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What’s next for Nick Diaz?
This sport can be described as No Country for Old Men, and for the most part it is true. There are outliers of course, take for example the man he fought last night. Robbie Lawler had apparently lost the fire in his eyes, but when given an opportunity to avenge a loss that goes back to 2004 we were once again reminded why he is known as Ruthless.
But Nick Diaz was made old before his time by unfair sentence handed down to him by, the NSAC made him wait and by extension gave him peace. As we all know, without a purpose you lose your oar and become adrift, with no shore in sight. I can only guess, with pieces of Nick’s life shared on Instagram that this is where the sentence took him.
When the old samurai returned to his familiar home, one of the only venues that he understood, he found that that peace had cost him his strength. Nick Diaz is well loved by the fans, one of his lures is his honesty. For someone who hates the limelight and the almost mechanical ceremony of Fight Week, he never gave a cookie cutter answer to anything. If he was afraid, or uncomfortable, or frustrated he would let the wolrd know.
He’ll tell you the truth, and in away Diaz/ Lawler II reflected the ugly truth. Nick Diaz has forgotten more than most of us will ever even learn about this sport. It gave me flashbacks of Evan Tanner’s return to fighting after his two year hiatus. Tanner had been battling demons and did not keep up with his training, when he returned to competition the theory was there. Tanner had a masterful understanding of the game, but the psychical abuse his body had taken from alcohol was evident.
There’s an old saying “where the mind goes the body follows” and that can be true for a lot of sports, but not MMA if there is not a good baseline. Maybe it was the time off, the toll of partying, or the lack of interest (he was confused about how the Lawler rematch even came to be).
We saw the boxing knowledge and the classic Diaz output, but we did not see the dog. He spoke of teaching young up and comers, it is a great profession to do but it requires a degree of civility that might be counterproductive for a fight.
When Robbie found that sweet spot on the bridge of the nose Diaz had seen enough. He has weathered worse storms back in the day, but without a reason to wade into the fire Diaz called it a day. To borrow a quote from Nietzsche “A man who has a why can bare almost any how.” Maybe his why is in teaching, maybe it still in fighting for the belt which is why all he requests is title fights.
What’s are Nick Diaz’s options?
It seems that old guard would be the best option for Diaz, I was going to suggest Carlos Condit but he recently retired.
I’d say Donald Cerrone is the first matchup that really jumps out, as both are legends. Cerrone is a man with many feathers in his cap but has only fought one Diaz brother so far. A perfect fight for both, with the Samurai and Cowboy riding off into the sunset together.
Matt Brown is another one, a scrappy fighter that is a veteran like Diaz. It could be a barnburner for sure, Brown is riding a two fight win streak at the moment but might sign on the line to fight a legend.
I just think at this rate, the UFC won’t catapult Diaz into a title fight with Kamaru Usman. He can still mix it in with the fighters of his generation and find success. It would have been nice to get that Hollywood blockbuster return, but the fight game keeps it real.
After months of speculation, the UFC have confirmed that UFC 304 will be heading to Manchester’s brand-new Co-Op Live arena on Saturday July 27th.
No headliners have been announced, but the event is expected to feature a double-header with both Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards (22-3 1NC) and Interim Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall (14-3) defending their gold, with the latter going as far as announcing he would be on the card. The organisation have confirmed that the event will be taking place at US primetime, with prelims kicking off at 11pm BST and the main card at 3am BST.
This will be the UFC’s return to Manchester for the first time since UFC 204 in October 2016, which saw Michael Bisping (30-9) defend his Middleweight Championship against longtime rival Dan Henderson (32-15), with Gegard Mousasi (49-9) defeating Vitor Belfort (26-14) in the co-main event. Current champ Edwards was on the card too, defeating Albert Tumenov (25-4) on the prelims.
Aspinall is looking to follow in the footsteps of Bisping and become the second hometown fighter to defend their belt in the city, having been born in Salford, and living and training in the Greater Manchester area. The expectation is that he will fight Curtis Blaydes (18-4) in a rematch of their July 2022 bout in which he suffered a catastrophic knee injury just fifteen seconds into the fight.
There is somewhat more uncertainty in regards to Edwards’ opponent, with him being offered and accepting three names for UFC 300. The most likely outcome seems to be a rematch with the #2 ranked Welterweight Belal Muhammad (23-3 1NC), who has proven himself more than deserving of what is a long-awaited shot, having gone ten fights unbeaten, including a no contest with Edwards.
