Following his bout against Anderson Silva, Nick Diaz briefly mentioned some misunderstandings with his long time boxing coach Richard Perez who wasn’t cornering him during UFC 183. Submission Radio caught up with Perez, and he gave his side of the story as he detailed the falling out between him and Nick.
According to Perez, a lot has to do with money issues as he dealt with Nick’s new manager:
“When he fought George St. Pierre – I didn’t get my percentage on the pay, and I don’t know what happened with the mix up with the manager and Nick. And then so he let the other manager go and he hired this other man named Lloyd [Pierson] as the new manager and they met [up at] my gym; and you know we renegotiated for the purse, and I asked for a contract and they said it was fine. That was in October. So then I started training Nick and I kept calling Lloyd and I wasn’t getting no contract. So I just felt like, you know I think it was around the 12th of January I decided I don’t want to do this anymore, because I don’t want to get burned. So I texted Lloyd and told him I’m not going to do this unless I get my contract like you promised me, and that’s what happened. They didn’t want to give me the contract so I felt like I didn’t want to get burned again. But I guess I did.”
“It’s sad because I brought him all the way up to the top, and this is what they talk about his, striking and he gets…this guy’s a legend and he gets a big pay, and then I’m being pushed aside. So you know, that’s what happened. So yeah I’m hurt about it. You know and it’s sad because you have a relationship with a guy, [you] teach him to do something that he doesn’t know, and you bring him to the top and he breaks the record for throwing the most punches; and all of a sudden I’m out.”
Perez did state that he hasn’t really spoken to Nick during this entire ordeal:
“I haven’t heard from either one of them. The manager or Nick. So yeah. It’s sad, it really is, you know because I’ve never had that problem before. Never. This is….I don’t know. It’s just upsetting, very upsetting. I was just saying it’s like I brought him up, you know? So it’s like I did everything for him. I put everything I know in boxing into him, so he could learn it and do it right. And so he broke the record in throwing the most punches, and then he broke HIS OWN record of throwing the most punches. So that’s what brought him up here, you know? I mean I know he has good jiu Jitsu. Nobody wants to go on the ground with him. So where is there left? The stand up.”
“I really don’t know what the problem is and what went through his mind or anything, but I texted both of em and let him know that I’m no longer gonna train him, sorry. And if I don’t get my contract – and I sent it to Nick too – I said “Nick the ball’s in your court. So it’s your decision”, and I told Lloyd that too. And the hardest part of it, you know training pros, is doing it with managers. [With] the fighters I never had a problem because they always talk to the managers and say “hey, pay Richard”. So it always went through, but this one it just didn’t work.”
He also states that the steroids, along with the absence of proper coaching affected his performance that night:
“Well this is what I figured; I almost had him where he wanted to be. We had like a week and a half to go left, and I was gonna go full force with him, but where I stopped, I felt like he would do fine. I knew he wasn’t going to throw a lot of punches. I knew that. But I figured he would catch Anderson Silva. But since Anderson Silva’s on steroids, it’s hard to knock people out when they’re on steroids. It’s hard to really wear ‘em down. But if I had of worked with him a little bit more that week and a half, I guarantee you he would’ve stopped him. If I would have been there coaching him, it would have made a big difference too.”
“[Silva] slowed down a lot. In this fight he slowed down a lot, and I don’t know if it was the steroids, or just the long layoff, delay. I don’t know. There’s three things, you can focus on those; and that’s the long layoff, the leg, and the steroids.”
“If he didn’t come in with steroids – even though Nick wasn’t throwing a lot of punches – Nick would have stopped him and I know it would have been different. Steroids make a big difference, steroids make a big difference.”
Listen to the full interview above where he also discusses the ‘night and day’ difference of Nick and Nate Diaz.
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