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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Nick Diaz continues to be seen as the perpetual antagonist, a button pusher who just also happens to be a very good fighter, which continues to put him in high profile spots. However, he also feels very misunderstood. He respects his opponent, he assures, but when they'll be getting into a cage to punch one another on Saturday night, he doesn't want to be cordial with him throughout the week.
"I don't have it out for people, but I know who I am supposed to fight to be the best and that's why I'm in this fight with Carlos Condit," Diaz said during Wednesday's open workouts in Las Vegas. "He's the next guy I need to prove myself against. We are both top level and we win by doing damage, not by trying to score points. He has a realistic fighting style like I do. I am not crazy, in my opinion everyone else is crazy. It is real fighting, real martial arts."
"Carlos is a very well rounded guy. He's tough and it will be a fight. I'm cool with him, but like always I don't want to be around him because I am fighting him. I don't act one way in front of a camera and another way when I'm not. I'm emotional but I don't stage anything. People say I am crazy but I think other people are crazy for acting all nice around people they are supposed to fight. I don't put on a show, what you see is what you get, and sorry some people can't handle that."
Diaz simply believes he's only being himself, and he can't help how others are going to react to that. Still, he insists he's never fake, and what fans and media see from him is simply who he is.
"With me, you get the real me, real martial arts and a real warrior mentality," Diaz said. "I don't act [like] friends with anyone I am going to fight. That's crazy, I don't understand that. Some people aren't mature enough to understand I don't want to put on an act for the cameras. I'm real. I'm acting natural, I don't want to be friends around a guy I am about to fight."
"This isn't soccer, it is fighting. I've got no problem that this is a sporting event and being respectful but it is a fight. It is what it is. It matters how I am seen by fans, sometimes I care, sometimes I don't but when I think about it I try to be real."
Penick's Analysis: The reasons behind how he carries himself during fight week are reasonable enough, and everyone is wired differently when it comes to the sport. Some fighters can be all about the competition, and simply be out to prove themselves as the best in that cage; others, like Diaz, need to have the mentality that they're in a fight, and they need to do whatever they have to in order to come out the victor of that fight. It's the interesting dichotomy of fighters in the sport, and Diaz is certainly on the extreme edge of one side. This fight with Condit is a huge fight for them both, and he knows they'll both be out to hurt the other inside the Octagon on Saturday night in order to claim that Interim belt.
[Nick Diaz art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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