Oh, the ever quotable Nick Diaz. "Where you at, Georges?" he yelled after defeating the Prodigy B. J. Penn in his return to the UFC at UFC 137 in 2011. It was a fight that was never supposed to happen. Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre had been scheduled to face Diaz that night. However, for a fighter claiming to want a shot at the title, Diaz didn't help his cause when he began blowing off media appearances leading up the the event. It really didn't help when he began missing flights the UFC had paid for to ensure he showed up for his media duties. In fact, the no-shows got so bad that UFC head honcho Dana White pulled Diaz from the title fight. Carlos Condit, frankly a more dynamic fighter, and one who would actually show up for press appearances, got the title shot instead. Diaz had blown it. Then the Gods of MMA went with shenanigans. B. J. Penn, originally linked to a match with Condit, made a vague statement teasing that the UFC had offered him a fight he could not refuse on Twitter. Turns out, that fight was against Diaz, for a title shot. Condit, meanwhile, was all set to face GSP - until GSP wound up injured. Instead of taking another fight, Condit opted to wait for the champ to return. And so Nick Diaz was promoted to a headline fight against B. J. Penn on a card he was originally supposed to headline against GSP, after being demoted to co-headliner. Diaz won the fight, and the "Where you at, Georges" quote was put out there. The champ didn't take well to Diaz's disrespect, and went to Dana White requesting a fight with Diaz. GSP, normally a soft-spoken champion, rarely asked for much of anything, and so the UFC granted him the request (no doubt seeing a marketable grudge match). UFC officials opted to have GSP return against Diaz at UFC 143. However, it was then announced that GSP had torn his ACL and needed surgery and a year to recover. Diaz instead faced Condit for the interim welterweight championship at UFC 143 - and lost to the faster, more elusive "Natural Born Killer" via unanimous decision. Though Diaz would dispute the loss, not a single judge had seen it in his favour, with two judges giving four rounds to Condit. Immediately after the fight, Diaz took his ball and went home, saying he was retiring from the sport due to his dissatisfaction with the judges. In the days that followed, he tested positive for marijuana, and was suspended from action for one year, retroactive to February 4th, 2012. He was also fined 30 percent of his purse for the Condit fight. Diaz had blown it. Again. Then GSP returned, and put on one of the best performances of his career, defeating a very game Carlos Condit in a fantastic Fight of the Night showing. And again, he requested Diaz. Despite losing to Condit, Diaz was then gifted a title shot at the behest of the greatest welterweight of all time. Diaz would go on to lose that match as well, being outclassed by the Champion at UFC 158 in 2013. Well aware he was losing the fight, Diaz would complain in his corner during the bout that "win or lose, he hits like a bitch" in reference to GSP. After the fight in an interview out of the cage, Diaz would point to his noticeable bruises, swollen face and state "I'm not hurt" and claim GSP hit "like a girl" and that he deserved a rematch. He then retired, again, and has not fought since, though he has be linked to several high profile matches, most recently with Anderson Silva. The stockton native often lives in his own world. At one point, he apparently didn't have money to pay his taxes, because he didn't know he was supposed to pay them - or so he claimed after losing to GSP. So why, then, is he on this list? Well, there's no question Diaz can fight, and thanks to a mouth that seems to have a mind of his own, he's one of the most marketable fighters out there. He has fantastic cardio, volume punching, and puts on a show every time. Diaz is, frankly, the guy you love to hate - which means you'll pay money to see him do his thing.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
