relatively young age of 32, Nick Diaz has been fighting in MMA’s major leagues for more than a decade.
He made his UFC debut in 2003, but he didn’t make his mark as a truly elite fighter until he fought for (now defunct) Japanese mega-organisation Pride back in 2007. In that fight, he managed to beat the man widely considered the best lightweight in the world, Takanori “The Fireball Kid” Gomi. Diaz didn’t just defeat Gomi; he smacked the spirit out of him. Gomi was known for his ferociously powerful striking. Diaz outboxed Gomi with pure volume — unrelenting barrages of precision punches — and left him stumbling and sucking air at the end of the first round.
Then, in the second, Diaz added insult to injury by catching Gomi in a submission that practically nobody ever uses in MMA: the gogoplata. It’s a choke that involves the shin bone and is considered, by most, to be pretty impractical compared to more meat ‘n’ potatoes stuff like the arm bar, triangle choke, or the rear-naked choke. Diaz pulled it off, and he made it look easy:
Previously, Diaz’s skillsets had never quite clicked. His jiu-jitsu was excellent, his striking was decent, and his cardio was godly (he often competes in triathlons for the hell of it), but he’d suffered major setbacks against truly high-level competition. Against Gomi, Diaz looked like he’d finally found his rhythm, and what a unique, thrilling rhythm it was. Killer boxing and a willingness to eat one monster punch to flurry back with hundreds of stinging jabs? That is the good kind of crazy. That’s the kind of crazy that turns fights into fucking gold.
Shortly after the Gomi fight, Diaz got popped for marijuana, and his victory was overturned to a no-contest. This would become a running theme throughout his career.
But Diaz’s in-cage accomplishments (and his proclivity for, er, undoing them) are only half the story.
Wolf tickets
Nick Diaz is truly one of a kind. And by that, I mean he’s a weird fucking dude. Hailing from Stockton, California, he’s cultivated a sort of give-no-fucks “thug” persona. He mean mugs everybody. He trash talks his opponents while he’s fighting them, whether he’s winning or losing. He #420smokesweedeveryday, heedless of the rules. He’s been part of multiple non-sanctioned brawls at major MMA events. He seems to despise The Establishment in all its forms, even when it’s his employer. Once upon a time, the UFC took a title shot away from Diaz because he no-showed on so many mandatory press and promotional events.
If you ask Nick or his younger brother, Nate, they will tell you that’s just who they are; that’s who they had to be growing up in bad parts of Stockton, in order to avoid (or, worst case scenario, deal with) trouble. They fell into martial arts naturally, when they were young. When life gives you street fights on a near-daily basis, you make fight-ade. Or something.
Despite a general air of douchiness, there’s something distinctly likable about Diaz. Whether you believe he’s in the right for, frankly, acting kind of childish all the time, it’s hard to doubt his sincerity. He’s a no-bullshit dude. When coaxed out of his nigh-impenetrable shell, he speaks his mind, and he doesn’t give a goddamn who hears. He’s said stuff that would have probably gotten other fighters fired. And while he sometimes comes off as a total crazy person (or a rampant, do-nothing complainer when people beat him with wrestling), he has a habit of ending his drug-addled ramblings at something vaguely resembling profound truth… if you squint at it.
Most infamously, there was the “wolf ticket” incident back in 2013. As part of the build-up for a welterweight title fight between then-champ (and transcendentally popular goody two-shoes) Georges St. Pierre and Diaz, the UFC released a bunch of marketing materials that painted Diaz as a truly unforgivable villain. Countless clips featured St. Pierre talking about how he was gonna dig deep, bring out his “darker side” to punish Diaz for being a malcontent with no redeeming qualities, for pushing St. Pierre to the brink with his antics and trash talk. There were no grays here; St. Pierre was good, Diaz was evil.
During a press conference that he actually attended, Diaz called them on it. And a million other issues he had with MMA and the UFC.
“They like to make me look like the bad guy. Georges likes to say I remind of a bully that picked on him growing up. How many times have you had a gun to your head, Georges? How many of your best friends have been shot through the chest with a 45 or how many of your best friends have been stomped, put to sleep in a coma? How many people put gum in your hair growing up going back that far?”
“I hate everyone pulling the bully card. Everyone hates bullies. If it wasn’t for what I went through, who knows if I would have made it in life. Who knows if I’d be here today. I don’t go and point the finger and decide that people are the bully who tortured me as a child. I don’t want to see anybody hurt. I don’t believe anyone out here working towards greatness deserves to be beat down, smashed in. The fans out like violence. People like violence. It’s the funniest thing but I like to think I’m not a violent person. I’m a martial artist.”
