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Nick Diaz is one of the most polarizing, yet popular, figures in UFC history. The Stockton native will make his long-awaited return this weekend to face Robbie Lawler at UFC 266.
Despite only having 14 UFC fights under his belt, Nick Diaz has still been part of some of the most memorable moments in the promotion’s history. Across two stints with the UFC, Nick Diaz has faced some of the greatest fighters of all time. While he didn’t always win, he’s never been truly dominated in the octagon.
With his legendary abrasive personality meaning he’s never been far from controversy, Diaz remains one of the most talked about personalities in MMA.
So with that in mind, here are Nick Diaz’s five most memorable moments in the UFC.
#5. Nick Diaz vs. Diego Sanchez – UFC Ultimate Fighter II Finale
After debuting in the UFC in late 2003, Nick Diaz quickly established himself as one of the welterweight division’s top up and comers. Alongside other young guns like Georges St-Pierre and Karo Parisyan, Diaz looked set to usher in a new era at 170 pounds.
However, 2005 saw the advent of The Ultimate Fighter reality show, a series which made instant stars of newer fighters like Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck. Those new fighters immediately gained prominent spots on the UFC’s roster, which didn’t sit well with Nick Diaz at all.
Diaz began calling out Sanchez in particular, claiming that he was a fraud who hadn’t earned his spot with the UFC. And so the promotion, never looking to miss out on an instant feud, decided to book the two rivals against each other in the main event of the TUF 2 Finale.
Unsurprisingly, fireworks ensued even before the two men had a chance to step into the octagon. According to Sanchez, he received a number of abusive emails from Nick Diaz in the weeks building to the fight, something that Diaz has denied in recent years.
And more infamously, according to reports at the time, Diaz even hurled a shoe at ‘The Nightmare’ in the locker room during the event.
In the end, the two rivals put on not only one of the best fights of 2005, but one of the best grappling-based fights in UFC history, period. And although Sanchez came out on top, largely on the strength of his takedowns, Diaz busted his enemy open and had plenty of high points in the fight too.
Overall, the fight was the perfect representation of Diaz’s early UFC career. He may not have won, but he put on such a show that he came away looking like an even bigger star than before.
#4. Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler – UFC 47
Nick Diaz’s UFC debut took place at UFC 44 in September 2003. After submitting Jeremy Jackson with an armbar, he quickly gained a reputation as one of the promotion’s best young fighters.
However, when he was matched with fellow prospect Robbie Lawler at UFC 47, few predicted him to have much success. Nick Diaz was renowned for his grappling, but Lawler was already a proven knockout artist with a strong takedown defense to boot.
It sounded like a bad match for Nick Diaz on paper, but that idea couldn’t have been further from the truth. Far from being outgunned on the feet, Diaz took the fight to the feared striker with his crisp boxing, forcing Lawler to retreat and tagging him with sharp strikes from the off.
Early on, it still looked like a dangerous game. Lawler merely appeared to be angered by Diaz’s punches rather than hurt. But Diaz’s volume quickly began to take its toll.
And in the second round, Diaz began to show off another facet that would define his UFC career, his love for taunting an opponent. He managed to goad Lawler into swinging even more wildly. He then took his opportunity and knocked ‘Ruthless’ down face-first with a right hand.
Lawler attempted to get to his feet, but his legs were gone, forcing a referee stoppage and handing Diaz his first UFC win via KO. And from that moment on, no welterweight would underestimate Nick Diaz again.
#3. Nick Diaz vs. Anderson Silva – UFC 183
Nick Diaz is due to return to the UFC this weekend at UFC 266, ending a largely self-imposed hiatus of almost seven years. The last time UFC fans saw him in action, they were treated to one of the most memorable, and bizarre, fights in the promotion's history.
After spending two years on the shelf following his loss to Georges St-Pierre, the UFC announced that Diaz would return to take on former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 183. Given that Silva was also returning from a lengthy stint on the shelf due to a serious leg injury, the hype for the clash was off the charts.
Surprisingly enough, Nick Diaz didn’t talk all that much trash coming into the fight, apparently respecting Silva and his accomplishments for once.
However, when the two men entered the octagon, it was clear that Diaz had seemingly saved all of his venom for the clash itself. He began to taunt ‘The Spider’ from the off, strutting around with his hands down, daring Silva to hit him. He even laid down at one point.
The bizarre behavior continued throughout the fight. Nick Diaz seemed more focused on simply taunting and goading Silva than on actually beating him. In the end, the fight didn’t end the way that Diaz would’ve hoped. He came out on the wrong end of a unanimous decision.
However, despite the loss, it was the Stockton native that everyone was talking about the day after the event. And when the pay-per-view drew around 650k buys, earning Diaz millions of dollars, it was clear who really had the last laugh.
#2. Nick Diaz vs. BJ Penn – UFC 137
After his win over Gleison Tibau at UFC 65 in November 2006, Nick Diaz departed the UFC for new pastures.
After fighting for PRIDE, Elite XC and DREAM, he eventually settled into the Strikeforce promotion. While there, he won six fights in a row and claimed the welterweight title with a win over Marius Zaromskis.
In the process, Nick Diaz became one of the biggest stars to be competing outside the UFC. When the UFC bought out Strikeforce in 2011, the clamor immediately began for him to return to the octagon to fight UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre.
The UFC obliged and duly matched Diaz with GSP at UFC 137, only to pull the rug from under the Stockton native when he refused to complete his media obligations for the event. Instead, the title shot went to Carlos Condit. Diaz, meanwhile, was given a wickedly tough alternative opponent, former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn.
Like many of Strikeforce’s fighters at the time, Nick Diaz had plenty of doubters. Those doubters all figured that Penn would outclass him. At UFC 137, Diaz proved them wrong in style.
His pressure-boxing game allowed him to drag Penn into deeper waters than many fighters had ever done before. And faced with such a relentless foe, ‘The Prodigy’ was simply forced to drown.
In the end, Diaz beat Penn down to the point that the Hawaiian swiftly announced his retirement from MMA after the fight. A decade later, the win arguably remains Diaz’s most impressive inside the octagon.
#1. Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre – UFC 158
It almost sums up Nick Diaz’s fighting career as a whole that his most memorable moment in the octagon didn’t come in victory, it actually came in defeat.
The nature of his clash with Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158, a classic tale of good vs. bad that practically transcended the sport of MMA, was always going to make for a great show. But few could’ve predicted that the event would draw more than a million pay-per-view buys, making it one of the highest sellers in UFC history.
The feud between the two welterweights had been more than a year in the making, with Diaz’s callouts of St-Pierre dating back to his career in Strikeforce. After Diaz beat BJ Penn at UFC 137, it looked like the fight would finally happen. But fate intervened in the form of a severe knee injury to GSP, forcing the UFC to delay the fight for more than a year.
That didn’t matter to the level of hype. Diaz directed an insane amount of trash talk at his Canadian opponent, while the usually mild-mannered GSP spoke of Diaz forcing him into a “dark place” in his mind.
And with UFC 158 being booked to take place in St-Pierre’s hometown of Montreal, Diaz embraced the role of villain even more, showing disdain for the Canadian fans even as they wildly booed him.
The fight itself turned out to be less entertaining than some had hoped, as St-Pierre ended up winning in largely one-sided fashion. But in the end, seeing the villainous Diaz lose was essentially what fans were paying for anyway.
And as always with Nick Diaz, somehow, despite the loss and his baseless accusations of St-Pierre using performance enhancing drugs, he came away from the event looking like an even bigger star than before.
