Shields: Nick Diaz was ‘pressured’ to take Lawler rematch, ‘snakes’ picked ‘money’ over ‘his health’

Through the build-up of his UFC 266 rematch with Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz repeatedly mentioned how it had been a stressful time for him.…

By: Milan Ordoñez | 2 years ago
Shields: Nick Diaz was ‘pressured’ to take Lawler rematch, ‘snakes’ picked ‘money’ over ‘his health’
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Through the build-up of his UFC 266 rematch with Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz repeatedly mentioned how it had been a stressful time for him. Part of it he attributed to the lengthy layoff, but he also had some issues with the matchmaking.

He spoke about it during a fight week sitdown with Brett Okamoto, and again with Daniel Cormier during the Octagon interview.

“I don’t know how this fight got set up,” Diaz said on the mic. “But I had a switch-up in my whole… the way that the fight got set up, it was just a bum rap.

“But, no excuses. I had it coming and he was in great shape. I knew I was leaking here so I didn’t want to make too much of a mess. I’m glad to be back, I’m glad to put on a little show for you.”

More questions arose when the matchup got bumped up to middleweight four days before fight night. None of them were answered, but a series of tweets from Diaz’s long-time training partner Jake Shields raised even more questions.

The former Strikeforce champion first tweeted this out.

When asked about it, here was his response.

Another fan prodded, but Shields kept it ambiguous.

Whatever happened to Diaz, only him, his team, and the UFC will know. He did put on a decent performance for someone returning from a six-year layoff but was unfortunately unable to get back up from a knockdown early in round three. It was Diaz’s third TKO loss as he drops to a record of 26-10 (with 2 NCs).

Lawler, on the other hand, broke a four-fight losing streak as he improves to a win-loss slate of 29-15 (with 1 NC).

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About the author
Milan Ordoñez
Milan Ordoñez

Milan Ordoñez has been covering combat sports since 2012 and has been part of the Bloody Elbow staff since 2016. He’s also competed in amateur mixed martial arts and submission grappling tournaments.

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