Nick Diaz threatens to leave MMA for boxing, doesn't "see a future" for himself in MMA

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Following the best win of his career over the last five years, Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz is now threatening to leave the sport of MMA altogether.

HDNet released a short preview for Friday's Inside MMA program, in which Diaz went off on the state of MMA, and his manager Cesar Gracie revealed that Diaz's next fight is likely to come as a boxing match.

"[Strikeforce] doesn't have anybody else for me to fight right now, I'm better than all these guys they have," Diaz said. "The guys they have ranked above me, I'm sure they don't want to fight me. I don't see much of a future in this sport for me. I honestly don't, especially if there's not a whole s*** load of money going on."

"I'm signed into a contract I don't know anything about. I don't know anything about that s***, I have a manager. All I know is my life is a living hell full of training, grueling exercise, train every day, cater to everybody else and not worry about myself sort of thing."

Gracie said they've already signed on for a boxing match with Fernando Vargas in September or October and are waiting back to hear from his camp. Also, Gracie says unless Dana White offers Diaz a fight with Anderson Silva, his next fight will be in boxing. However, he then told MMAWeekly.com that the Vargas fight is off and they're looking at former IBF super middleweight champion Jeff Lacy.

The full situation will be discussed on Friday's edition of Inside MMA, airing on HDNet.

Penick's Analysis: Nick Diaz is a frustrating character. For as good as he is in the cage and for as fun as he is to watch, he can be a complete headache when it comes to things like this. This is likely a negotiating tactic to try to up his value to Zuffa by letting them know he's got other options than MMA, but I'm not sure what the end game will be here. He signed on for a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce when he knew he was the man in the division there. He knew he wouldn't have a string of guys for him to fight, and with the UFC not wanting to look like they're just picking fighters off of the Strikeforce roster, they're not super eager to bring guys out of the organization, so now if Diaz leaves the new sister brand to the UFC loses its biggest star. I hope they can find a way to get Diaz an opponent, but for now it looks like he's going to be hard headed about this issue, and that's not good for fans who enjoy seeing him in the cage.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_9076.shtml

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