Then came the notorious “wolf tickets” line, wherein Diaz insinuated that the UFC and St. Pierre were feeding audiences bullshit and not intending to even back it up with a decent fight.
“You [St. Pierre] told the fans that I deserve to get beat down, that I chased you around. I got the fight, right? I’m working towards something, everybody knows that. Sorry I had to [say you were scared] to get the fight. They’re selling you [fans and media] all wolf tickets people, you’re eating them right up. Georges here is selling wolf tickets. Dana White here is selling wolf tickets. The UFC is selling wolf tickets. You guys are eating them right up.”
Rambling verging on incoherent, but spiced with a bit of truth. Diaz isn’t as bad of a dude as he’s sometimes portrayed, and the UFC did kinda sell people “wolf tickets.” St. Pierre did not, in fact, go all dark side on Diaz. He largely played it safe, wrestled a bunch, and gave fans a fight that wasn’t super exciting. But that’s the fight game for you. For better or worse, Diaz has never meshed well with the “game” part of it.
Nick Diaz vs the world
Back in the present, Nick Diaz is in a rough spot. Unless his legal team bats a thousand while appealing the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s decision in court, he’s on the bench until 2020. By then, he will officially be Old by MMA standards. In the meantime, he’ll no longer be able to make money as a pro fighter, the only career he’s ever really known (aside from running a gym, which will hopefully keep him afloat, at least). His career is, in all likelihood, over. True to form, Diaz pulled no punches with his statement on the matter. He explained why he dropped out of school to fight, recounting the tale of his troubled youth and, eventually, a girlfriend who killed herself:
“She was gonna go to college. She was an avid student and and was doing everything I couldn’t while living in a trailer park where everyone was doing dope. Meanwhile, I focused my whole high school years worried about what her and her friends would think if I lost a fight to her ex-boyfriend and football friends. I could never make attendance, hung out with the wrong people to hold my ground as a fighter and someone who I would fight for was important to me.”
“There was no way I was gonna go to school. I had no money, no car. I would have driven there and stopped her. After that, I was grown up. It was all over. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I won my first fight in the first round with a choke and all I could think about was her, just like when I was in school.”
“I would run seven miles and back to her grave just to promise her I would make it as a fighter like she knew and had told me she knew and was proud of me.”
“So this sport and this commission have done everything to stop me from being in the position that I belong. That’s the only reason why I haven’t stayed in that position and come off as the fighter and person that I know I am and can be.”
Admittedly, Diaz is not entirely innocent here. He’s been suspended for marijuana twice before. According to the official rules for a third infraction, he was looking at a three year suspension, at the very least. And more generally, Diaz is a guy who has a habit of getting himself in trouble and, at least some of the time, blaming other people for it. His record is far from spotless.
But the NSAC, a professional body, made it personal. Keeping with past trends, they reacted with anger and incredulity when Diaz’s team tried to fight Diaz’s impending punishment — ask legitimate questions of testing methods that suggested Diaz had more than the legal limit of marijuana metabolites in his system on fight night — instead of rolling over and apologizing. At first, one member of the NSAC suggested that Diaz should receive a lifetime ban from competing. Other members reined in that egregiously over-the-top suggestion, but it set the tone for the remainder of the proceedings.
It should be noted that middleweight legend Anderson Silva, Diaz’s opponent in the fight in which he most recently got popped for marijuana, also tested positive for drugs — namely, steroids. He got suspended for one year, retroactive to the time of the fight. He’ll be able to hop back in the octagon again in January. In short, the guy who did performance-enhancing drugs — potentially put his opponent in real danger — got a slap on the wrist compared to the guy who, at worst, impaired himself slightly. That sends a baaaaad message to fighters. That’s not a good precedent to set. It’s also pretty unfair, not to mention largely arbitrary. Diaz dug his own grave by doing marijuana close to fight time (again), but he didn’t dig it that deep.
If Diaz is indeed out of the fight game for the next five years (possibly forever, if he decides he’s gotten too old to be competitive), that’s a damn shame. Nick Diaz is uniquely entertaining — sometimes a laugh, other times an almost literal riot. I’ve said it in the past, and I’ll say it again: fight sports live and die on their characters, and the UFC needs more of them to stay healthy. Whether you love him or you hate him, you can’t deny that Diaz is a character. He’s truly one of a kind, and he will be missed.
