MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Nick Diaz Resume Review | UFC 266 | Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler 2

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

The Resume Review is BACK! Luke and Brian will be breaking down Nick Diaz's resume ahead of his UFC 266 rematch with Robbie Lawler. The guys relive Nick's journey to this rematch. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Well, come on in, everyone, because we are on the precipice of something kind of big. UFC 266 is this weekend and features many important fights. My name is Luke Thomas. That's Brian Campbell. We're the hosts of Morning Combat. But today, we want to focus in on one of the fighters on that card. Maybe the biggest storyline draw on this entire pay-per-view in terms of what you're coming to see. In fact, I didn't even think we would ever get to this point.

It's been almost seven years since we have seen him. It's time for the resume review of Nick Diaz. This is a big one. This is one that we've been wanting to do for a while. We didn't know we were ever going to get the opportunity because we obviously want to do resume reviews when fighters are still active. And he is a great candidate for it, but he's been gone. He's been absent.

He's been outside the sport and, frankly, behaving in a way where I thought a comeback was almost impossible. But he is going to be fighting Robbie Lawler for the second time. It's a rematch from many, many years ago. 17 years in the making for this welterweight rematch. Probably the only time in MMA history outside of some old guy fight at the way past retirement that you'll see this type of setup. That has to be a record for longest space in between a rematch for MMA.

Older, faded-er, if that's even an approximation of a word right there. Two guys past their prime who have delivered such theatrics. Can they do it again in this rematch? We're excited to see. But, Luke, when it comes to the resume review, the part that makes this so fun is looking back and seeing how we remember things. Sometimes you go back and you revisit it,

and it's not the same or it's better than it was, or it rekindled some of that old magic. Is Nick Diaz going to have that old magic against Lawler? I'm not sure. But going back over this incredible career, from the UFC to Elite XC to Strikeforce and back, this has been an incredible journey. And this will put our old resume reverse curse,

which is 6-0 at this point in terms of ruining the people we choose, to the test because Lawler, Diaz, too, this Saturday, it's about a pick-em. I think they're both minus 110 in terms of the betting odds. 50-50, we're not cursing anybody. If somebody's going to win this fight, this curse may stay undefeated. It certainly may. We just do the show. We can't be held responsible.

We, of course, don't do this as a prediction engine. We do this because we want to talk about someone who's got an incredibly interesting career, a long and storied one, and they're at an interesting point. I think we can all agree, so it's time to look back for that. I'd also say, BC, this is one of those moments where you reflect on why is Nick Diaz so popular because he's got some great wins. He's got a lot of losses too. This story, as you watch it unfold over time

and you can see how it undulates, we're talking about maybe MMA's biggest antihero. We're talking about the guy who is beloved by audiences independent of whether or not he wins. And I think as we tell this tale, BC, folks will begin, for maybe who didn't live the early Nick Diaz days, they might begin to understand

why he's arrived at this quote-like status. For somebody didn't live the early Nick Diaz days, they might begin to understand why he's arrived at this cult-like status. For somebody who did live the early days, and yet you sometimes can only think of the fighter on who they currently are, who they've been. He has been a cult-like anti-establishment figure like you talked about for so long, that you know the one key element I almost forgot, which is crazy

to say? Nick Diaz is a fucking action star. Like you think of like Robbie Lawler, Justin Gaethje, Tony Ferguson, even, like, a Frankie Edgar, guys that just gave you one hellacious, dramatic fight after another. You go back and relive which we did and which we're about to do on the great Nick Diaz. It was one banger, Luke, after another.

That's how you build and earn that reputation to become that cult figure. Let's never forget that side of it. Even though he's skilled, even though he can do all these things, he went in there and he earned it. He really did. He had battled with promoters throughout the course of his career about whether or not he was promoted the right way and whether or not they understood him.

In real time, I can tell you, in covering the fights, at the time it felt like Nick was maybe reaching in certain cases. Now looking back, he seems quite justified and vindicated maybe for asking for greater pushes at certain times in which he was competing. Let me just say before we begin, please give the video a thumbs up, hit subscribe, curse or not, we're doing our homework here. We're hoping to walk you through, which is really, I would argue BC, before we begin, last thing I'd say, one of the more unique, interesting, and important careers in the history of MMA, forward fighters. Yeah, no question about it.

And you're going to relive why this man is so beloved. And let's get right into it, Luke. I mean, as you said, you know, can't be held responsible. She was touching her face. I won't be held responsible for who wins and loses this fight. But ring, resume, it's my thing. It's my joy. Let's do this shit.

All right, so we began our journey not so much with his pro debut, which took place August 31st, 2001. What? Just days before 9-11, if you can imagine it. It starts actually in his UFC debut. Now, this took place in September 26th of 2003. This was, of course, in Las Vegas, Nevada. I believe it was at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

UFC 44. He took on Jeremy Jackson. Now, BC, this wasn't the first time he fought Jeremy Jackson. BC this wasn't the first time he fought Jeremy Jackson it wasn't even the second time I thought it was the second one I had to get woken up that this was their trilogy which is wild because this is nine fights into Nick Diaz's

career he's entering into a trilogy he was entering into a trilogy so what can you say about this moment you could tell based on the way in which the crowd was set up and then the gloves. Well, there's very little people in the crowd. Yeah, this was UFC really much in a developmental stage, and Nick was sort of standing out for a couple things, BC.

He stood up to me in this fight. One, his wrestling kind of surprised me a little bit. But two, they were heaping, and Joe Rogan was the commentator, lavish praise on what a prodigy. They didn't use quite that word but dude when you go back and you watch Nick Diaz was what 20 years old 20 years old he fought in this contest he was so unbelievable he didn't have a 20 year old body he had like a professional fighter's body and already had a bit of that badass swagger you didn't see the trash talk in this fight that would actually come one

fight later when you saw a shit ton of it, you saw almost this like polite artist entering in here. And now, you know, you mentioned they had history. Just two months earlier, Diaz had avenged that initial loss against Jackson when he stopped him in the first round at Luke IFC Warriors Challenge 18. The first fight had come the year before that at UA4 King of the Mountain when Jackson scored a first round finish. So there was a little bit at stake in which both these guys are making their UFC debut. I think, what, Jackson was just 23 years old, yet it was their trilogy fight. And the styles contrast was what Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg was talking about like crazy. The ground specialist in Diaz, the striker in Jackson.

Luke, I'm going to say this once about Mike Goldberg. I forgot what it was like to hear him in the pre-Robot days. Yeah. When he was a professional sportscaster. And he wasn't as corny or shticky. And Rogan was more of the excitement blow-up guy. Goldberg's actually pretty good back in UFC 44 when it was Randy versus Tito in the main event. These were the good old days.

And also, interesting to note, it's a DS fight we're paying attention to. But I kind of took away from that Joe Rogan at the time. He was really hyping up the ground skills of Nick Diaz. And this is at a time when there wasn't a lot of access to regional footage. People didn't even know about regional MMA. They were just sort of discovering MMA through UFC. He was your guide to all things understanding the lay of the land. And that was important, BC, because while he was hyping the ground skills

over and over and over again, Nick Diaz secures the win with a third-round armbar. Hard fought, but he got it done in the end, and it was a way to sort of signal, one, sort of Rogan's importance in all of this, but two, obviously it relates to Nick Diaz. This was a skilled ground operator. That would be a thing that would carry true through the course of his career. Yeah, in the third round, he ducked a punch from Jeremy Jackson,

got the takedown, gets the submission via armbar from the bottom. It showed you everything you just said right there. And you may ask yourself, man, Jeremy Jackson looks fresh-faced, athletic, tough. They call him the Scorpion. He's got the scorpion tattoo on the chest. Luke, he had the Pam Anderson, Tom Gugliotta barbed wire tattoo. That was very in fashion at the time.

Which back then in 2003, I guess, was still a thing. Unfortunately, Luke, this would almost be the end. Jeremy Jackson would come back for one more fight in the Tough Four finale, Luke, in which he, according to my notes here, who did he lose to? Was it Pete Spratt? But he would get kicked out of that Tough Four season for violation of the House policy, and then he would get kicked out of society shortly after that. For admitting guilt to a rape charge.

Yes, in which he allegedly broke into his ex-girlfriend's house at 4 a.m. and did some bad stuff and got 25 years to life. So we'll move on from that fight because that was the introduction of Nick Diaz. Well, if we learned anything, it's early in the evolution of Nick Diaz. He was polite. They gave each other fists before and after every round. But the ground game was there. The gameness was there, all of that stuff.

He was really, at the time, he was a brown belt. Eddie Bravo was doing, actually, the post-fight in-cage interviewing, but the thing you saw, what BC and I were talking about, is even at the very early stage in his career, he was already a man among other men, but he was the boy there, technically, right? He couldn't even buy a beer legally, and he was out there giving grown men a very tough time.

One thing to note before we head into the next fight, his striking game was not only not up to par, he got rocked early by Jackson by going for a takedown, and he also, which would be coming a trend, he got cut basically every fight we're going to look at on this countdown. Luke, his specialization was still a thing back then. I mean, his striking in this still a thing back then. I mean, his striking in this fight was just not elite or top tier by any stretch of the imagination.

