Nick Diaz: And then the harder they come
“Every other fighter has a life on the side. I’ve never had another job. I didn’t graduate eighth grade. I could have, but I got into too many fights in middle school.”
“You cannot be a fight fan and not love Nick Diaz.”
-Conor McGregor
The slogan of the UFC is “As Real As It Gets” but it’s not. There are for example endless contrived feuds to put asses in seats. Nick Diaz however is as real as it gets. That is why he is uniquely loved by fans.
In a travesty of justice Diaz has been suspended for five years for the use of marijuana. Shortly afterwards he spoke with Ariel Helwani, and spoke deep from the heart.
I’m the only one who’s invested in a fight life. That’s why none of these other guys can ever say s—. They’re too worried about what their families and their wives and the people around them will think, so they’re too scared to speak up. That’s why I invested everything in my fight life. That’s why I come off the way I do and always have.
Every other fighter has a life on the side. I’ve never had another job. I didn’t graduate eighth grade. I could have, but I got into too many fights in middle school.
My mom and dad taught me nothing but ABCs. I was moved from school to school, put on drugs and made fun of by classmates because after being disruptive in class the teachers would always tell the other kids I was on meds and sometimes don’t take them.
That’s f—ed up. You don’t know what that does to someone. I wanted to beat up everyone in class, even the girls who would say some thing like, ‘What’s wrong? You didn’t take your medication?’
I had to get inter-district agreements to stay in the same school because my mom would lose her house and I’d have to move in with my grandparents in Lodi.
You know what it’s like move into a preppy Lodi school after being in a ghetto Stockton school with black and Asian kids?
Then on July 5, 2000, his high school girlfriend told Nick she loved him, and later in the day took her own life.
I would run seven miles and back to her grave just to promise her I would make it as a fighter like she knew and had told me she knew and was proud of me.
So this sport and this commission have done everything to stop me from being in the position that I belong. That’s the only reason why I haven’t stayed in that position and come off as the fighter and person that I know I am and can be.
I’m the original Conor McGregor. I’m the original model of Conor McGregor. He wouldn’t be who he is if it wasn’t for me. Nothing against him. I’m the original real deal. I never did steroids in my entire life. I had to learn how to fight the real way and the right way. That’s way I’m the best fighter in the entire world.
But in the end, I’m just upset I can’t be there for my brother right now since he’s gonna be fighting soon. It’s my bad he even got into this sport and he gets his face kicked in and they don’t even pay him.
I got us in this, and if I don’t make any money, I don’t have anyway to get us out.
