thaFormula.com - Now let's get into that fight with Karo because that was a great fight…

Nick Diaz - An ass whoopin', this guy took an ass whoopin’ in the fight.  I know he can’t show that fight to people and be like “oh yeah look I did a good job.”  Its like “damn yeah you sure lost though man.”

thaFormula.com - What did you think of his grappling skills though?

Nick Diaz - Oh no, he is an excellent grappler.  I will not knock his judo or his grappling, but the fact of the matter is that I was in better shape then him in that fight.  He took more punches, he took more damage, he fucking whined and cheated saying I poked him in the eye.  I never poked him in the eye.  I was feeling him about to go right there too.  That was my time you know I had him on the fence and it was the only time I grabbed him.  If you notice also in this fight, I'm the only guy that he didn't do his judo on.  If you ever notice on the video clip, it's got like him rushing me, double legging me.  I'm the only guy he's ever fought in the UFC or any other fights that he never threw.  He never threw me.  He can't throw me, thrust me cause I won't grab him.  I won't grab that motherfucker.  I don't need to grab him to whoop his ass.  He doesn't wanna fight me anywhere, on the ground or standing up.  He didn't know what he wanted to do in that fight.  He did all sorts of different shit trying to run away from me and stall.  If that was Pride they would have yellow carded him and they never would have scored those takedowns and he would have lost.  It's hilarious.  I can go on all day about this and I'm like thinking there is just about no way to prove me wrong.  I figure the only ones you can argue are the Riggs fight and the Diego Sanchez fight.  

thaFormula.com -Now after your loss to Parysian, you came back to beat Fickett, Koji, and then came your fight with Diego Sanchez.  It seemed like you might have underestimated Diego, seriously, did you?

Nick Diaz - Oh yeah, absolutely I underestimated him, but that doesn't mean I didn't train as hard as I would have anyways.  I feel I could have done some things differently in training, but I could have only known that after the fight.  I didn't have a good game plan going into that fight at all.  I would have the total opposite game plan if I fought him again.  It probably would be a totally different situation if there was a rematch with Diego Sanchez.

thaFormula.com - Have you had a chance to look at that fight again and when you watch it now, do you think that you won that fight, lost the fight, or how do you think it went?

Nick Diaz - Yeah I have watched that fight quite a bit and the important thing to me is if he would have won the fight or he was going to win the fight if the fight keeps going.  Like if there is no time limit on this fight and this fight is going all night or basically if you throw us in the jungle together and only one of us is coming out, I feel like that night it would have been me.  So this sort of thing is what's important to me and like I said before, Jeremy Jackson was a better man that one night.  I give him his props for that, but Diego Sanchez is one of the best grapplers that I have ever had the experience of getting into the mix with.  I knew he would be an excellent grappler from seeing a lot of his videos and I remember hearing about him.  I remember he was my size though, and then he got heavier because I had a student of mine go up against him and he beat him by like 4 points or something.  Rudy Hernandez was his name and he was a tough kid and lives in (Las) Vegas now.  He used to train with me and went up against me.  It was funny because Diego was in the Grapplers Quest and he was like in the novice or intermediate division and I was in the advanced division.  I was like “man that’s funny,” because a lot of guys that night were afraid to get in the advanced division.  So he was in the intermediate and I was in the advanced.  Of course I didn't win, I got my guard passed by a really good jiu jitsu guy.  I don't remember his name or I would plug him right now.  Then Jake beat that same guy and won that tournament.  Matt Hughes was in it that year and went up against a really good guy that I train with, his name is Val Ignatov.  He is seriously one of the best grapplers I ever grappled with.  He is basically by Sambo and Judo teacher as far as that goes.  

thaFormula.com - But how do you feel that you underestimated Sanchez exactly?

