Nick Diaz ‘Didn’t Train at All’ Ahead of his UFC 266 Clash with Robbie Lawler: ‘He Was Pressured Into That Fight’

Diaz did zero training in the five years before his 2021 return against Lawler.

Nick Diaz
Courtesy of @UFCNews on X

Nick Diaz will return to the Octagon on August 8 for a clash with No. 13 ranked welterweight contender Vicente Luque in Abu Dhabi. Hopefully, he’ll have a bit more training for this fight than he had ahead of his scrap with Robbie Lawler. 

Diaz competed for the first time in more than seven years at UFC 266, squaring off with the former welterweight king at UFC 266. Unfortunately, Diaz’s performance left a lot to be desired. After getting sufficiently pummeled for two full rounds, Diaz finally had enough, verbally submitting 44 seconds into the third. 

Fans were immediately critical of Diaz’s performance with many suggesting that he had done very little training for the fight. As it turns out, he didn’t do any. 

“He didn’t train at all for the Lawler fight.” Jake Shields revealed on the JAXXON Podcast while talking about Diaz’s fight with Lawler. “That fight shouldn’t have happened in my opinion. Not going to get into too many details, but I wasn’t too happy. I think he was kind of pressured into that, so people could make money.”

He continued, “The fact that he fought Robbie Lawler with zero training in five years, I was freaked out watching that. But, he put on a war. He lost, but he went two rounds… I know he’s training, I can’t say how hard but I know he’s actually training now. Hopefully, I’ll get out there next week and push him.”

https://x.com/mmamania/status/1814050463924265453

Nick Diaz Hasn’t Won a Fight Since 2011

Making his Octagon debut at UFC 44, Nick Diaz earned wins over the likes of Jeremy Jackson, Robbie Lawler, Drew Fickett, Koji Oishi, Josh Neer, and Gleison Tibau.
 
After five years with the organization, Diaz walked away and eventually found a spot on the Strikeforce roster where he added a few more W’s to his resume against Frank Shamrock, KJ Noons, Evangelista Santos, and Paul Daley. 
 
He eventually returned to the UFC in 2011 but was never able to find that same success, losing his last four against Carlos Condit, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and the aforementioned Lawler—though his loss against ‘The Spider’ was overturned after Silva tested positive for a banned substance. 
 
Diaz hasn’t seen his hand raised since a 2011 win over BJ Penn
 
As it stands, Diaz is a massive underdog going into his fight with Luque with him sitting at +335 while ‘The Silent Assassin’ is a big -435 favorite. That means to win $100 betting on Luque, you would have to risk $435. But if Diaz pulls off the upset, a $100 bet on him would pay out $335. 
 
Watch the full episode below:
 
Published on July 19, 2024 at 11:39 am
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