Comments
32 responses to “The UFC’s Weirdest Fighter Got Banned For Weed, And That’s Bullshit”
Shouldn’t this be on PopSugar?
If you have been suspended twice before for using the same drug, then you have taken too many hits to the head if you think you are hard done by being banned for a third breach.
Considering it’s legalised recreationally in 3 states, soon to be more and used medicinally in over half the states I don’t see why anyone should be suspended for it. It being illegal is stupid and antiquated anyway.
Doesn’t matter if it’s legal. Alcohol is legal but you’re not allowed to fight while intoxicated either.
Who said he was stoned while competing? weed stays in your system for a long time, doesn’t mean it is affecting you.
The weed is broken down by your body very quickly, it’s the components it’s broken into they test for, and they can stick around for a very long time, depending on your metabolism. It is stupid that something so beneficial is treated like heroin. I suffer from massive nerve damage and chronic pain, and I would be a heinous opiate addict if it weren’t for the hooch. People can funtion on that, you can’t on a handful of endone.
It doesn’t say how recent it was, but either way he’s been in trouble for it twice before. He’s not a stranger to the details and the way the UFC reacts to that kind of thing. Pretty sure he knows what he needs to do and not do by this point.
True, but I mean it is a stupid rule and the punishment is overblown, even Rhonda Rousey said it was stupid and it shouldn’t be banned.
I think the spirit of the rule is pretty reasonable, personally. Fighters should be participating clean. It’s not necessarily about benefit but about the purity of the contest. I don’t think that’s a bad rule.
I have little interest in UFC or MMA in its current form but I do like single discipline martial arts and Olympic-style contests where the focus tends to be more on technical ability and tactics over physical damage, and the effort to keep the purity of a clean natural fight on equal ground is a dealbreaker for me if it was missing.
You’re letting yourself get distracted by the fact he should have seen it coming. Ultimately what’s important to the sport is that the rule is very questionable and the ruling itself is at best an over reaction and at worst an attempt to end his career for reasons that relate to his unwillingness to play a character rather than the rule he broke. That’s very dangerous in a sport that is always going to gravitate towards selling it’s athletes and events with personas and grudge matches.
That’s not the issue, it’s the fact that the NSAC disregarded evidence and sentenced him anyway. Fair enough multiple occasions should result in a harsher penalty but when evidence starts getting overlooked just to prove a point? That’s pretty messed up.
I also strongly believe Anderson has been on steroids since way before breaking his leg, but where’s the fun in testing the arguable GOAT out of competition? I wonder how many fighters would be getting popped for banned substances if they were tested as much as the Diaz brothers.
I don’t know if this is right or not, but I read elsewhere that he submitted three drug tests, one before the fight and two after it. The first and last test he came back clear and those tests were done under WADA standards by an approved laboratory whilst the second of the tests taken was tested by a non WADA qualified lab and that was the one that came back positive. So it looks real dodgy.
I agree, 5 years and the fine is a bit harsh. However, two prior suspensions for the same item, so only two years more than the expected minimum. Silva’s one year was based on no priors.
As for marijuana, regardless of what you think about it, he didn’t have a therapeutic exception from NSAC, it is a listed banned substance, he knew it. So, knowingly breaking rules should mean consequences. As for it offering nothing but maybe inhibited Diaz, nope, nope and nope. It’s benefits while competing have long been known, and the same for training where it can allow for better focus, and calms and athlete down. It is now being used by long distance runners to help in performance – http://greatist.com/play/marijuana-effects-on-runners
Agreed with everything you’ve said.
I daresay the fact that he constantly acts like a cock played a role in the harsh penalty.
Love nick, great fighter and comes out with some hilarious shit.
Can’t beleive weed is even on the banned substance list anyway, its certainly not preformance enhancing thats for sure
It is though, see @unclebob ‘s post above. Alcohol is also banned and that arguably hinders performance. The point is to make sure the fighters are participating clean.
Totally, and I could definitely see how it would help them in training, but in a fight, where reaction time is a massive factor, it’d not help them at all. Comparing its use in a race, to in a fight is not a fair comparision, as what would benefit someone in a race, wouldn’t in a fight.
I do agree in making them participate clean, but I don’t think it should be lumped together with steroids, and other preformance enhancing drugs.
