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#4. Nick Diaz tells KJ Noons "don't be scared" before starting a brawl
KJ Noons and Nick Diaz met for the inaugural Elite XC lightweight championship in 2007. With Noons dominating Diaz with his striking and opening a cut on his face, the fight was stopped by the cage-side doctor, handing the Stockton-native a TKO loss. Seven months later, the two men found each other in the same building once again during Elite XC’s Return of the King event in Honolulu, Hawaii.
After defeating Muhsin Corbbrey on the undercard, Nick Diaz went for a chat with KJ Noons, who had defended his title against Yves Edwards moments earlier. Diaz entered the cage to challenge Noons for a rematch. With KJ Noons and the Hawaiian crowd all against the idea, Nick Diaz went a step ahead and told Noons:
"Don’t be scared, homie!"
Suddenly, Noons' father attacked Diaz, and all hell broke loose. Nick Diaz, along with his brother Nate, got into a full-fledged brawl with the Noons, and had to be separated by the officials and referees. They exited the arena with Nick Diaz flipping his middle finger to the booing crowd, and Nate Diaz following suit.
The event proved why Nick Diaz was the bad guy of the MMA community, with the announcer saying:
"Nick Diaz... again living up to his reputation as the bad boy in mixed martial arts. The Diaz brothers, public enemies no.1 in Hawaii."
Watch the incident below:
#3. Nick Diaz accused UFC president Dana White & Georges St-Pierre of selling fans "wolf tickets"
The UFC has figured out several ways to build fights and sell tickets to fans to create blockbuster MMA events. While that is the truth of the trade, Nick Diaz was perhaps the first UFC fighter to question the tactic and blast the UFC right in front of Dana White and the media.
Ahead of UFC 158, Nick Diaz called out Georges St-Pierre and UFC president Dana White for painting the former as a villain. It was one of the biggest instances of Nick Diaz being his true self.
According to Nick Diaz, the UFC was creating a rhetoric of Pierre vs Diaz as "good vs evil" to sell tickets of the mega event in Canada. In a pre-fight press conference, Diaz slammed St-Pierre, Dana White and the UFC. He said:
"You (St. Pierre) told the fans that I deserve to get beat down, that I chased you around. I got the fight, right? I'm working towards something, everybody knows that. Sorry I had to (say you were scared) to get the fight. They're selling you (fans and media) all wolf tickets people, you're eating them right up. Georges here is selling wolf tickets. Dana here is selling wolf tickets. The UFC is selling wolf tickets. You guys are eating them right up."
Apart from being a legend of the sport, St-Pierre is also known to be a successful businessman. He did admit later that some of his incendiary comments were used to promote the fight.
