Nick Diaz was dealt a shockingly harsh penalty by the Nevada Athletic Commission for failing another drug test for Marijuana. The polarizing UFC star was suspended for half a decade. That’s more severe than other PED abusers, and significantly higher than what they listed on their (already crazy) increased punishment scheme.
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His camp plans to appeal the suspension, but if it holds, Diaz will be out until he is at least 37-years-old. For a fighter who has an already lengthy career with 38 professional fights since he was 18, that’s basically a career ender.
After being faced with that reality, Diaz opened up for the first time and shared some intimate details about his childhood in a must-read interview with MMA Fighting.
Nick spoke about being on medication at such a young age, where he also had to deal with teachers and classmates who called him out or picked on him about the issue. The Stockton-native says he bounced around schools, and didn’t graduate eight grade because of this.
“That’s fucked up. You don’t know what that does to someone,” Diaz said. “I wanted to beat up everyone in class, even the girls who would say some thing like, ‘What’s wrong? You didn’t take your medication?'”
Diaz then went on to share a pivotal moment in his life, involving a loved one.
“Before I ever had my first pro fight, July 5, 2000, Bart had a party at his house. The night before, Stephanie had told me she loved me,” he shared. “An hour later I got a call from her mom saying, ‘Are you with Stephanie?’ She came straight to my house to get me, took me up and down the Frontage Road on Highway 99 by my Grandma’s house next to their trailer park.”
“There was a wreck on the freeway. I jumped the fence and saw only one car and ambulances.”
“She had walked and killed herself on the freeway. The girl I loved more than anything had tried to kill herself for the third time and succeeded.”
“After that, I was grown up. It was all over. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I won my first fight in the first round with a choke and all I could think about was her, just like when I was in school,” Diaz recalled. “I would run seven miles and back to her grave just to promise her I would make it as a fighter like she knew and had told me she knew and was proud of me.”
Since that day, Diaz says he never even had another job. All he had was fighting, and now the commission overreached and is taking it away from him.
“They suspended me for a third time. For five fucking years for something that makes the whole world a better place,” Diaz said. “But in the end, I’m just upset I can’t be there for my brother right now since he’s gonna be fighting soon. It’s my bad he even got into this sport and he gets his face kicked in and they don’t even pay him.”
“I got us in this, and if I don’t make any money, I don’t have any way to get us out.”
The heartbreaking full interview is well worth a read. Trust me.
Diaz obviously isn’t completely without fault, but this entire situation is cruel and unjust. Free Nick Diaz.
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