So to see that growth was pretty incredible. And also, just sort of one note we didn't get at the top of the show. It's worth pointing out, Nick Diaz was representing Northern California. He was a Cesar Gracie guy at the time. That was very much a big camp. You can see Nate Diaz there. By the way, he was identified by Nick. He was like, I want to thank my brother who helped me, Nathan Diaz, right? This is what we called him, Nathan. It was just a different time, different power structures involved in the sport. And there

was a lot of Northern Southern Californian, not a rivalries per se, but a lot of camps concentrated there. And the Diaz's as part of that Northern California push, they were big, big leaders in that movement. Here's one thing that we saw in this that you won't see again in this show. Eddie Bravo doing the post-fight interviews. And Nate admitting, I didn't have my head quite together for this fight. I didn't have a good camp like the second fight against Jackson. I'm really grateful that I came out with a win. So you're already seeing Nate, professional fighter, mixed martial artist,

but mercurial in the interviews, crazy life outside of the cage. You're seeing that all come together. So now we go to the next fight, and this is one of the most important fights in his career. It's actually why our UFC 266 is so relevant, because it's a fight with Robbie Lawler, of course, this coming weekend. The original one was the second UFC fight for Nick Diaz. This took place April 2, 2004, UFC 47, in B.C.

It's important to discuss where Robbie Lawler was heading into this fight. Now, he had lost himself a fight with Pete Spratt from a hip injury, but he had demolished Tiki Gosen, Steve Berger, someone else I'm leaving out as well. He was on a hot-ass streak. And think about what this matchup was on paper. The talk in that Jackson fight by the commentary team was ground specialist against striker.

You saw Nick striking against Jackson in that fight in his UFC debut. Luke, it was bad. I mean, it straight up sucked. Yet he's coming in here against a stand-up killer striker from Bettendorf, Iowa, you know, out of the Militech Fighting Systems camp who's no nonsense. And yet what we would see is that Nick Diaz changed his game, changed his demeanor, and stepped up to the bully. And you see when they show the tail of the tape, Luke.

I know this is 2004. Diaz, age 20. Lawler, age 22. These are two potential welterweights of the future, both becoming champions eventually for major organizations. This was wild to see Robbie Lawler with hair, yet still jacked in the same killer that we know him today. Yeah, this was Robbie Lawler when he mentioned out of military fighting systems, he was their golden boy.

That was when Horn was there and Hughes and Billy Rush, Tim Sylvia, all kinds of guys, and the upcoming big name. Even to this day, you go back and watch old Strikeforce shows that Pat Militich was commentating on, he would say that the hardest hitter he's ever encountered in that camp was Robbie Lawler. Robbie Lawler was and had a fearsome reputation. And by the way, I mentioned he beat Steve Berger and Tiki Gosen.

Also Aaron Riley, another pioneer. He had knuckled him into the dirt too. Like, dude, I cannot overstate. Robbie Lawler was a force of nature and so young. So they get to going BC and it wouldn't even last 92 seconds. Just over 90. Well, it went into the second round. Yes, that's what I mean. First of all, this is a big night. Tito

Chuck won at the Mandalay Bay. Is this pay-per-view UFC 47? So this is a big platform. It's called It's On. But Nick Diaz coming out against the bigger striker and just dropping trash-talking bars. Like, he went from polite guy against Jackson, I'm going to touch gloves after every round, to I want to get in the head of the slugger and come out like I'm in a street fight.

The actions, the mannerisms, which became so normal to who Diaz was, to be a trash-talker, to try to bait his opponent into mistakes. Watching this in real time, you're like, holy shit, he looks like a crazy guy in the street saying, you don't know me, come on and try to test me. It was wild to see that break out. He may have done that, what do you think, BC? He may have done that in other fights before he got to the UFC, but this is the first time as a UFC watching audience you get to see that, right? And you see the shit talking, the video package where Nick's like, you know, Lawler's, he's not as good as he thinks he is.

He's got power, but I think he's a little sloppy. He must have made a decision in that camp, which is a crazy one in hindsight, right? Or at that moment, sorry, not in hindsight, but at that moment to challenge the bigger puncher and stand in there and believe in his boxing and his chin. And this was the first fight, Luke, although I mentioned he got rocked by Jackson early,

that we get on full display in this resume review how insane his freaking chin is. Nick Diaz. Right. So why don't you walk them through. What did you see from Robbie Lawler full display in this resume review how insane his freaking chin is. Nick Diaz. Right. So why don't you walk them through. What did you see from Robbie Lawler in terms of just landing on Nick up until the whole thing collapsed for him? Lawler landing, huge shot.

Lawler's jab was like a two-by-four, just poking it out there. There were times that Diaz had to take a step back and sort of check himself. But what you're seeing was Diaz's fearlessness seems to get a rise out of himself and makes himself more dangerous. As we end up seeing in the second round with that finishing shot, which we'll get to, better technique, shorter ability to land those hooks, ability to sort of get Lawler to chase after him

by the mannerisms. And then any time he hit Lawler big, you would see Lawler get pissed and sort of step up his game. And he would rage respond. Right, into the web trap. And just to show you where we're at in 2004 MMA, how about that Pitbull energy drink center logo?

It looked just so outdated and weird. And how about back when the Octagon girls looked like the BKFC boxers do today? Like they were just like tatted up, trailer-looking, lurking girls. But look, when we saw in round one, we're talking about a cockier Nick Diaz, I'm going to say Nate a lot by accident, who keeps going after it. When he landed that first slap with the right hand and Rogan lost his shit,

that changed something. That changed that tenor in the fight. That's when I think Lawler got legitimately pissed off, got off of his game plan, and, like I said, you just lured him into the spiderweb. He really did. So by the second round, you could just sort of see the timing. That was what I took away is by the second round, the timing that Nick Diaz had was so good. In fact, that's how he catches him.

He basically catches Lawler at the end of a punch before he could even recover, and then he crushed him with the single shot, and Lawler goes face first. Dude, that is such an iconic moment, when Lawler goes face first. That ended up in highlight reels for as many places they could use it, including fan-remixed highlight reels, for years and years and years, and it completely transformed the idea that Nick Diaz had hands. At that point, you could not deny it. And in real time, watching it back,

it looked like a jab in real time. And I'm like, that's not a jab. And then you go back and watch the replays. So perfect. Backing up with the form on the short little right hook to catch him perfectly to turn the chin. Before that, how about Steve Mazzagati, the referee who's no longer,

he still works with the state commission there as a timekeeper, but him admonishing Nick for talking trash and, you know, Rogan ripping him on that. And how about that weird moment where let's not forget talking about Diaz's chin. He had to walk through some hellacious moments, even at the close of round one, Robbie landed huge right hands and then hit him with a flying knee.

And then I don't know if you know, Nick came back with this sort of like scissor looking weird kick. Yeah. And Rogan's like, what is that, karate kid type stuff? And your boy Goldie goes, Daniel Miyagi has arrived in the octagon. Okay, all right, we can skip all of that. But the point being is, what was the significance of this fight? It wasn't just a big win, BC. He made an insane leap in one fight.

But it goes back to what you said before. So now we know he has the hands. Now we have to take that seriously. But that bully spirit. I mean, again, he may have done that in the first six fights. We're not watching the tape for this specific project of him on the regional scene, but he walked up to the physical bully,

acted like the bully, lured him into a trap, and then finished him off. This was some badass shit. This was a major turning point for Nick, because as we indicated, now he's proven he's an action fighter, both coming and going. As you indicated, he took monster punches in this fight, delivered his own, at least well-timed punches, so now you know

he has hands. And he had this character he kind of became where he was trash-talking opponents. That fight set in motion more things about Nick Diaz that we understand today than any fight he had previously by far. And even though he can be rocked, he can be dropped, he doesn't show a lot

of damage. He is right back at it. At that point. Right, at this point. He's right back at it after shaking it off and gets right back into it. So, this is, I mean, he's 20 years old. He's this good at 20 years old, Luke. Now, I know, especially with this next fight against Carl Parisian, we can look at it and

really talk about where the technique fails in certain areas. He's not a complete fighter. But at 20, he was way more ready to be elite than so many guys you see today. All right, so that's a fair point. So it does take us, though, to our next fight, which is taking place in August. So just a few months later in 2004, UFC 49, he takes on Carl Parisian. Carl Parisian had a lot of – he was in a good spot at this point in his career. He almost forgot who he was at this point.

People don't realize he was close to getting a title shot with Matt Hughes and blah, blah, blah, and all kind of fell apart. But he was a guy out of the highest on grappling systems, and Gorkorchevichian over in Glendale, California. Judo Gene LaBelle in the corner. He was beating good guys. In fact, you can hear some of the references that Rogan makes to Dave Strasser and whatnot. Dude, Dave Strasser was a well-respected fighter,

and Caro slung him around like he was nobody and was going into this fight with a fair amount of hype. BC, what did you notice about this fight? Before we get into the nitty-gritty details. We head to the MGM Grand for this UFC 49. It's Randy versus Vitor in the main event, so another big platform for Nick, who you're starting to see UFC as understanding what they have here.

I thought it was interesting. The quote in the video package beforehand is Nick saying, this is kind of a bad matchup for me, but I guess I just have to work through it. I'll see what I can do. I'll just try my best. So he knew coming in against an aggressive ground specialist, because let's not forget, we know what Carl became, Carl Parisian, his outside the ring life wasn't always on point. There was drug addiction issues and things like that. But inside the cage, he was raw with the striking, but he overcame that rawness with insane aggression. And when you mix that with the knowledge of the judo and grappling games,

this was a tough matchup on paper. Caro's only UFC loss up to this point was a three-round decision against GSP in which he was in that fight and had moments. So to see that... GSP was a different... GSP took him down and controlled him, so a very different fight. But to see this fight start and Caro Parisian get the early trip, not just a trip take on a trip, slam, where you're like,

oh, at his core, Nick is the ground guy. He showed you against Robbie he could fight, so it's a new Nick, but at his core he's the ground guy, and here's a guy a little bit more aggressive than him who right away is putting him on his back. You knew this was going to be a fight, and Luke, I just want to say one thing. This is one of my five favorite fights in MMA history. It's a great fight.

