Nick Diaz might have spared the trash talking in the lead-up to his main-event fight at UFC 183: Silva vs. Diaz, but as soon as the cage door was closed, he was all himself again.
Especially in the first round, Diaz tried to get a rise out of Silva by repeatedly inviting him to hit, laying down on the ground, asking the Brazilian to dive into his guard and even turning his back and shaking his posterior.
He was just Diaz, as we know him.
The Diaz that is constantly moving forward, talking smack, getting in the face of his opponents. “Let’s go, come get you some,” he told Silva time and time again on Saturday. “I’m gonna talk my talk, I’m gonna walk my walk,” Diaz explained to Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview later. “I think we put on a great show.”
A show that Diaz clearly lost on points. On some scorecards, the Stockton native gave up every round. And while he held his own during the fight regardless, never looked outclassed, this has been Diaz’ third loss in a row. All against top-competition, but still: three in a row.
Diaz later reflected on his unfamiliar respectful behavior in the weeks before the fight and during fight week. No trash talking, no pushing and shoving at the weigh-ins, no expletives, no middle fingers – nothing. And he feels, that a different, more accustomed approach could have won him the fight.
“You see me out here, I didn’t try to intimidate this dude or anything like that leading up to the fight,” Diaz said. “Maybe that could have won me the fight. He stayed the hell away from me the first round when I came out and flipped the switch on.”
(Transcription taken from MMAFighting.com)
That’s the Diaz we’ve come to know and love. An it looks like when – or if – we see him fight again, that’s exactly the Diaz we will see.
About the author
