BEHIND THE SCENES MMA ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
05/16/2012
Nick Diaz No-Shows Estima & The World Jiu-Jitsu Expo
By Christopher “sLapDatSuCKa” Jester
It is not uncommon in the sports world to see prima donnas and bad boys. Each sport is filled with athletes who carry themselves as mega superstars or see themselves untouchable on a near demi-god status. Every sport has them; now so does mixed martial arts.
Nick Diaz has quickly placed himself in a precarious situation. Now every time the name Nick Diaz is thrown around and an organization becomes interested, he will have quite some notorious side notes in his resume: he is infamous for no-shows.
This past Saturday night, Nick Diaz was scheduled to face Braulio Estima in a jui-jitsu match at the World Jui-Jitsu expo. The fight was to be an exhibition match where Nick Diaz was going to donate his purse to St. Jude Children’s Hospital’s charity. The fans streamed the fight for $9.95 – $12.95 and in the end, Braulio Estima was there, and Nick Diaz was not. It left Estima without an opponent, and it left the fans disappointed.
“I’m here now. You let everyone down, let me down,” said Braulio Estima, and went on to say, “I think it is very disrespectful. I did not expect that from him.” Seriously, Estima? You did not expect that from Nick Diaz?
This sort of thing is not new for Nick Diaz. Prior to his scheduled fight against Georges St. Pierre, he missed several press conferences which resulted in him not getting his opportunity to fight for the Welterweight championship against GSP. After defeating B.J. Penn, he would face Carlos Condit for the Interim UFC Welterweight championship but would fall short in a decision loss in that bout. But he would later test positive for marijuana metabolites, and would be suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
He had already been suspended once before by the NSAC for marijuana use after his fight with Takanori Gomi back in 2007. Add these incidents with such occurrences as the Nashville Brawl and many will notice Nick Diaz has a serious amount of red on his ledger.
But what makes Nick Diaz so intriguing is not just because of his talent and his attitude. It’s his fans. He has a near cult following of fans where Nick Diaz can do no wrong. In the UFC and Georges St. Pierre situation, his fans raved that just because he missed a couple of press conferences, the UFC screwed Nick Diaz over and that GSP should have told the UFC brass that he still wanted to fight Nick Diaz no matter what. This sort of fandom makes Nick Diaz the polarizing figure that he is. Fans love to see him fight, but his irresponsible decisions surely make a lot of organizations who may want to work with him scratch their heads and ponder what sort of situation they will get in if they want to work with Diaz.
So it should come to no surprise when we hear these things about Nick Diaz. It should almost be expected to find out that he’s a no show for scheduled events, or that perhaps he’ll fail his drug tests. At least this is the picture that he’s painting his career in. Without a doubt, he’s one of the most talented fighters in multiple sports, but will his behavior catch up to him now following this past Saturday night’s shenanigans? Will there now be a sticky note on Diaz’s file that says ‘notorious for no-shows’? Once the smoke settles, it will be quite interesting to see how everything works out for Diaz, and whether or not the fans will still line up to see him despite knowing all of the possible and somewhat likely disappointments that could follow.
**Update – Diaz’s coach Cesar Gracie issued the following statement:
“Nick boarded a plane on Friday for Long Beach having cut 6 pounds for the weigh in that night. On his way there I got a call from Junior telling me Braulio would not be making weight! ‘Cesar Braulio is complaining about the weight cut. Can we have him weigh in tomorrow? He can’t make the weight tonight how about 185 in the morning?’
“Nick arrives in Long Beach to the news that there will be no weigh ins that night. As a professional with over 30 fights this was the final straw. The disrespect and total lack of professionalism given him convinced him he was at a circus not a professional event.
“At 3:20 in the morning I received a text from Junior that Braulio would in fact make the 180lbs weight class at 10:00AM. With no other option available I said fine I’ll check with Nick in the morning. At 10:00AM Braulio did weigh in at 180lbs but by that time Nick had already left.”
Follow Christopher “sLapDatSuCKa” Jester on Twitter @sLapDatSuCka
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