This is so rewatchable. It's the perfect mix of still being early UFC, so it's so raw, and they're striking, especially when this fight got batshit crazy. It's raw. Carl Parisian is... If you watch it, you will be underwhelmed by the striking. The reason why he didn't become what maybe he could have,

sometimes the personal issues and stuff but also I mean his striking game was so I mean he's just throwing Ben Askren type just wild shit. Looking straight down. He runs in with his face down heading to oncoming traffic yet that was offset by how brilliant the transitions and exchanges

were on the ground between two guys who knew what they were doing down there. You add that it's a fast pace this was a fucking amazing fight because of the fighting spirit of both coming together

there was not not one second in this fight where both of them weren't trying to win it no and that's not automatic they kept getting pushed

by the other that's not automatic in every fight well also let's think about some of the broader lessons here if you think about it large what would you say

large swaths of the fight were contested on the feet and in the clinch and large swaths of it were various contested on the feet and in the clinch, and large swaths of it were various forms of attempted ground domination by the other one, right? I think that's a fair way to put it. This fight was not singularly responsible for anything related to this, but it did play a role in showing if you have the right matchup.

And this mattered in 2004. This is pre-The Ultimate Fighter. Keep that in mind. We're not even at The Ultimate Fighter yet. We have a case where you have two grapplers and the fight is absolutely thrilling that was not necessarily something that a lot of fans understood or accepted at that time now it's obviously very very common knowledge but it was a big deal at the time number two this was one of a painful lesson for Nick Diaz probably literally and figuratively and here's what I mean you'll see this repeated throughout portions of his career when he loses this was the first time I was like okay Nick Diaz, probably literally and figuratively, and here's what I mean. You'll see this repeated throughout portions of his career when he loses.

This was the first time I was like, okay, Nick Diaz is very, very good on the ground, but he has equals. He has guys who can match that. And when I saw Caro routinely go into his guard, routinely, without getting into too much trouble, I thought, aha, someone else is going to do that too. Nick's starting to be too willing to get in exchanges,

which became a recurring theme. There was a point in the second round where they had transitions on the ground that were so sublime. It's like I said, it's so sloppy on the feet, yet on the ground it's so thrilling. This was almost like a cinematic street fight because there were elements of that street fight griminess, yet at a very elite level in terms of their ground game

where it felt like it was like a movie fight scene at some point. And at the end of two rounds, Luke, I scored both for Nick. Now, this would be a fight in which he would... I don't think that's unfair. He would go on to lose 30-27 on all three scorecards. And Caro had a very big third round by just going after takedowns like a maniac. But I thought Nick had a case to win this fight. I had him winning both of the first two rounds,

although, again, it could go either way. Caro actually ended round two. He had lost a contact, and he had case to win this fight. I had him winning both of the first two rounds, although, again, it could go either way. Carl actually ended round two. He had lost a contact, and he had gone to the wrong corner. So he was a little effed up because Nick put him on a high pace. Yep. Nick was counter. It's like as much as Carl was able to counter everything Nick was doing on the ground, and you're like, is Nick getting exposed here?

Nick's toughness was bringing everything that was inside of Carl Parise out. Carl had to constantly clinch and smother because if there was any distance between them, he was going to get clipped with something. Maybe just a jab, but there was something that was going to cause him problems. I almost thought Nick was going to win it late in the round through with that go-go platter attempt. It looked tight. It was pretty sick.

Also, you've got to give credit to Carl. Carl was a very good grappler. Do you go like that with Nick Diaz? There were various times where he was trying to take Nick Diaz's back. Dude, you're going for it there. You create offensive moments. That means you might have some defensive lapses. That was a great fight.

Go back and watch Carl's first couple UFC fights, and you'll just see ridiculous judo throws and tosses. But this fight, along with the one that Carl had with Diego Sanchez, I mean, he was, in a brief period, in his prime, was an action star. What Nick became, and maybe getting a little rub off of him, and they came together perfectly, but Caro, this is his prime, in his prime he was a sloppy but action star. This fight is so fun to rewatch,

not because technically it'll be in your top ten greatest brawls or whatever, just in terms of the raw energy of it is really fun to rewatch. Let's also set the context here just a little bit. In his last fight, all of the promotional heat was behind Robbie Lawler, and what does Nick Diaz do? He gets the win, right? In incredible fashion. Next fight, he goes to Corporezion. Not

a great matchup necessarily for either guy, depending on your perspective, but a very tough one. And what happens to Nick Diaz? He loses a decision where you could arguably say he got it. Why is this relevant? Because what are two themes that constantly repeat in Nick Diaz's career? One, the promotion always favored others over him when it made no sense. And two, that he could, from the man, from the man,

whether that's the promotion's president or whether it's authorities involved like the commission, he could never get the man to take their foot off of his neck. He didn't get the fair shake in his mind. He thought he had beaten Carr. Let me throw out the middle of that. What we'll find later in Nick's career, Luke, maybe when he started to lose interest, is there were fights afterwards where almost comedically he's been like,

well, I thought I won that fight. And you're like, well, you didn't really do anything. This was back when he was constantly doing things, but I think he had a style. And by the way, three rounds to zero for Carr Parisian, which all three judges did. That's generous. That's very generous. That's not fair. I agree.

Okay, yet, I'm wondering how nuanced, especially back in 2004, when most of these MMA judges are really professional boxing judges who are just sliding over in the Nevada Commission, I wonder how much they realize the nuances of what Diaz is doing on his back. There's times where he's

willingly pulling guard, where he's almost allowing himself to be taken down because he's so comfortable on his back. And while he was busy offensively and always trying to get submissions, I don't know

what the full nuance is there. We'll see it in the Diego Sanchez fight coming up and we also saw it in here. Caro's aggression alone, I think, just won over these judges to get it 3-0.

And I think that was something along with what you're saying, never the man with the promotion. He was never the man with the judges back then, too. That's right. I think he had a style that was a little too nuanced you're saying never the man with the promotion he's never the man with the judges back then too right i think he may have had a style that was a little too nuanced for the moment with the judges and yet still too willing to get into brawls though so it takes us we're going to skip a couple here because not every fight has enormous relevance he

did beat drew fickett which was a fun beat down if you want to go see uh a a guy from i think it was mount even nick diaz talking shit to drewickett audibly as he's pounding on him. It's kind of an embarrassing loss. Koji Oishi stood like this in front of Nick Diaz, and Nick absolutely pummeled him. But two knockout wins to bounce back from that first defeat in the UFC, not bad. Right, right. So in the UFC, he's only got one loss just to Carl,

which, by the way, he only lost via split. No, unanimous, 3-0 all around. Oh, yeah, they have it split here on my notes. Oh, you're right, you're right, you're right, my bad uh but the point being is this he lost doesn't matter so now we go to maybe one of the worst stretches of his career and i'm going to set this up all in kind of a block i want to discuss them in a block because i think they're all pretty related he loses to diego sanchez follows it up with a loss to joe riggs follows it up with a loss to sean shirk let's start with the diego sanchez one and, this is Nick Diaz frustratingly in a bottle.

He takes on Diego Sanchez, who at this time had already won the Ultimate Fighter. Okay? He had beaten Brian Gassaway and then Kenny Florian. So he had two fights. Well, one real fight on pay-per-view. But, okay. So he goes in this undefeated. Folks forget, dude, there was a while where Diego Sanchez was in his teens in terms of his age.

13-0. In terms of the number of fights he had, he was undefeated. They gave him Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz is like, this guy won a reality show, and he thinks he's on my level. This is bullshit, and I'm going to show you. So once again, what's another theme? The man is liking someone else.

They're not liking me. They're not giving me a favorable matchup. To add on to that, okay? To add on to what we're starting to get in terms of the pro wrestling promotion and carving out characters. There's a line from Goldberg as Nick is in the prep point warming up. He says, Nick Diaz is an angry young man ready to send a message.

It's like they're basically making him into like the school shooter character in this larger pro wrestling facade promotion. Yet he fit that so well. This is his first main event against Diego. It's, by the way, again, the ages when you see the tail of the tape. Diaz 22, Sanchez 23. Two guys that would be around for a while.

Hard Rock Hotel. Luke, I want to say something about this fight, and it plays into the Riggs one that would follow. I don't think of it like this, but it's true. This is the glory fucking days of UFC. Not of MMA, because the people weren't, the skills weren't as well-rounded, but these are the glory fucking days of UFC. Do you know what I mean by that, Luke?

No. Here's what I mean by that. This was back when you could show anybody, as long as you can sit down a sports fan who wasn't a UFC fight fan, maybe a little bit of a boxing fan, but you're like, bro, come over to my house and just sit down and watch this. And they would watch fights like this, and they would be fans. Not for life, but they were stuck.

They were hooked. And you know the reason why? You know what the formula is? The skill hadn't completely evolved to where everybody's a well-rounded mixed martial artist. Oh, they had defensive lapses everywhere. These were fights, though. These were fights. And the preview package is all about, like you said, Diaz questioning this guy's resume

and Sanchez basically saying, you know, I'm going to come out there and F and walk through this guy and kill him. It'll never be like this again because of how remedial the skills were. They were growing and getting better. This wasn't like UFC 1 where everybody had one skill, but it was still raw enough where these

inevitably these were fights. You didn't see people just leaning on one skill. You saw people going out there and they were kind of like street fights at your job or at your school Luke but with a little bit more skill and I think that's why today we get hooked on BKFC or Triller or the Paul brothers it comes out and we're like I know I shouldn't like this but you know what I'm kind of into this I think what we're looking for is that raw feeling where we really don't know who's going to win because we're not really sure how these skills are going to match up against each other.

