When Nick Diaz left the UFC in March 2013, it was after a disappointing loss to Georges St-Pierre. At the time, the welterweight said that he would only return to fight GSP again or would take a superfight against Anderson Silva.
While no one thought that would be possible or that the elder Diaz was in any kind of a position to make fight demands, it appears that due to many different circumstances… Diaz got his wish. These included marquee UFC names all not being able to compete. Chael Sonnen was suspended. Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Chris Weidman, Cain Velasquez, Alexander Gustafsson and Jon Jones all suffered injuries and this allowed for Diaz’s drawing power to shine. The result was that Dana White had little choice but to book the brash fighter into exact match he wanted.
“I mean, I wasn’t going to walk out of there with something I wasn’t happy with,” Diaz said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “So I just, you know, I was able to score a deal I can’t refuse. That’s how I look at it.
“I look back and think about why did I take one of these, you know, mediocre level opponents or fights, or something like that. I could see myself going, I didn’t need to do that, I didn’t need to go there. I’m not fanatical or in love with being an MMA fighter. It’s just, I’m the right guy for the job nowadays. Pretty much after my first couple pro fights I wound up being the right guy for the job, so that’s why I’m still here, and I’ll fight the right fights if I have the opportunity.”
Now Diaz is set to take on a returning Anderson Silva on January 31 at UFC 183.
“It’s not like I’m going to have to lose weight to make 185,” Diaz said. “It’s not going to be (something) I’m overly concerned about, especially in this fight, I think, because my opponent is not one of these big, strong guys who like to get through a fight by being strong, so that really doesn’t come into play.
“The reach, you could say okay, reach may come into play, but neither of us are getting any taller or shorter for this fight, so there’s nothing I can really do about size when it comes to this fight, other than coming in as strong and healthy as I can.”
