Nick Diaz’s behavior following his loss to Georges St. Pierre at UFC 158 has been somewhat predictable. Following a fairly lopsided loss, Diaz once again decided that he should retire. He also spoke in the cage following his loss and at the press conference, saying he didn’t want to make excuses, followed by making a list of excuses.
That kind of behavior is expected from Diaz.
What isn’t, however, is Nick announcing to the world at the press conference that he’s never paid taxes.Here’s the quote from our transcript of the post fight presser:
Media Member: “If you don’t retire and you do stay with this, it sounds like not being fully happy with your team, where you’re at, and if you did stay with this, what would you do? Would you change teams, would you…”
Diaz: “No, I can’t be jumpin’ teams. I just have to invest a little more…you know, now that I have a little bit more…you know, I’ve never paid taxes in my life, I’m probably gonna go to jail. (media laughs) That’s not because I don’t have, that’s not because – what, nobody wants to hear about that, nobody wants to hear about that kind of talk, or what’s really going on with me. But I might as well just be a kid, you know, I’ve had fight after fight after fight after fight, you know. You don’t know what that does to someone who didn’t graduate high school. You don’t understand. Everyone has to take that – well, nobody has to do shit, but you can take that into consideration for a second, think about what three fights a year will do to you your whole life. And the only time you have some time off is, like a vacation, everyone’s telling you you’re this piece of shit, suspended, you know, you ain’t fightin’ this guy, you ain’t fightin’ that guy. You’re gonna come back and have to dance around with a bunch of hard-hitting people. It’s just not…it’s just…it’s a rough sport.”
ESPN had some thoughts from Dana White on the situation:
“At the end of the day, Nick has been in the sport forever. He wanted a shot at the title, he got a shot at the title and he got paid a lot of money for it. What’s sad is he better go pay those taxes, a soon as he gets that check.”
White said he may speak to Diaz’s lawyer to see if he can help.
Here are a list of Diaz’s disclosed payouts since 2011:
- vs. Carlos Condit at UFC 143 – $200,000
- vs. B.J. Penn at UFC 137 – $200,000 + $75,000 fight of the night bonus
- vs. Paul Daley at Strikeforce – $175,000
- vs. Cyborg Santos at Strikeforce – $150,000
That’s right around $800,000 just in disclosed pay, not counting this weekend’s bouts. If Diaz truly has not paid taxes on any of that money, he could be in a world of trouble.
The IRS is also very consistent about going after people who challenge them publicly, so if he hasn’t paid, he’s almost certainly going to get caught now.
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