I saw that when Sanchez comes out and Diaz comes out, and I'm just sort of like, this was more fight than it was skilled adaptions, and it changed with that. I think it was more of that raw feeling that we're still looking like on some of these gas station food fights that drop up. We're like, I just want to see a dramatic fight. These were dramatic fights, Luke, and they had to be because these guys were killers.

Okay, I would say two things about that. I agree with you that there is definitely a moment in time here. By the way, we're talking about November 5th, 2005. These two fought each other on the finale for the second season of the Ultimate Fighter, their finale Ultimate Fighter 2 card, whatever it was at that time. I will agree that because MMA was still so raw, you just had this gutter battle. You could just see some of it was just will. Because they're fighters with skill rather than skilled artists, right?

Fair enough. But here's the difference for me. One, if you didn't hear Diego San Sanchez just talk back then he sounded to me a lot more lucid but more than that he was a fucking operator man the lesson from this fight was not that Nick Diaz couldn't hang or something dude Diego Sanchez for three rounds went right into Nick Diaz's guard and dared him to do something about it multiple times over the course of three rounds attempting to take his it multiple times over the course of three rounds attempting to take his back multiple times just from opening guard open guard excuse me standing

up and fucking pounding on him dude this is one of the most impressive performances of diego sanchez's career it's insane it's insane in this fight and you know that moment where i got that chill feeling where i was like man this was the glory days when they went nose to nose during the, the referee instructions and Rogan screaming bad blood in the whole first round, all Rogan and Goldberg did was talk about how much they hated each other. And that's what I'm talking about. That, that more of that like fight feel to find out who's got like the grudge to say, here's the thing. Don't you agree? The caro fight was closer. Dude, the Diego fight was not close Diego beat him but can we give

respect to what these fights were like the first two minutes I wrote down pinball transitions there was just the speed of the back and forth

and the turning of momentum is just insane and then when the rare times they're on their feet because Diego is constantly

looking to take the fight to the ground the rare fights on their feet it's a schoolyard fight it's just like winging shots it was refreshing

to go back to this old school bullshit. It was fun. It was fun as shit. And by the way, we can close the loop here too, BC. It's one of my fights, it's one of my favorite fights.

I've talked about it endlessly. Go back and get the other one who's missing here. Get Caro versus Diego. Caro versus Diego. I mentioned it, yeah. One of the most incredible fights in UFC history,

especially for a three round fight, certainly. But okay, let's stick to the focus here. Diego closes the first round at the end. He's got Nick on his back. We've got to move this along. And he's leaping in with a punch, Luke, and he misses and hits the ground,

which just shows how sloppy it is. Goldberg legitimately scared that he's going to break his hands doing that. Yes, yes. I mean, it's just so raw. It actually happened twice in the fight, probably once not. All right, the final minute of the second round, including the final 30 seconds,

I think that's the highlight reel moment of this. That was just crazy back and forth. Both guys getting hurt, constantly grounded back up on their feet. But, dude, Diego's intensity, I think Nick had a hard time answering for it. He never let his foot off the gas. And what I got from that was, dude, Nick is a slick operator too. Like, obviously on the feet, the guy knocked out Robbie Lawler. Obviously on the ground, his guard game is Robbie Lawler, obviously on the ground,

his guard game is phenomenal. By the way, I think he was still a brown belt at this time, but at the same time, it also told me there's a new wave of guys coming out that might be able to give, if Diego Sanchez, as talented as he is, can do that to Nick Diaz's guard again,

Caro did it. I think Diego did it even more. That's going to be a problem. He's going to have to address. It was something he actually, I think, plagued him throughout the course of his career. So even though Nick would lose this by unanimous decision, Luke, he rallied in round three.

He cut Diego. Diego's bleeding all over on top of him in top position. And how about that arm bar attempt by Diego that Nick had to get out of his shoes going nuts? I think this is a top ten fight in UFC history. I think it's better than the Carl fight. I think just in terms of the rabid craziness of it, this is something to every word that,

this is old school Rogan. Every word that he says is not like Rogan on psychedelics or weed, you know, who's just sort of like trying to be hip or cool. This is old school Rogan on uppers who's screaming every, everything he says is screaming

because he's just loving this shit. I miss that. I miss this old raw feeling of it. But again, let's look at the situation. I can't do it. This hot new guy, Diego Sanchez, fresh off the Ultimate Fighter win, gets paired with Nick Diaz. You can begin to see how Nick is forming ideas about who is

looking out for him, what good matchmaking looks like, what are the authorities, Commissioner whoever has really got his interest in mind. You can see how each time it goes a little bit in one direction. So it takes us to his next fight and part of the three fights. By the way, how about the no-sell in the interview from Nick? He was like, I still don't think Diego's any good and hasn't fought anybody. I just love that defiance all the way through.

Again, it's each one of these. This is where Nick, as you understand him, comes from. It's these moments. So we go now to UFC 57, which would be in February of 2006. He fights Joe Riggs. Now, Joe Riggs, of course, at the time had cut, as the commentator Joe Rogan had noted, over 30 pounds for

a welterweight fight. He had come in at 170 or 171. He put 33 pounds back on a quarterweight. Yeah, and he was 202 pounds the next day. Billy Rush was one of these guys. And they were defending it at the time. They were questioning about how smart it was, but they were kind of being like, hey, it's a wrestler's mentality. It was still the mentality at the time. Okay,

this was a closer fight, a lot of it taking place on the feet. Here was my read on this. Let me know what you got. My read was, on the feet, Nick was giving this guy problems, although Joe Riggs, I thought, was a bit of a hammer himself. He was giving it back and forth. But again, you had a guy in Joe Riggs who is not the grappler like Caro is,

is not the grappler that Diego is, although we are here of a weight class. We're now at 170 pounds in a return to welterweight. He just couldn't hang with the punching power. And he couldn't hang on the ground either in terms of just overcoming the top stability of a guy like Joe Riggs.

These are the weird ebbs and flows of early Nick Diaz. For as much as, look, his striking performance was night and day from the Jackson fight to the Robbie Lawler fight. I thought Nick then took steps back against both Caro and Diego, maybe because it was such a batshit crazy fight that you just lose technique and you're just surviving, right? This fight, I thought he had big moments, but it's just highs and lows in this regard.

And maybe some of that is because Riggs is so big. I mean, look, they said he had fought at heavyweight, you know, not too long before this. This is like the reverse. It's like a Trailer Park Rumble Johnson. It's like the reverse going from, like, Williter Way all the way up. I also forgot how cool Joe Riggs used to be back then, dude.

You know, his tattoos were lame, but... If you've never seen it, go find Joe Riggs versus Kendall Grove. It is one of the most savage ground-and-pound knockouts you'll ever see. Like, he's a legitimate badass, and you forget that

because you remember him after market when he was a little bit of an aggressive clown or whatever. And Matt Hughes had just submitted him at that point. He is... And he's working out with those guys, by the way,

and working out with Lawler and stuff, so they accepted him in the tribe, and you could see that it worked. Obviously, his ability to rehydrate, Luke, it shortens careers when you can dramatically rehydrate so much like that, but in that moment before it does, he was a tough out,

and I think he came on stronger late against Nick in this one, landing bigger combinations. Both had each other hurt. This was a war. Once again, Nick is overcoming being cut, so you're seeing that scar tissue adding up, but he just didn't have enough to

separate himself from Joe Reigns in this fight. Joe was a little bit a step ahead, I think, in terms of the size and the power, and then on the ground he wasn't, again, he's not the grappler that Nick Diaz is, but he didn't need to be. Also, this is a time where you can also see being on top mattered a lot more than being on top matters now, even though even still today it's pretty important.

But it was really important because there's a lot of times where, like, Nick is doing more underneath, but it doesn't count in this era. I'm wondering if Nick had some volatility outside the cage during the stretch and wasn't training up to the highest level because he looked like a zombie over the final two rounds of this fight. I thought Nick did the best work in the first round, even though I ended up edging it to Joe Riggs. But I think in the second and third round, Nick, way too

willing to get in a brawl, which lets me think he's exhausted and he's hurt and he's just basically fighting on will and instinct, which is fine, but he's not making improvements as a fighter. My biggest takeaway, besides him being too in love with fighting and too in love with taking damage, is as sick as his conditioning can be overall, and we give him that

credit, you saw in this one, it needs to be even better. I don't think he's doing the triathlons at this point and all that kind of training. He would grow into that, but this was a, it's like his defense is not there yet. And it's funny, he evolved to a point where he could compete against GSP or Carlos Condit and not get handled. You know, he would lose, but he wouldn't get handled or dominated. There's no defense in these early Nick Diaz fights,

and maybe that's why the cult legend was able to be built. But he is just taking part of his defense is taking damage and walking through like a zombie, and that's not going to cut it. And that's why somebody like Joe Riggs at this point was able to best him. Joe Riggs calling out Charles Barkley afterwards after the fight. He was there. And saying, you know, saying calling out Charles Barkley afterwards, after the fight. He was there. And saying, you know, saying, oh, Barkley from the Suns.

He hadn't played for the Suns for like 11 years before that. That was a little bit weird. So let's go to the last of these three fight losing streak. We go to UFC 59, just April. So we were in February of 2006. Now we're in April 2006.