Signed for the card is a featherweight bout between London’s Nathaniel Wood (19-6) and Daniel Pineda (28-15), as reported by Al Zullino, with a fight between ranked featherweights Arnold Allen (19-3) and Giga Chikadze (15-3) also reportedly in the works.
This will be the first MMA event at Co-Op Live, which was due to open yesterday, but delayed at the eleventh hour due to power supply issues. The current expectation is for the arena to open on Saturday with a concert by The Black Keys. It will be the largest indoor arena in the UK with a capacity up to 23,500 for concerts but it is unknown what this figure will be for combat sports. The venue is located at Etihad Campus, just a five minute walk from Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.
Tickets for the event will go on sale on June 7th. You can register your interest now here.
Multiple fights of significant importance will go down at ONE Fight Night 22: Sundell vs. Diachkova next week, and one of those is the featherweight MMA clash between Halil Amir and Akbar Abdullaev.
Both stars will bring an undefeated professional slate to Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium at the Saturday, 4th May event, meaning someone’s 0 will have to go.
Sitting proudly at 10-0, Amir’s “No Mercy” moniker couldn’t be more fitting. The Turkish powerhouse has racked up three wins since making his debut in ONE Championship in 2022, with two of those coming by knockout.
Halil Amir kicked off his promotional tenure by steamrolling former World Title challenger Timofey Nastyukhin inside two rounds and followed that up by stopping the momentum of fellow rising talent Maurice Abevi via decision in April 2023.
“No Mercy’s” name was already on many fans’ minds after those back-to-back victories, but his next fight would solidify him as one to watch.
The 29-year-old returned at ONE Fight Night 16 last November and earned his quickest finish yet by knocking out Pakistani punisher Ahmed Mujtaba in the first round. Now undoubtedly knocking on the door of the featherweight MMA rankings, Amir will be looking to keep his hype train going against Abdullaev next Saturday.
However, that will be a lot easier said than done, considering the caliber of the Krygz star’s skill set. Abdullaev also boasts a 10-0 professional record, and he will be hunting his third straight finish in ONE Championship next month.
“Bakal” has yet to go the distance in his career, with nine knockouts and a submission comprising his slate so far.
Abdullaev debuted in ONE at ONE Fight Night 8 in March 2023, where he dispatched South Korean scrapper Oh Ho Taek inside the opening frame.
The 26-year-old striker returned four months later at ONE Fight Night 12 and handed Aaron Canarte the first loss of his career, ending the Ecuadorian’s streak of 10 wins with another first-round demolition job.
Their respective recent histories would suggest that Abdullaev will come out on top at ONE Fight Night 22, given that he easily held his own against a previously unbeaten star. But there is little doubt Amir’s stoic style will cause him problems, so their clash should be a firefight with the potential of stealing the show when it does down on 4th May.
“The Iron Man’s” next fight in ONE Championship is confirmed, and it’ll be under kickboxing rules.
For the first time since January 2023, ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon will lace up the big gloves for a battle with Denis Puric at ONE 167: Stamp vs. Zamboanga on Saturday, 8th June, inside Bangkok, Thailand’s Impact Arena.
Rodtang last competed at ONE Friday Fights 34 in September, where he suffered his first promotional loss in ONE’s striking ranks in a Muay Thai super-fight with flyweight kickboxing king Superlek Kiatmoo9.
Fortunately for the legendary Thai, his gold wasn’t up for grabs that evening as Superlek missed weight. But the pair delivered an iconic clash that rocked the combat sports world nonetheless, with Rodtang missing out by unanimous decision.
“The Iron Man” has been sidelined with a hand injury since then, and he was forced to pull out of his highly anticipated match with Takeru Segawa in his backyard in Tokyo earlier this year as a result.
However, all looks well for him to return in June, and fans are excited to see Puric get the dream fight he’s always wanted.
“The Bosnian Menace” has been amassing momentum in ONE Championship recently.
After quashing Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat’s comeback in December 2023, he scored a dynamic victory over former #2-ranked flyweight Muay Thai contender Jacob Smith at last month’s ONE Fight Night 21 to usurp the Brit’s position.
All the while, Puric has been calling out Rodtang and claiming that he would face him in any discipline.
Now, he gets his wish, and it will be fascinating to see how his never-back-down approach fares against the aggression of “The Iron Man” at ONE 167 on 8th June.
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