The delusions of Nick Diaz

Nick Diaz: I want $3-$5 per PPV buy vs...

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/news/439656/Nick-Diaz-I-want-3-5-per-PPV-buy-vs/

Fighters Only's John Joe O'Regan recently sat down with Nick Diaz for a wide-ranging interview. Diaz ‘retired' from fighting after losing a decision to welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 158. He said he is enjoying his time out of the Octagon, recently moved out of the Team Cesar Gracie fighters house and into a two bed one bath apartment, but says he now wants big money fights.

“They are talking about there’s nobody to fight (Georges St-Pierre) after this," Diaz told FIghtersOnly. I’ll make a joke out of that real quick - I think there’s nobody on my level really. I don’t want to name names but that’s how I feel. So I feel like if the fans want to see me fight…”

“I don’t see that being a really big fight like this one fight I’m thinking I could have at welterweight (with GSP)."

“We could negotiate. I am a pretty big draw. So we would have to negotiate a pretty decent amount of pay and a pretty decent amount from the pay-per-view. I’m talking like three to five dollars* the same as these other important fighters are getting, because I am out there putting on a show."

A handful of the largest draws in the sport get a fixed amount per PPV buy above a preset mark. The payouts are private information, but figures have surfaced in the past. For example, it came out during a court case that Alistair Overeem would get $2.00 per view for sales in excess of $500,000 in the United States, Canada, and online. The figures cited by Diaz are of course well in excess of that figure.

“Some of those guys are making way more money than what my contract is worth," said Diaz. "I’m not making a fraction of it. And I don’t want you to think I am just regurgitating some s--- here. I understand what I understand, I hear what I hear."

“I can’t make any other money other than fighting. Never have. I had a job once, I was like 15 or 16. Running wires through a building for a construction company, they paid me in cash ‘under the table’.

“I bought myself a four-wheeler. Then I sold it back to the guy I bought it from and I started fighting professionally at 18. Ever since then that’s the only way I have made money.”

"The free time has been good, its different. Now if there’s a big fight available… people know where I am.”

UFC president Dana White was asked about Diaz at the UFN 32 post-fight media scrum in Goiania, Brazil. White said he had talked with the Diaz camp, and Stockton fighter remained retired.

"I offered Nick Diaz a fight last week and his manager called me back saying he's retired," said White.

When asked who the fighter offered was, White declined to provide specifics.

"I don't remember," he said, smiling.

Who ever it was, it was not UFC welterweight champion George St-Pierre. Diaz' last fight was a decisive five round loss to GSP, and the fight before that was a decision loss to Carlos Condit. That is not a record that gets you a rematch with points on a PPV.

So for now, it looks like Nick Diaz really is retired.

For now.




Dana White Offered UFC Fight to Nick Diaz Last Week, but He Turned It Down

http://www.mmaweekly.com/dana-white-offered-ufc-fight-to-nick-diaz-last-week-but-he-turned-it-down

f you’re waiting for Nick Diaz to return to the Octagon, don’t hold your breath.

UFC president Dana White on Saturday evening revealed that he made a fight offer to Diaz last week. Diaz, however, isn’t interested in cutting his retirement short for what the UFC is offering.

“I made the offer to them last week,” White told a group of reporters, following UFC Fight Night 32. 

“They called me back and said he’s retired.”

The rejection White got from Diaz is the latest in a slew of conversations between the UFC and the fighter’s management that end in “no thanks.” One of the most recent reported offerings to Diaz was a match-up against middleweight contender Michael Bisping. White said he loved that fight, but explained it wouldn’t happen based off his talks with Diaz’s representation.

“Everything I hear from Nick Diaz is that he doesn’t want to fight,” White said in Houston during the week leading up to UFC 166.

Diaz left the UFC – and fighting, apparently – after losing his opportunity for the UFC welterweight title in a March bout with champion Georges St-Pierre. The fighter reportedly said he would remain retired, only coming back to the UFC for big fights.

White wouldn’t reveal who he offered to Diaz and his management, but it apparently wasn’t big enough to lure the fighter out of the comfort of his Stockton, Calif., home.