He takes on Sean Shirk. BC, it's again another situation where you can tell that Nick Diaz, he was hitting switches. He was trying to wrestle with Sean Shirk. BC, it's again another situation where you can tell that Nick Diaz, he was hitting switches. He was trying to wrestle with Sean Shirk during this. I don't have a whole lot to say except three fights in a row where it wasn't the exact same problem. But what I can say is many of the same problems reveal themselves where he was just not ready for that level of competition given what they were offering at that time. And by the way, this was the era of the wrestle boxer coming out of college at that time. And by the way, this was the era of the wrestleboxer

coming out of college a little bit. And this was weird because you see the cockiness that came out of him in the Lawler fight, even though he was also taking damage. But when he is the bully, he's a different level of demeanor and confidence. When the other guy's rallying back and putting him on his heels, it's not so much.

I think he sort of hit a wall here, and that's three straight defeats, all three by decision losses, all fights in which he had, I guess, an argument to be competitive, but really hadn't done enough. It sort of all added up where he was going to need some kind of change after this, because it was the same formula all over again. So he does take a break from UFC. He goes, fights Ray Steinbeiss, who was sort of a good fighter for that era. He beats him in Stockton, California at a smaller show. They invite him back to the UFC in August of that year, and that actually is a good moment for him.

He defeats Josh Neer, who was the original dentist, by the way. Josh Neer was still a good fighter, but this was, to me, a dominant version of Nick Diaz. Not a hugely important fight, but one that sort of matters in the run there.

The Gleason-Teebell fight followed us, BC. One of your favorites. Let me just set it up here very quickly. UFC 65. Now we're in November of 2006. Dude, can you believe in 2006, Nick fought one, two, three, four, five times. Five times.

If you were an MMA fan in 2006, congratulations. You got a lot of Nick Diaz. I'll say what I learned from the T-Bow fight. Whatever Nick didn't have in that three-fight losing streak where he's too in love with getting hit, he's starting to get a little bit more technical, and it's increasing his confidence. This was Gleason T- Tebow's debut in the UFC. He had a mohawk, more or less, and he was a hammer trying to get you down,

work from top position. Nick was so calm on this. This fight for Iran in half was some crazy action with real good technical stuff mixed in. Not only did Jeff Wagenheim look like a prime Philip Seymour Hoffman on press row, but also, how about this? A goldie Randy Couture with no Joe Rogan announced combo.

This was surprisingly really good. No surprise because I think Randy's great. But Randy made Goldberg, who I think Rogan would clown Goldberg a lot. So Goldberg had a complex toward him. Goldberg was almost more confident to call the action here. It was a weird flow, if you can revisit it. It was fun. But you get another win for Nick in which, how do they?

TKO. TKO in this one. And he got top position. He just put him away. Yep. So this is the growing confidence on sort of the Nick Diaz 2.0 at a time when he needed it. But also, if you look at these cards, the Josh Neer fight from UFC 262,

that was the main card. So he got a good placement there. But then at UFC 65, which, again, we're talking about the fifth fight in a year, he was on the prelim card, which I don't think he appreciated. And also, I think the UFC knew they were going to move on from him. So do you think when he had that three-fight losing skid, UFC looked at him as an action fighter but not someone serious, not somebody who's going to win a title, not anything beyond that?

To be candid, this is the part that I can't quite figure out. I don't know how they looked at him at that time. He got submission the other night when he beat Josh Neer. They knew he was good. I do think they liked him, but I think they thought he was never going to be big enough. And, like, was he worth the hassle? Not that he was some huge PR guy at the time, but, you know, sort of an interesting guy to have. And he can be outworked by the guys they love, those high-motor brawler wrestlers, right?

And also, Nick Diaz at the time was like, why would you match me up with a guy like Sean Shirk? This is not good for the fans, and he's just going to hold me down. This is not really fighting or winning. There was a lot of debate about that at that time. So eventually, he just parts ways with the UFC in a full and complete way. And it's so important, BC, that it's maybe the most important fight of his career. You could arguably make a case.

If I look back on a few fights, the Lawler fight set into motion a lot. But when I think about what made Nick a real cult figure, he was already a cult figure of attraction, but this is the one that sent it into overdrive. You cannot overstate how important it is. Pride 33 in February of 2007. Pride was trying to make an entry into the American market, and one of the ways they were trying to do it was, of course,

matching up their stars with Nick Diaz. They made a 161, I think pound fight or 160, whatever it was. So it wasn't quite welterweight, but it wasn't quite lightweight with Takanori Gomi, who was a fucking beast. 27 and three high level wins coming in,

had hands. You could wrestle his ass off and had hands. He was fucking people up in Japan. How about Adelaide Byrd, even back then, sitting cage side here. By the way, Thomas and Max Center in Vegas, the crowd was insane, Luke. Yes, it was a very good crowd.

Why is this fight so important? We'll talk about the details in just a second, but this is a moment where, A, you talk about an action fighter on another level. You talk about a guy who kind of had to rally a little bit. He got dropped. Takanori Gomi was landing huge shots on him. But what you saw was a guy who could put pace on another guy, a guy who could box another guy,

and then to win with the most, maybe at that time, the most esoteric subs. In fact, it was so fucked up, this is true, I wrote a letter to the paper at the time. It was so unusual to see a go-go platter that the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time called it a triangle choke, and I wrote to them to correct it, to get them to call it a go-go plata.

Well, whoever it was. But the point being is, dude, nobody knew. Nobody knew what the fuck that was, especially if you're watching in the attendance. This was all so new. Nick Diaz, to me, wasn't just an action fight, a fun fighter who could do cool things. We talked about Anderson Silva magic.

Dude, that was Nick Diaz magic on another level. If you have not seen this, and I think you have to go to YouTube to find it. No, it's on Fight Pass. It's on Fight Pass. I wrote down gangster victory from Nick Diaz because he dragged, at the end of that first round, Gomi into such a high-paced, exhausting war. Now, Diaz's defense was not great.

He had rocked and dropped Gomi early, and he got a lot of confidence. Gomi, being the baddest that he was, made it a sloppy and awesome brawl. Luke, I wrote down the final minute is fucking insane because the final minute of that first round is crazy. But it gassed Gomi out to ridiculous levels, Luke. He was wandering around in circles at points in round two, just a mess trying to hang on, yet still landing every time Diaz got close.

This was ridiculously raw. Nick's caught on two spots over both eyes. You're wondering if there's a chance that the ref might try to stop it because they looked at it really quick, and for him to pull out that gangster submission with blood flowing down his face, it's why he's such a badass, because this wasn't his best fight in terms of, like, he got lit up in big moments, but

he outwilled. He got dropped in the first. He outwilled, outlasted an absolute warrior. And again, he made that guy's stamina look comical because of how high of a pace he pushed. And the crowd, you could see Jake Lazor in the audience there, by the way. The crowd was going bananas at the end of the first. They come out for the second. Why did they end up in a go-go plot?

Dude, because Diaz put fucking hands on him to the point where he shot. Nick accepted the shot. And rather than trying to wrestle with him, I'm not going to wrestle with you, he locked up the fucking go-go plot. And watch him set it up. He was going for it right as he was going to his back. He didn't wait for it. It was thrown together in transition.

Takanori Gomi, who I think he was the Pride lightweight champion at the time. Either way, dude, for Nick to do this to him at this stage in their respective careers where Nick had kind of been a little bit forgotten so strong where I think the fans really loved him but was needing like a big promotional boost this one sent it to a new level and when you have the doctor in early round two checking the cut that's why it's a gangster win because Nick's got to be thinking again they're going to screw me. Again, they're not going to give me what I want. He doesn't have to worry about the decision here, Luke.

He went out there and got the damn finish, all right? He absolutely got the damn finish. And he had to get stitches in a million places. His eye was super fucked up. By the way, some of those cuts, if you see them in person today, where obviously he's been stitched up, you can see a lot of the scars from that fight. They're not hard to miss.

But this fight, to me, Lawler, Gomi, as we go through this, I'm going to say those two easily far and away, two of the most important fights he's had. All right. So at this point now, Elite XC is on the scene. He makes a debut, a very unimpressive showing, but he beats Mike Ina, a guy out of Hawaii that we respected at the time, but wasn't that great. And then he takes on KJ Nunes, BC, and the fight goes one round before they ultimately call a doctor stoppage. What happened? Elite XC inaugural lightweight title.

It's at the Elite XC Renegade Card in Corpus Christi. It's the main event on Showtime, by the way, to Kimbo and Bo Cantrell. Oh. Okay? They were the co-main was Kimbo on that one. That's an interesting night. They're both 24 years old,

but since this was at lightweight, which is the more natural weight for KJ Nunes, this is prime KJ Nunes, Luke, and what prime KJ Nunes can do is box, and he can particularly counter to the body with body shots, and that was slowing Nick down. It was giving him trouble. Nick would be getting takedowns, but they even stopped it once again for the doctors to check his cut, so it's sort of the same repeating scenario.

I just think KJ Nunes' huge counter shots were a problem for him. So we're seeing again where it's like that Nick with the confidence from the Lawler fight in terms of the striking, we never really saw that stay consistent. He had highs and lows. This was a low against a more dominant striker. Nick got it to the ground, but he wasn't able to take advantage of it. And you might be like, well, what happened with the Gomi fight where he couldn't reproduce it with the KJ Nunes fight?

In short order, Gomi was like A, tired, and B, would just kind of stay on his ground and bang with him. KJ Nunes stuck and then was gone. Stuck and then was gone. He didn't play that game at all. So Nick's cut on his nose. He's cut on his eye. After round one, they go to the corner.

You think everything's fine. Bill Goldberg is the announcer there. They're showing a and then you hear Goldberg say oh the fight's over the doctor stopped it on a cut to further along that theme of Nick feeling anti-establishment Luke he hated that so much that he walks storms out of the cage walks up the ramp turns around gives the double middle fingers with Jared Scala in tow by the way which is awesome and is one of those seminal Nick Diaz stocked in moments. It absolutely is. Again,

just feeling like the authorities in this case, the doctors gave him a totally raw deal. So, but what this turning point would do, it would kick off an 11 fight win streak. We're going to get into this, some of these fights, but this was the glory golden period of Nick's career from 2008 to 2011.

