Nick Diaz is making a return to the Octagon after spending six years away, but maybe he chose the wrong comeback fight.
Nick Diaz is making a comeback to fighting. He has been out of the game for six years but is returning in style at the mega UFC 266 event this coming Saturday night. Diaz will be facing off against a former foe, Robbie Lawler. These two fought each other back in 2004 with Diaz walking away as the winner.
Now, years later the rematch is set but maybe it isn’t the right matchup for Diaz’s return. The 38-year-old spoke to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto about how he feels facing Lawler again after so many years.
“Do I feel confident? I never do,” Diaz explained. “I never have. I always feel like I’m gonna get trashed out there. Every fight I’ve ever done. So, ‘Oh, how do you feel against Robbie Lawler? How do you feel?’ I feel like I’m gonna get the [MUTED] beat out of me. And even when I win, I get beat up worse.”
Just a few days out from this scheduled fight, Diaz asked the UFC and Lawler to move the bout from welterweight to middleweight. Although not optimal, Lawler agreed. Now in this ESPN interview, the doubts Diaz has with this fight altogether have come to light. Despite these doubts, when asked if Diaz believes himself to be the best fighter in the world, he gladly responds.
“Yes, I do believe that,” Diaz said. “I do believe that. Like, who do you have, Usman? I think I’d beat the [MUTED] out of Usman. I’ve got a better shot at beating Usman than I do Lawler just because I already beat Lawler. This doesn’t make sense for me to go in there and fight Robbie Lawler again.
I don’t know why I’m doing this. 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 happened. I should be fighting Kamaru Usman, and that’s it.”
Diaz vs. Lawler will go down on the main card of UFC 266 Saturday, Sept. 25 live from Las Vegas.
Does this kind of talk from Nick Diaz so close to his UFC return worry you as a fan?
