UFC: Why I Don’t Understand Nick & Nate Diaz

By Steve Juon, WrestlingObserver.com

Here’s what I DON’T get about the Diaz brothers. I know that their ascendance in popularity over the last decade is owed largely to them being surly malcontents who don’t say or do the right things when the spotlight is shone on them. I get why people who feel like outsiders themselves would embrace that, cling to that, and feel that the Diaz brothers are their champions and that everybody else “just doesn’t get it.” They are outsiders who refuse to play by mainstream rules who bow to no one.

The problem for me is the same problem I have with Ric Flair “living the gimmick”. After years of failed relationships and unpaid bar tabs and a life of constant turbulence, wouldn’t you +WANT+ to stop being a rebel? What kind of effect does it have on your psyche to willingly choose a life where you live from one court date to the next and get banned from buildings and promotions everywhere you go? Why on earth would you crave such discord and disharmony for yourself?

Everybody loves a trainwreck. They’ll happily proclaim themselves a “fan” and cheer you on as you descend slowly or quickly into the abyss, but they won’t be there to pull you up when you finally hit rock bottom. If I was as talented as Nick or Nate Diaz, and had the kind of opportunities that are literally handed to them on a silver platter, I wouldn’t keep pissing them away just to keep up the image of being a bad boy. It’s overrated, self-destructive, and it’s honestly disrespectful to everybody in the sport that they compete in to behave like goons at major events.

You’d at least not want to make your friends and training partners not come off like lunatics, instead of them having to jump in and save you when you start a wild brawl at a show. That’s potentially ruining other people’s lives with fines, sanctions and suspension – not just your own.

Maybe it’s a sign that I’m getting old, or maybe it’s a sign that I’m maturing as I age, but I don’t crave a wild life any more. An exciting day for me is trying to interview three fighters in 24 hours, or cover two shows in one night, or taking a road trip to a show where I’m credentialed to sit cageside and cover the fights. I’ve made my share of mistakes over the years, I’ve partied too hard and had to pay the price (I nearly got kicked out of college over it) but at some point you either look at the yawning abyss that looms ahead and turn away, or you hit the accelerator and drive toward it at top speed.

Maybe the Diaz brothers wouldn’t be popular or successful if they weren’t such colossally self-destructive human beings, but is fame and popularity now worth it when you’re broke and in jail (or worse) in five years? I’d personally trade being a little less famous for sleeping in my own bed at night and not a cot in a 6×8.

For all of the success they’ve each achieved in mixed martial arts, based on both natural talent and the hard work to cultivate it, it’s hard to believe they couldn’t have achieved so much more. Nick has been a WEC and a Strikeforce Welterweight Champion – maybe he could have been a UFC one too. Nate Diaz won season five of The Ultimate Fighter and has had multiple Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses since – as well as a wealth of inconsistency in his performances. Imagine a two year stretch of their career without suspensions, crowd brawls, DUI arrests or failed drug tests.

Imagine what they could accomplish with two solid years of total dedication to their craft.

Now resign yourself to the fact that’s never going to happen, because whatever “happy” is to a Diaz, they’re happier pissing it all away than actually living a drama-free life. It’s a shame to see so much potential wasted, but it’s also a shame they don’t just get on with the wasting instead of making us sit and watch the trainwreck month after month, year after year.