He is incredible over these next three years. So he beats Ketsuya Inoue in Dream. It's an important fight, but we'll move along. Musin Corbri, a good boxer, usually people who train at Lloyd Irvin, I knew him. He beats him in an Elite XC fight. Then he takes on Thomas Wildman, Danny, who was a journeyman and Nick beat. But okay, that takes us to one of the most important fights, certainly in that promotions history.

But also this is where Nick Diaz is starting to get a little bit more acclaimed. He takes on Frank Shamrock. In fact, the event was called Strikeforce Shamrock versus Diaz, April of 2009. Why is this significant, BC? Well, remember, the original first Strikeforce event had Nick Diaz's coach, Cesar Gracie, fighting Frank Shamrock. We're talking about battles for Northern California. That's some bad blood. Dude, that's like, at this stage of mixed martial arts, who is the man in Northern California is a very important question, which camp is the best.

And in the presser leading up to this fight, Nick Diaz walked right up to him, and that's how I greet Brian every time, gave him one of these right to his face. The trash talk, this fight crossed over. This fight crossed over because Shamrock was the face of Strikeforce. This ended up being his last career fight at age 36, but he's the face of Strikeforce. He just had that incredible fight with Kung Lee that had so many momentum twists and had the injuries.

It was fantastic. And now you've got this young, trash-talking Nick Diaz, who you're wondering, is Strikeforce making this guy the face of the promotion? He had come up empty in Elite XC, their sister-brother promotion at that time for the title against KJ Nunes, but they put him in a big spot here at age 25 against Shamrock, and what I saw was a massive

leap forward in defense and in technical know-how on the feet. This was the beginning of the prime Nick Diaz striker who could come at you with constant pressure but would be less about wasting energy on big mo. It would be a lot of little short strikes and just that constant coming on

you. And he's technically the smaller fighter here, meaning this was what a catch weight fight of 179. Yet he had the height advantage. He had the reach advantage. He had the swagger advantage and he was just more technical and it became him the bigger fighter, even though he's the smaller fighter,

it became the fact that Shamrock couldn't get inside and when Shamrock did get inside, he got pieced up for his portions. Nick absolutely controlled almost every second of this fight. Frank fought his heart out, but it was just too much for him and he couldn't take it.

And what's interesting is, BC, for me, this fight is two things, as you indicated. One, the Nick Diaz we sort of know today as like this sort of polished product starts in the Strikeforce era. That's when he really began to put things together, number one. And number two, now he is headlining big-time cards in a way where you can say the promoter is understanding the value that Diaz brings. Why don't we cater to that? I will say this.

I feel like Scott Coker, and yes, we work on the Viacom side of things, but I just think the evidence is pretty incontestable. Scott Coker, I feel like, used the Diaz brand more maximally than he has been leveraged by UFC, even if I recognize the fights with UFC have been much bigger. So what's cool is in the first round, Nick is controlling on the feet. He's trash-talking, but not the obnoxious, not the kind of trash-talking he did against Lawler, right?

But then the second round, I think he sensed that Shamrock was slowing down, so he steps up the swagger in calling him on. The crowd, which is a San Jose crowd for Shamrock who came out in this San Jose Sharks jersey, starts cheering for Nick. He got booed when he was introed. He got booed when he was introed.

They were cheering his name by the time the fight was over. That tells you what he was doing. Once Nick started to consistently target the body against Shamrock, look back at all those fights. The Sanchez brawl, the Caro brawl. You're not seeing Nick Diaz throw body punches. This was a new wrinkle to his game and his striking. He's like a coiled cobra slowly getting in on you

and then just pecking away at you. He is from Mount. Absolutely unstoppable from here. Look at that. Amazing. And he would go on to batter Shamrock en route to stopping him along the cage where you're just like some type of power, like a changeover and power bounce happened that night.

And I mentioned it crossing over. People really care. This is like one of the first non-UFC bouts post-Pride that I think a lot of people really started to care about. Absolutely. No doubt about it. Frank Shamrock was still a big name, although you're right, that's sort of the end of his run, but Nick Diaz

was this obviously rising and hugely important name that they were looking to put some big shows together with. So, we move on from the Frank Shamrock fight. As important as it was, he beats... Hold on. You've got to give Nick this credit. For as much as there was trash talk before the fight, there's something you mentioned. And raises his arm

and gives the respect to Shamrock, and afterwards, like, hard to hate that guy. He's been doing what I want to do and saying what I want to do for a long time. That's real respect, real shit right there.

I appreciated that. Also, Morrow called the shit out of that fight even though Gus Johnson was play by play. Morrow was the third guy and when he screamed

that's why I love mixed martial arts after he did that, that was a good moment. Alright, that's fair. Alright, so then he moves on

beating Scott Smith which was a good fight. He wins that one. He beats All right, so then he moves on beating Scott Smith, which was a good fight. He wins that one. He beats White Mayor Marius Zaromskis at Strikeforce Miami, which was a crazy show. Does that in the first round. Of course, the inaugural Strikeforce welterweight championship.

He then fights Hayato Sakurai in Dream, which was kind of important, but it takes us now. Oh, you're going to skip over that Dream 14 fight from Japan? Here's the thing. He goes to Japan and he fights Hayato Sakurai. If you don't know who Sakurai was, he was a hard fighter. He was a Japanese legend for that era. And Nick

Diaz just absolutely beat him from pillar to post. Sakurai was kind of effing him up early on the feet, though. Okay, but there was a guy in Nick Diaz who, if you just sort of watch it on mute, which is how I like to watch it, you can just see him slowly overtake the other guy, which is what ultimately happened. I like that Nick winning 354 round one. And I like that Nick. Winning 354 round one.

And I like that Nick bowed down and hugged him after the fight. He gave the respect. Because here's the thing about Nick. We were talking about this, giving respect to Frank Shamrock, giving respect to Hayato Sakurai. Why, dude? Because Nick understood very keenly who the legends were of the game, who respected them, and why.

And I always feel like he gave OGs. Like BJ. He loves BJ. The new always feel like he gave OGs the credit. Like BJ. He loves BJ. The newbies, he never gave any credit to. The OGs, Nick, that train was never late. He always gave credit. So, Luke, we are on a seven-fight win streak, seven of this 11. And who comes knocking but the rematch with your boy?

Let me just set it up, though. Look at the next three fights on his resume. This is what I'm talking about. This is what Diaz was looking for. The events, Strikeforce, Diaz versus Nunes 2, Strikeforce, Diaz versus Cyborg, next one, Strikeforce,

Diaz versus Daly. He wanted to be featured, and Scott Coker was all too happy to accommodate him. So Kimbo became the face of Strikeforce, but Nick was the real, quote-unquote,

real fighting face of it. Yes. He was the legitimate cover boy for this. That's right. All right, so it takes us to the rematch with KJ Noons. Remember, first one, he is super fucking bitter about. He finally gets his shot on October 9th. Three years later.

Yeah, 2010, and he wins a five-round championship defending his Strikeforce welterweight title. Noons had won four straight. So this was pretty big when they met again, but the difference, I think, is this was one weight up. It's for the Strikeforce welterweight title. They had fought at 160 beforehand. Nunes more of a natural

155-er. So that size difference, first of all, Nick was a much more advanced fighter, and that's why I think that loss to Nunes was one of the major turning points that set up this winning streak. But you saw a bigger fighter who was just walking him down, landing bigger shots, and I just didn't see that same energy in Nunes.

He had more BDE in the first fight, and he's landed body shots, he's landed big shots. I think he was starting to be like, oh, shit, Nick's way better. See if you agree. In the first fight, he would land on Nick, and every one that landed, he'd get more and more jazzed. And he was the counterpuncher in the first fight.

Nick's the counterpuncher in this fight. That's right, and in this fight, he might land a little bit, but it never felt like it was adding up. The first fight felt like it was really starting to put together something. The second fight never ever felt that way. He even broke Nunes to the level where Nunes was talking shit to him and Morrow's like, I wish

we had this mic'd up. He screams into the microphone. It would have been good to see. You do see a lot of back and forth, but again, it's not the cockiness of Nick that we saw in the Lawler fight, but he's realizing how good he's getting. This became his, what, eighth win in a row? There were some good ebbs and flows through it, but it was systematic with jabs and leg kicks,

and it was just a more dynamic Nick who wins 48-47, 49-47, and 49-46, and we saw full-on metal militia afterwards, t-shirt, hats, the full line. Would you wear that shit today? No. For nostalgic reasons? But also understand he just did five rounds,

back when five rounds was a sort of relatively new thing, and did it with ease, no problem, showing already the gas tank for the stage of his career he was absolutely ready for. Now, it takes us to a fight that's not super important by itself. January 29 of 2011, Diaz versus Cyborg. He takes on Evangelista Cyborg. This was the original husband of Chris, Diaz versus Cyborg. He takes on Evangelista Cyborg. This was the original husband of Chris Justino or Chris Cyborg.

In fact, it's worse. He sort of got her name, but he was the original Cyborg before she became that. This was, I remember the time of the booking. It was not well received by the MMA media because it was felt like, you know, there was really no way, sort of like an aggressive, potent striker in Cyborg. He was coming off the Manhoff fight not too long from that point, you know, over in Cage Rage. He was well regarded as a brawler, but you thought, unless he just lands a huge shot

on Nick, Nick's going to piece this guy up or beat him however he wants, which is exactly what happened. Yeah, that was with ease. And that's his, once again, as you said, headlining makes the title defense and it sets up. I mean, is this your favorite Nick Diaz fight of all time? So you're asking about the three big ones, right? The third of the three big ones to close his Strikeforce career. Gomi.

