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#4. Nick Diaz may have enough money to ensure he doesn’t need to fight again
Quite how much money Nick Diaz made for his efforts at UFC 266 this weekend will remain a mystery for the foreseeable future, as the Nevada State Athletic Commission no longer releases any salary information after events.
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However, based on estimates, as well as his past UFC fights, it’s likely that he probably made plenty for his loss to Robbie Lawler. It’s been estimated, in fact, that Diaz may have made upwards of $500k this weekend.
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That kind of payout would make him one of the UFC’s better paid fighters, but it wouldn’t be the first time Nick Diaz has made plenty of cash after a fight. He was paid a reported $400k for his loss to Anderson Silva and made $200k for his loss to Georges St-Pierre. And for both fights, Diaz likely took a cut of the pay-per-view revenue too, meaning his payouts may have been in the millions.
Essentially, then, Nick Diaz really shouldn’t need to keep fighting past his prime in order to set himself up financially.
Sure, there’s a chance that he may have blown the money he earned previously, but he also has a side gig going too in the form of the Nick Diaz MMA Academy.
So while it’s clearly great to earn half a million dollars for fighting, it’s probably something that, at this stage, Nick Diaz doesn’t need to do. So based on his performance against Lawler, it ought to be time for him to step away.
#3. What more does Nick Diaz have to prove?
Nick Diaz has never held a UFC title during his MMA career and many fans would probably argue that his record of 26-10 isn’t all that good when compared to some of his peers.
However, when you consider all that he’s accomplished in the sport since he started fighting professionally back in 2001, it should immediately become clear that at this stage Nick Diaz has nothing to prove.
He’s held titles in the WEC, Elite XC and Strikeforce, he’s beaten tremendous fighters such as BJ Penn, Paul Daley and Frank Shamrock and has taken all-time greats like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva to the limit.
More to the point, when you consider that he first broke into the UFC in 2003 and arguably hit his peak when he returned to the promotion in 2011, he’s pretty much the last of a dying era.
Who else from that period is still around, after all? St-Pierre and Penn are retired. Another former Diaz foe, Carlos Condit, recently joined them too. And the other fighters who were at the top of the welterweight division at a similar time, names like Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Martin Kampmann, are long gone too. Robbie Lawler, who defeated Diaz at UFC 266, is obviously still around, but for how much longer is definitely up in the air.
Essentially, if he were to step away now, Nick Diaz would still be considered one of the greatest welterweights of his era and one of the most popular of all time, too. If he sticks around and continues to lose fights, though, all he’ll be doing is potentially damaging his legacy. After all, he has absolutely nothing to prove at this stage anyway.
