Who is the best in the world at 170lbs? That’s an easy one right? The consensus top five pound for pound and UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.  But while “Rush” prepares to defend his belt against Dan Hardy at UFC 111, Nick Diaz is making a case as the fighter that poses the biggest threat to him at 170lbs.

Since his departure from the UFC, Diaz has reeled off an impressive streak of 7-1 and 1 no contest.  The lone loss came via doctor stoppage due to cuts above his eye to KJ Noons and Diaz submitted then top five lightweight Takanori Gomi with a gogoplata before the NSAC ruled it a no contest due to a positive marijuana test.

At 26 years old, Diaz seems to be finally hitting his stride. 

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Nick Diaz is a polarizing character; you either hate him or you love him. When it comes to him there really isn’t much of a grey area. Nick Diaz is one thing that you cannot argue; Nick Diaz is a fighter. In a world that is full of fighters who were trained in the rigid world of “Mixed Martial Arts” Nick Diaz is different, Nick Diaz is a martial artist. Diaz might not fit into the traditional view of a Martial Artist, Nick doesn’t go off on long tales of honor, he doesn’t practice any mystical arts. In fact, he is rather straightforward and has an attitude that upsets many.

Nick talked to Black Belt magazine recently, where he talked about being a Martial Artist and how MMA really isn’t his thing. Nick likes to be a martial artist, but feels the world of MMA to be rather cumbersome; full of steroid abuse and cocky attitudes with nothing to back them up. What is interesting is Nick’s view on Frank Shamrock, who has become quite a proponent to the Martial Arts way, as he sees Frank as one of the guys who showed the MMA world that athleticism and training in a few different styles can put you on top of the heap. He also sees Frank as one of the guys that introduced MMA into the bodybuilder look and helped push steroid abuse. As with everything Diaz, this is quite an interview.

Your brother Nate fights for the UFC and you used to fight for them. Do you give him advice about how to handle things?
Yeah, I do. I give him the heads-up about what they do. He understands that they’re not completely all for you over there. You have to watch out and be ready for what you’re doing. It’s geared to that sportier athlete.

I’m at war. As far as I’m concerned, this is warfare and I’m a ninja warrior and I’m taught to kill in the most efficient way possible. That’s the sort of mentality I’m going in there with.

I don’t want to sit next to you and have a conversation and lunch and have an interview together and talk and shake hands. I’m like, Fine, if the media wants to talk to me or see me or ask me questions, they can hear about whatever.

The UFC thinks [marketing] is good for the sport, but we don’t need to worry about that anymore. I’m sorry—I just don’t believe that we do. It’s not like we’re marketing Crystal Pepsi—this thing’s here to stay now.

I’m sorry that it scares people and that they’re not mature enough to understand that violence is a part of life. It’s just the way it is and it’s not my problem. That’s just the way I feel.

I don’t mean to be bad for the sport. I’m sorry if I’m bad for the sport. I don’t necessarily love this sport, either. I love jiu-jitsu and martial arts and competition, but mixed martial arts and what it is today, I don’t necessarily love it. It’s just not an easy job. And people like to point their fingers a lot and think it’s a ballgame and they think it’s an easy job, and it’s not that easy. I need to look like this killer to my adversary. I need to have that mental edge and I will have it. It’s the most important thing if I’m going to be fighting.

If you know this site and myself, you know that the Diaz brothers are regarded as some of the best around. Both are incredibly skilled, yes, both also exude this natural aura around them; they do what they want and could care less what you or anybody else thinks. But the reality is that they are two hard working guys who came from a modest background. The San Joaquin Magazine has what I would regard as an incredible fluff piece on two guys I would never imagine being written about this eloquently. Ridiculous.

Enter Nick Diaz. Almost like the MMA gods were punching out cookie-cutter molds of young men and decided this would be the ideal model for a fighter, both boys are slim where they need to be and all muscle where you’d expect them to be. Long hyped in the media since they broke onto the fighting scene, they both wear the tentatively healed wounds of a fight for ‘every three months since they were 16’.

Inside the ring they’re all nightmare—two separate men, two separate fighters, two different levels of the sport, all bound by blood. Whether it’s their own blood or that of their opponents, MMA affords the fan plenty of both. Where wrestling and boxing both limit fighters to what’s legal and illegal in a brawl, MMA draws the line only at the most inhumane eye gougings and crotch shots. In other words, when you step into the ‘cage’ someone’s leaving on their own accord and someone might have to be carried off the floor. Pummeling opponents with a flurry of punches, kicks, attacks, and takedowns, the sport is relatively new and has become popular in recent years based on a few simple merits—it’s brutal (Nick has been bloodied so many times above the eye that he underwent a new surgery to reduce the ability for that rehealed cut to bleed), and it’s as high adrenaline as a sport can get.

Very understanding of the fact that there’s ‘life inside the ring’ and ‘life outside the ring’, this is where the similarities meet the differences. Polite but not warm, the boys seem to have a calculated amount of personality they are willing to show to a journalist. Never raising their voices above a conversational tone even amidst the thumping of workout music playing in the background, the boys offer up answers to everything I want to know and nothing extra. More important than the Q and A of understanding their training (they compete in Ironman triathlons), and what it’s like to have a brother in the same sport (‘It’s great, I get to learn from his mistakes”), our short sit-down reveals one very apparent thing—they know their goals and they’re here to accomplish them.