Oh. Lawler, first one, Gomi, and now Paul Daly. That's the one. Those are the three, which is the last of the Strikeforce fights. By the way, Nick Diaz undefeated in Strikeforce. He beats Paul Daly. Everyone knows about this fight. April 9th, 2011, B.C.

Strikeforce had been acquired by UFC. This was the last real big event. Or it was the first one, right? The first one? Was this the first event? I think it was. Yeah, because Dana White showed up. Do you think it's the greatest fight in Strikeforce history?

It's the greatest one-round fight in MMA. It's the best round. I think it's the best round in Strikeforce history? It's the greatest one-round fight in MMA. It's the best round. I think it's the best round in MMA history. It might be the greatest one-round fight. I do love Rockhold Jacare in terms of my favorite Strikeforce fight, but how can you freaking go wrong with the action? What's key about this? This was the 10th in that run of 11 straight wins

for Nick, so it's a new Nick. A Nick who's showing defense. A Nick who's showing patience. A Nick who has rounded out his striking game where he can F you on the ground if he has to, but he's not looking to take you down anymore. He's looking to walk you down with that pressure like we talked about, but he's mixing in new wrinkles. Yet because you're fighting Semtex and he's got that left hook from hell,

this almost was a callback to the bad shit craziness of the Diego Sanchez fight, of the Carl Parisian fight, because this was a freaking war with the most dramatic turns that we have ever seen. I almost wanted to sit here with you and watch the highlights. This is the chaos of the Caro fight, just on the feet. Just on the feet, and with more skill, but the same level of chin, the same

level of toughness. He was a cult figure. Look at the face off, head to head like that. That was common in his fights. So for everything we talk about with him as a cult figure, what did this moment do to that cult figure status? I mean, you want to talk about cementing yourself in the pantheon of MMA greatness. That is where you belong.

With ability to, by the way, he gets hurt and he gets dropped. He came back from the depths of hell to win this fight. Yes, he gets hurt multiple times, has to sort of get to his feet and find himself multiple times. Dude, Paul Daly, whatever else you want to say to him, that fucker can crack. And boy, he did on Nick Diaz. Oh, soccer kick.

Oh, shit. Over and over and over again. Remember, elbows not allowed, so it was kind of this punch-heavy style at the time. Elbows were allowed in MMA, but not in Strikeforce. And Nick's fights weren't this frantic anymore. They weren't this rabid. Paul Daly brought that out of him.

Paul Daly brought the thunder to him, and Nick Diaz rallied. Dude, it was like, this is the Gomi fight just pushed into one round and also just heightened because Gomi did drop him, but once Nick dropped, he sat kind of pointedly and then immediately went for the takedown. This was Nick Diaz fighting for his life in there. Fighting for his life, but also sending a message that I'm more of a badass.

I'm the real fighter. You know what I mean? I'm the real frickin' fighter right now. And the cockiness level of him was always there, but to believe that he's the best in the world and that he's the only true actual fighter. But God, he's proven it right here. I mean, this is insane what he had to walk through

and the swings of momentum and just the viciousness. Oh, wait, sorry. Elbows were allowed because now UFC owned it and they changed the rules. I forgot about that. Remember Valendez beat the shit out of Aoki? Yes. With elbows?

I was like, ooh, that was ugly. Okay, but here you have one. And here he is dropped again with a huge left hook from Paul Daly. You could have called the fight. Some fighters, some refs might have stopped it. You see Big John McCarthy there looking intently. Dude, this is all action in every second. You want everything from this fight about someone getting dropped and having to answer and then rising to the occasion and swings and

momentum. This fight had everything. The energy on this call is incredible and the finish at four minutes and 57 seconds of the opening round. Just incredible. And so now you have Nick Diaz as this guy who you know can beat top fighters, yes, but can just deliver when the time calls for it if you match him up correctly. So that means for the first time since 2006, it's time to bring him back to the octagon. So he goes. Now we're at October 29, 2011, and what do they do? They match him up with a legend. BJ Penn. By the way, if you recall the presser for this, do you remember where the presser was? No. The presser was outside, not inside, but outside under the fake

Brooklyn Bridge, New York, New York, right on the strip. And I'll never forget, this is also the presser where they announced John Anik is going to be formally the commentator for UFC. It's been that long now. He's been there 10 years, by the way. Incredible. Sorry, this is, yeah, about 10 UFC. It's been that long now. He's been there 10 years, by the way. Incredible. No, sorry.

This is, yeah, about 10 years. It's been that long. But okay, October of 2011. BC, let me tell you how important this fight is. Because you know me, BJ Penn was my first ever favorite fighter. Maybe my only favorite fighter in that way. One of the things that had been important about BJ Penn's career is he had lost some fights.

He had lost to Lyoto and some other ones along the way. Even St. Pierre had beaten him a couple times at this point. But the thing about it was he never got truly banged up. He might lose and, you know, it doesn't look good, but he didn't get banged up. Nick Diaz banged him up. I remember after this fight that I had never

seen ever anyone discolor BJ's face and lump him up. Or turn it into hamburger meat? I mean, this was just a, a no one. Let me make this clear. No one, no one,

no one had ever beaten BJ Penn the way Nick Diaz beat him. I remember this was, this was 2011 and this was still in an era where hardcore boxing fans, you know, some of them love the UFC, but you still had a lot of people that would just get that shit out away from me. Something about this fight and the fighting spirit of Nick that I remember boxing fans who I'd never talked to MMA with one time

were like, holy shit, did you see that fight the other night? Like, the matchmaking was perfect because Edgar, Penn had lost the two fights to Edgar, so he'd lost his title. But he had kind of been rebuilt with that first round finish against Matt Hughes, and then he had the draw with John Fitzgerald. So you're sort of like, okay, BJ's 32 only, but yet we realize it was an older 32. He's entering that famous older period,

yet this is perfect matchmaking in terms of they intersect. And I remember not knowing who's going to win. I mean, Diaz is 28, but he still felt like the younger fighter to me. Here's what was interesting. He still felt like the younger guy who's on the way up. For sure. And you also thought with this fight, this is why the matchmaking was so good. You were like, wait a second. You've got

two guys who can box and you've got two guys with elite jiu-jitsu. So how's this going to play out exactly? You didn't really know. You thought Nick might win with the jab or whatever, but it was still a little bit unclear. Dude, Nick fucking pieced. But it was systematic. The first round was close, and there's this great early segment

where Nick takes him down, but BJ does this incredible reversal, take his back and try to get a choke on him. But it was the body work Nick put in. BJ, not that beat up at the end of round one, but that body work starts to slow him down. It was really the end of round two where Nick's really smelling blood. BJ's starting to get some damage on his face. And round three.

It's just a beat down. Dude, Josh Rosenhuth had to hold Nick Diaz back before the start of round three. He was in full-on shark, I am going for the kill mode. And looking back on it, I mean, the volume, BJ taking huge breaths every time he's circling away to the corner and just getting smothered to the body, combinations. This was gross. I mean, this was brutal.

And this was the last, the 11th straight win for Nick Diaz. And his last. And 10 years ago, the last win for Nick Diaz. It's notable for the afterwards where Nick screams into the microphone, George, I don't think GSP is hurt. I think he's scared. What up? Where you at, George?

They show GSP in the crowd with a hot blonde, and he does the whole, you you know I'm fake scared stuff yeah but this is where Nick is going from cult street fighter guy into like I think he's ready for the title Luke and now he's calling GSP out I mean this is a big win in his in his rides his last win who would have got I mean who would have freaking guessed that and also what's kind of interesting is like how did Nick Diaz build his name right sometimes he did it by beating the hot person that was there like a attacking origami or a Robbie Lawler at the time in which he beat Lawler another way he did it BC was on the backs of greats by beating Frank Shamrock by beating an OG like BJ Penn he had these wins between guys everyone thought should have clobbered him that

were new he beat them and then these incredibly revered sometimes quite famous names in the case of BJ Penn. BJ Penn wasn't at his most famous at that time, but he was well-known to UFC fans. And for Nick to do what he did to him in his return to the UFC, this is one of those ones where we've talked about who made him what he was as an identity. This is one of those fights that, to me, BC, made him even more of a potential pay-per-view attraction for the future.

And what's crazy is at 28, Luke, I didn't think at this point, I wasn't taking into account the mileage. I wasn't taking into account all the wars that we just recapped and relived. At that point, I'm thinking, 28-year-old, he beats this legend who, again, 32-year-old Penn was an older than 32. I remember thinking, like, this is his time. And, of course, it was his time in getting ready for a title shot and things would fall apart and all that.

But I would never have guessed, Luke, that we would be here 10 years later where he would only have fought three more times, that he never would have gotten another win, that really is this the last time his heart was truly in it, Luke? Because that's what I'm wondering. I'm wondering if— I don't know. I'm wondering at this point when we look back,

is Nick Diaz a tragic story who right at the peak of his 11-fight win streak when he's about to be legitimate and become potentially UFC champion that it fell apart and he had bad luck and it was all this or did he have to use everything that was in him to get to that point in all those wars and it just got to the point where mentally he didn't want to do this anymore well we get a bit of an answer for the next fight so we go to UFC 143 this is his third to last fight up to this point February 4th of 2012 I had just started at Sirius XM at this time. I remember exactly talking about this fight. It was for

the interim multi-weight championship. Diaz was, excuse me, I should say St. Pierre was supposed to fight, I believe Diaz. St. Pierre got injured, so Condit was a bit of a replacement, or Condit was supposed to fight Kostchek on that card. When did Diaz not go to the press conference, not show up for the press conference and lose his title shot altogether? Was it before this fight or after? I think it's after this fight. I'm not sure entirely. But the point being is for this one, they ended up as kind of a late replacement situation.

