Nick Diaz: ‘I could definitely do a five round fight right now’

The general of the army is set to return, Nick Diaz will come back after six years to rematch Robbie Lawlor. The pair first met at UFC 47 back in 2004, with Diaz delivering a highlight reel knockout. Both men have had interesting career trajectories since then.

Nick Diaz sat down with Brett Okamoto at ESPN to give an interview in the lead up to the fight this Saturday. He says he is physically and mentally ready to get in there but at the same time fighting still sucks for Nick Diaz.

This is not enjoyable. This whole thing is for everybody else. I’m glad that the fans are happy, and that they love [what I’m doing] and that’s just what gets them going. It got me going when I was a kid. Five months in, I was like, ‘In five months I’m going to be good,’ and in five months I was good. Then, ‘After I make 5-0, I’m going to be so good,’ and I didn’t even make it to 5-0, and then I had to go back for more. After that, it was just no way out.

“I see the kids, I try to tell them, are you sure you want to do this, kid? I like to teach and train and be a part of the sport. I’ve got a few fights left, and if I can survive that and keep the ball rolling a little bit, it’s probably a better option than not fighting.”

Diaz loves endurance, and competes in triathlons even when not preparing for a fight. But no matter how far he runs, how many miles he puts in on his bike, all roads lead back to fighting. Time is a flat circle for the Stockton native.

“I never enjoyed fighting. It’s just something that I do. It’s just what I do. I tried to get away from it, but really it’s kind of inevitable. It is. All the people around me and all the money and sponsors, they won’t let me get away from fighting. There’s things I could do, but it’s not going to work out. I might as well just go and take my punches.

“I don’t want to look back and say, ‘Why did I not just do it?’ I feel great to fight, I don’t feel great about everything. But if I don’t do this, I don’t know how I’m going to feel about myself two years down the road if I’m sitting here going, ‘Why didn’t I just go and do these fights I would have won?’”

He wants the toughest fight out there, the Stockton son just can’t fathom the logic behind matching him up with Robbie Lawler again. Diaz wants a much bigger prize:

“I do believe that [I’m the best fighter in the world],” Diaz said. “I think I’ll beat the sh*t out of Usman. I’ve got a better shot of beating Usman than I do Lawler, just ‘cause I already beat Lawler. It doesn’t make sense for me to go in there and fight Robbie Lawler again.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. This should not happen. Whoever set this up is an idiot. I don’t know why I’m doing this. I don’t know why this is happening. I should be fighting Kamaru Usman and that’s it.”

There was whispers of a Khamzat Chimaev fight at once point, but that fizzled out months ago. This particular match up, which has been moved to Middleweight from Welterweight still has Nick Diaz scratching his head.

“I’m going to go in there and fight Robbie Lawler again, and he don’t deserve to get his ass whooped, and I know I’m going to beat the sh*t out of him and I don’t wanna. If I lose, I don’t want to lose to Robbie Lawler. I already beat him. That just sucks.”