Nick Diaz - Honestly, he looked like shit in every one of his fights as far as I'm concerned until he fought me.  He looked pretty good against Brain Gassaway, but you can't really judge because I never seen Gassaway fight except for in that fight.  I always wondered about Gassaway because I would see him hanging out with Shonnie Carter, but I didn't know if this dude ever fought before.  Apparently he had a lot of fights, but I don't know where.  So I didn't think he looked that great against Gassaway, but I thought he looked threatening or like a threat or that he was a good wrestler.  I didn't take a lot of things into consideration like I should have and then see, these are the type of things that make me learn about what the UFC was and what it's all about and how it works.  It's not like I was taught, it's not like we worked on these things about how I would lose the decisions and how I would lose with takedowns and how this sort of thing works.  On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of these guys paid a lot of attention to that.  A lot of their training was probably focused on stuff like this and rules and you know a lot of tricks and tactics and things like that about how the scoring is gonna go.  I had no idea how that worked.  I didn't know what a 10-9 or 10-8 round was, I didn't know what that meant.  I never took that into consideration.  Even until after the Sherk fight really.  Actually before the Sherk fight is when I figured it out.  Going into the Sherk fight is when I figured it out. But that's when I realized how that didn't matter because that just takes me out of my game now.  It was crazy though, but I won that Sherk fight.  That's a crazy one and you got to really watch that fight.  I didn't take no knees, I didn't take no knees to the face.  How do you score a guy’s aggressiveness or aggression?  What the hell, so he was growling.  grhhhhhh!!  He growls at me or what do you call it?  Like what, he did more work then me?  I'm the one that fucking put the defense on him.  He didn't show nothing, I took him down, I showed more control on him, then he did on me and I landed more punches then him.  He can know exactly what I was gonna do. If I was to fight him again I would even probably tell him and I bet you it would still happen, he wouldn't be able to stop it.  I think he knows it too.  But I'm not trying to knock Sean Sherk.  Sean Sherk is another guy who is completely underrated and deserves to be a rich man and have millions and millions of dollars like fucking De La Hoya or some shit because he is a fucking workhorse and a fucking soldier.  If anybody was gonna beat me that night, it was gonna be that muthafucker and he deserves it if anybody did.  So whatever on that one.

thaFormula.com - So before we move on, I have to know if it was true that you threw a shoe at Sanchez before the fight?

Nick Diaz - Oh, I threw a shoe, I was talking shit.  They were telling me to sit down.  I was just talking shit, throwing shit.  I was just trying to get out there and fight because this guy is back there making funny faces at me and smiling at me and I was just like “fuck you” and people were saying this and that.  I was just having a hard time with that one.  I don't know what it was about that one.  I had a bad attitude and I should have had my head a little more clear.  I was too much on kill mode.  Of course he wasn't gonna trade punches with me so what the fuck was that one all about and where was my head at in that one?

thaFormula.com - Now let's get into the Riggs fight.  Why was the animosity so deep between you guys before and after the fight?

Nick Diaz - I don't even really wanna talk about it because it blows this muthafucker up even more every time I bring his name up.  But there was a guy from my team that took off and started working out over there and I didn't like anyone from over there at the time.  It was just a little thing that just triggered off a little bit more. I didn't like a lot of these guys coming from that team especially after what’s his name went over there and started training over there.  Then this motherfucker is walking, giving me dirty looks and then telling me he was gonna smash my Mexican face and shit.  He told me he was gonna do this and that and I was like “fuck you motherfucker, right here bitch.”  Just like at the hospital I said “right here bitch,” and he walks back up and tries to see me and I smacked him.

thaFormula.com - How do you feel about how the fight with Riggs turned out?

Nick Diaz - I knew all about Riggs and I knew exactly what I was getting into and I said “this is a big, bad motherfucker, but I'm a big bad motherfucker too and he's gonna have to see me and I don't think he's gonna wanna see me, and I don't think he can see me.”  I've seen him get choked before, I have seen him lose before.  I've seen him fight and I know about this guy and I just feel like I know what type of guy this guy is and how he's gonna fight.  I felt like it was a good fight for me.  I could have got more in the mix with this guy really easily.  I played a stubborn game and I went in maybe a little bit cocky in this fight.  I could have played the smarter game and easily been out in the first round I think.  I think it would be very discouraging for him to fight me again and I think I got this guy figured out pretty well as far as how he works.

thaFormula.com - So you racked up 3 losses in row in the UFC, how were you feeling at that point after that 3rd loss in a row?