So there was an interim title up for grabs. Now, this fight is kind of interesting, BC, because when they put it together, the matchmakers had to think, wait, you got a guy in Diaz who's not far off the BJ Penn and Paul Daly fights. If anyone is going to come forward and fight, it's going to be him, and he did. And on the other side, you have Condit, who was a pretty fucking hot prospect,

or I should say contender at this point, heading into the contest. Dude, we thought it was going to be two colliding bulls, and it wasn't. For five rounds, Nick Diaz walked forward, and Condit used the KJ Noon's one game plan, stick and move, stick and move, and he did it to capture the interim belt. So the best part about this fight were the last five minutes before the fight started because you thought this was going to be a five-round freaking war. And Luke, to amend the timeline real quick, after Diaz beat BJ Penn, Carlos Condit was announced, as you said, to fight for the title against GSP. GSP pulled out with a knee injury.

When GSP was healthy again, they put Diaz into that spot, Luke, and that's when Diaz skipped the press conference, didn't get it. So then Diaz faces Condon, and Luke, the death stare that Nick has in the prep point area was harrowing upon watching it back. You're like, this is going to be a war. And when they went head-to-head during the referee's instructions, how could you not think that this was going to be the greatest fight of all time? Do you remember that feeling? I do. I forgot about that face-off.

I thought it was going to be mayhem. So what in the end was it? Condit's game plan was to circle away and make it hard. Was it the fact that he never committed to taking Nick's bait? Is that what prevented the fight from being entertaining and allowing him to win, and just Nick never got emotionally invested in it? Something was off. You wonder what's going on in Nick's personal life.

You wish you could tell that story a little bit better along with this, because Nick's not the same guy anymore. So a couple things happened with this fight. I mean, part of it is that everyone thought Condit was going to fight differently than he did. He got criticized for it, by the way, pretty extensively. But he had Greg Jackson in his corner at the time, and the belief was that this was Condit's best chance to win,

that if Condit went in there and brawled with Nick Diaz, maybe he could win, but it would be a lot harder, even though lateral movement for five rounds could be a lot as well. In any case, here's what happens after. You get test positive for marijuana for like the billionth time Nick Diaz does. And more importantly, he kind of retires from MMA at this point. He says, I just don't want to play this game anymore. I don't want to do this fucking bullshit anymore.

And he kind of says, I'm out. And so he, this is the only fight he has in 2012. So he just sort of sits around until his matters are resolved. And we now go to March 16th of 2013 when they gave him a fucking title shot off the loss to Carlos Condit

due to a variety of different circumstances. Well, he was suspended for a full year and fined 30% of his purse. UFC 158. He was originally going to be linked to a rematch with Condit, and then they decided not to after the positive test, and he ends up getting the title shot.

And when he got the title shot, you remember thinking, like, he had already blown his chance the first time when he didn't show up to the press conference with GSP. Then he blew his chance by kind of not going for it against Condit and allowing the fight to play out that way. He didn't have another gear to change the fight. And it seemed he was

disinterested in this war altogether, but I remember being really excited because it's like this was the gangster character. Maybe he can go in there and upset the apple cart because this was, the GSP was not only coming off injury, but this was when we started to really get on GSP for being a decision fighter every single time now. As the grind is building up on him.

I thought this was a terrible fight for Nick Diaz, and I knew why they made it for big money, because Nick had grown into an interesting threat that fans just adored at this point. But remember, we're living in a world where Shirk, Sanchez, to an extent Riggs, and others had burned through Diaz's guard. You knew it could be done. And remember, St. Pierre had already beaten BJ Penn twice.

In fact, Penn couldn't even get out of the fight with his normal time frame the second time they fought. Dude, I knew this was going to go bad. And in any case, it did. It was a fucking boring fight. It sucked. I thought, didn't he have one moment? I tried to find it in re-watching it. Not really. I thought in real time he have one moment? I tried to find it in re-watching it. Not really.

I thought in real time he had one punch in trash talk, recall, but he didn't even get, like, Condon had a moment against GSP. Condon had a moment. He had the head kick, and you're like, oh, my God, but the moment was fleeting. He had no moment here. And the fight was boring, to your point,

and it sucked, and GSP slammed. GSP was too careful and too good. But yet he picked up and slammed the shit out of him, too. So GSP and GSP ways sort of suck that same entertainment out of it to minimize the danger and win it. And I remember thinking at that point, I got sucked into this fight thinking Nick could gangster his way into having a chance at upsetting.

He's done. Now, I didn't think done for would only fight once more, but I remember thinking, I don't think he has the want anymore. He's only, what, 30 at this point? I don't think he has the want. But remember's only, what, 30 at this point? I don't think he has the want. Remember, there's one common thread between the Condit fight and the St. Pierre fight, which is and it completely

supported the Nick Diaz legend that St. Pierre didn't want any parts of Nick so he was going to wrestle him, and Carlos Condit didn't want any parts of him, so he was going to just sort of stick and move. It serviced the Nick Diaz truthers out there, or supporters, whatever you want to call them, who believe that

if you want to fight Nick, you've got to face him head-on. Like, Daly lost, but Daly fought Nick the way you're supposed to fight Nick. Those two guys didn't want to fight him. It means they were afraid. So, like, in the end, Diaz really won the mind game. Jorge, you pulled out, so I beat you. It's that whole Diaz mindset of I beat you in that way. But here's what's crazy as we

head into the final fight here. I was criticizing the younger Diaz for being too willing to get into wars and taking on damage when maybe he didn't need to, yet that gave him a lot of times the best chance to win the fights and grow a legend. And then these final few fights, Condit, GSP, and now Anderson Silva, I'm criticizing him for just not being mentally into it and not trying to get it into a war.

So it is a catch-22, right? However, through all this time, did any of his fans leave him? No. No, if anything, it only grew his popularity. Because as we found out by what was nothing short of creative matchmaking and the final fight until this weekend that we've seen of Nick Diaz. Do you have the date there? January 31st, 2015.

I remember for the weigh-ins, they used to have fighters come out and do a Q&A with the crowd. Do you remember who the fighter was? No. Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor did the Q&A. I remember that. Wow, changing of the guard.

I sat next to Jordan Breen for that, and we were watching, and we were like, God damn, Conor McGregor's big as shit for 145. I remember thinking, this is a very fun, creative match, making it a great idea. I assumed it would be batshit weird. I didn't think to this level. Now watching it back the first round is fun

because you get Nick laying down trying to do anything to lure Anderson which was which is interesting because Anderson's that guy who normally is doing the

come forward to try to lure you into a trap. Nick's using the powers on him to Anderson's credit he never really took the bait and then the fight fell into that same pattern and it was shitty

and it was the third straight big fight all over again where Nick just doesn't want to do what it takes to make it a brawl but is it in his mind that he knows he's outgunned if he tries to that he's going to get countered he's going to get handled or does he just not want to anymore Luke what the heck was it for this guy not entirely certain I think he was burned out at this point but also he goes to another fight the third in a row or someone just didn't want to meet him on his terms. They wanted to meet him on terms that were winnable, but not the kind that were, again,

how you're supposed to fight Nick Diaz a la Paul Daly. I'm going to ask you a hard question. Is there an element of frontrunner in him? When he's getting Lawler with the tricks, he's having fun. When he's getting BJ Penn and being the guy coming on, but do we, we did see him rally against Paul Daly. I don't think he's a frontrunner. Never, because he did rally against Paul Daly. But I think he is disinterested in a certain kind of opponent and

it shows and and once he checks out he's out he's out that's right totally out and at this point he checks out from the sport we've all seen what will happen we live through it we have been he had the suspension after this he failed again for marijuana and there's a whole thing and then also what do you get a five-year suspension at first? They tried. They tried. And then, remember, also, this is the fight where Anderson Silva wins, but the result is overturned because he had his own anti-doping issues. The whole thing was a bit of a mess. We have not seen Nick Diaz since dot, dot, dot until Saturday. He returns to the scene of the crime, so to speak, and he takes on what we have called,

and I believe we... I think... I don't want to speak for you, but I think that is the foundational first most important fight in his career. He has come full circle, Brian Campbell. 17 years later, and as much as you didn't want this episode to go long, we had too many great fights to look back on. It's a fun, wild ride that we took to get here. He's a special fighter.

Nobody else, not even his brother, although it's close, nobody else has that same unique legacy that Nick Diaz does. You can see why he has an anti-authority attitude. You can see why the fans love him. You can see what he built his name off of, what ladder he climbed, and how he did it, and he did it very much his own way, whether he won or whether he lost. He did both of them in some cases quite spectacularly.

I exit this saying I never say that Nick is one of my favorite fighters. After this, of course he is. Of course he is. Of course he is. Of course he is. He's everything you want. He made him and his brother and lots of people, but if you think of individual fighter careers that just made MMA much more interesting,

you have to put Nick Diaz on the short list. He's the coolest fighter of all time. He's cooler than Conor McGregor. He's the coolest fighter of all time without freaking question. This is what he did on the resume, on the cage. This is his cage resume. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. Thumbs up

on the video. Hit subscribe. Enjoy UFC 266. If we cursed him, I'm sorry, but there's really no such thing, so I'm not that sorry. Sorry, not sorry. In any case, in any case, we'll be back after the fights for plenty of analysis, but we hope you enjoyed this resume review. Until next time, stay frosty.