That being said though, he’s been in trouble before with this kind of shit, so can understand why they’ve come down so hard on him
I think the bottom line is ‘don’t do drugs’? Then you don’t have to get into the whole argument about the severity of the sentence. If he’s done drugs, knowing the possible penalties, I don’t see how he can complain. Sure, the other guy did drugs as well, but you can’t exculpate yourself by pointing out how someone may have done something worse than what you did. The severity of his sentence does seem over the top, but at the end of the day, he can’t blame anyone but himself for being in this position.
For a third offence it seems like a stronger punishment is appropriate.
To what advantage has he been penalized for though? None. Infact he has given his opponent the advantage. I understand that rules have been broken again and again, and yes that is on him and him alone, but shit dude, wouldn’t you rather be fighting a stoner?
The rules aren’t solely there to stop advantages. The point of the contest is for the fighters to participate clean, whether there’s an advantage or not. As I mentioned elsewhere, alcohol is also banned.
Nick can just go to Japan and avoid paying that bullshit fine, that is if he doesn’t take them to court and win (the evidence is in his favor). Shame that this is probably going to end his career either way, especially when one of the people that sentenced him used to own something like 70% of marijuana dispensaries in a particular state.
Fuck the NSAC. 209!
Some stories say the Diaz team submitted an exemption to the same guy who dropped the hammer before the fight. Is this true?
Great article – quite the shame, but apart from his shenanigans, Nick Diaz is largely irrelevant these days. Any decent fighter with a solid grappling game beats him every time. Same with his little bro…
Errr really mate?
The only person to give Nick Diaz serious issues in recent fights on the ground was St Pierre. Although GSP couldn’t knock him out or submit him
Carlos Condit was taken down by Diaz and lost his back and was lucky to not get choked out.
Anderson Silva who’s a black belt in BJJ didn’t attempt to go to the ground with Diaz. Turned out Silva was munching on roids leading up to the fight.
Diaz beat BJ Penn who’s one of the best BJJ fighters in the UFC and is someone who got their black belt in under 4 years. He lost to Diaz.
Sakurai and Evangelista Santos both have black belts and got tapped out by Diaz.
Oh and let’s not forget he put Gomi in a gogoplata.
Diaz has never been tapped out and to my knowledge has only been knocked out once in MMA (besides a doctors stoppage) all his other loses are by decisions. If Diaz is irrelevant then I’m not sure he’s being payed to do superfights with Anderson Silva…
Oh has for he’s brother Nate Diaz, he’s been tapped out only once but has around a dozen wins by submission.
Anyway maybe trade in your tapout shirt and UFC fight pass subscription in for some Jiu Jitsu lessons or something.
Ha!
Great response, you obviously know your stuff… but Tapout shirt? Harsh 🙂
A lot of the fights your quoting are very old.. I think the game has changed a lot particularly in the last 5 years. The Diaz brothers have not adapted and won’t be winning against any fighters with a solid grappling game. Or a gameplan..
You quoted the Condit fight in favour of your argument, but forgot to mention that Diaz lost that fight. The reason he lost, is that a smarter fighter out game-planned him.
He won against an unmotivated and old BJ Penn who had no business being in the ring.. BJ’s next fight was against Edgar… I’m sure you saw how that went.
Diaz will win against any fighter with a “stand and bang” mentality. The Paul Daley fight in strikeforce is a great example.
I think his best move would be to seek a release from the UFC and go fight in Japan for ONE. But I would be betting on Ben Askren if they ever fought for the title.. wouldn’t you?
“The Diaz brothers have not adapted and won’t be winning against any fighters with a solid grappling game. “
Cough cough… conner McGregor
You can’t just not smoke weed! Alcohol leaves your system a lot faster than weed, it’s okay to have a beer on the weekend but smoking a big fat cone isnt? I want to see bongs instead of water bottles in the ring
Come into work hungover on a Monday? What a legend, must’ve had a big weekend! Got traces of weed in your system from a weekend joint? Enjoy unemployment you pot smoking hippy!
Agree. Disproportionate.
Such a shame. I remember seeing Diaz destroy current UFC champ Lawler years ago. Lawler had been knocking every fool out, much like he does now, but he had no answer for Diaz’s unorthodox reaching, hand touching boxing style. One of the most incredibly deft upsets I have ever seen. No matter what he says or does, Nick Diaz will always have my respect as a truly unique fighter.
Wow. Sure he shouldn’t have smoked after 2 warnings but 5 years is way over the top when the guy on steroids (FFS!) only gets 1 year.
Seems corrupt.
If only games got this many words.
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Pig’s arse!
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