Nick Diaz - I feel like somebody could have thrown me a bone.  Someone could have said something about how I’m fighting.  The thing is that I can’t talk shit and say this and that or that someone could have thrown me a bone because it is my fault because I took these fights.  No one would have said shit or known shit if I didn't take these fights, but nobody looks at that.  You don't understand, I was in fight mode, I wasn't on business market mode.  Everybody else is deciding on what fights is gonna be a smart fight for them.  I would take any fight, anybody, and anywhere.  This is my manager and coach that is gonna walk up to me and tell me who I'm fighting or not, so I'm not gonna look at this guy and tell him I don't think it's a good idea to fight this motherfucker.  I'm gonna tell him “let's fucking rock and roll bitch!!  Let’s fucking go!  Let's fucking roll with this shit!”  So that's my attitude about it and when I feel like “oh this is a tough opponent,” that makes me feel stronger and that makes me fight and feel like I wanna feel as a fighter.  That makes me train harder and go harder.  This is what I have come to realize over the years and over time, that this is why I like fighting and this is why I'm gonna be a healthier fighter then most of these other fighters and most of these other people that don't do shit.  You got a lot of unhealthy people and eaters around the world.  But I'm just having a good time with a lot of this.  Win or lose, I know I'm healthier and I’m having a better time as far as living than most people because I enjoy fighting.  Of course I could have caught a break as far as those 4 fights in a row so yeah I know what you’re talking about.  But fuck that because I got dicked around or whatever and these guys didn’t fucking win man.  They fucking just took an ass whoopin’ and they fucking ran away with the scoreboard so it’s like whatever.  Then you got these judges out there that don't fucking know their ass.  They don't know what the fuck they are talking about.  It’s like I shouldn't even be asked these questions.  You should just go right away and say what the fuck is up with these judges.  Where do they come from and where did they learn about Jiu Jitsu or anything about wrestling?  I'm not trying to say they don't know about boxing skills.  They might know about that, they might not.  I don't even know who the fuck they got up there, but they don't know their ass dude and your not gonna have any MMA guys that know something about fighting up there doing the judging because they would have had to have known something from somewhere in which case would have made them affiliated in some sort of way and that makes whatever they judge or score all bullshit.  It’s why things are the way they are. Because this sport is a brand new sport and it's all about background and the ripple effects of where they come from.  Like what the hell do you know and these guys don't know shit.

thaFormula.com - So you lost those 3 in a row and you came right back and won 3 in a row but your contract was now up with the UFC, did you want to resign with UFC at that time?

Nick Diaz - You know I'm down to resign, rematch or redo or whatever.  I'm not trying to piss anybody off in an interview or fucking step on any toes or burn any bridges or anything like that.  This is just an interview and I have a manager that deals with these sorts of things.  I don't quite pay attention to what I'm getting myself into before I do it, but I'm also not afraid to do it either and I just let it takes its course.  Everybody else is worried about it but I don't give a shit.

thaFormula.com - So when Pride came calling, was that something you had always dreamed about?

Nick Diaz - No and its not something I had planned either.  I just opened my mouth and they were calling the next morning before I even knew it.  But I would talk about wanting to fight in Pride because of the rules and everything.  I wasn't always as sure that I wanted to make 160, but it wasn't because I didn't think I could make 160.  It was just that I was kind of occupied and had my mind on fighting in the welterweight division at that time.  I was really focused on who I was fighting in the welterweight division. The way I see it is I can make anywhere from 160 to 185 and be a decent size fighter.

thaFormula.com - So it seemed like with the Pride situation, once again you were brought in to lose when they put you up against Gomi, is that what it felt like?

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