I don't know if it's just something about Jake Shields' fights that gets the Diaz brothers' blood up, or if it's just the necessary outpouring of aggression for two longtime fighters that don't look like they're going to be stepping in the cage for, well, a long time. Nick and Nate have both been on the sidelines for about six months now, and while Nick serves a suspension for marijuana metabolites, Nate just hasn't seemed like he's wanted much to do with fighting in the UFC.
That didn't stop either of them for getting into a scrap this weekend though, as the Diaz brothers were captured on video in a cageside scuffle with UFC title contender Khabib Nurmagomedov. The fight was so heated that it even spilled out into the parking lot after, causing police to get involved and break the whole thing up. According to WSOF vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz (who is also Khabib's manager), the fight started when an exchange of words resulted in Nate Diaz throwing a punch at Khabib. From there things got a bit messy. But whatever the eventual outcome of the fight was, Abdel-Aziz made one thing clear in a recent interview with MMAFighting, Nate and Nick Diaz are banned from attending WSOF events from here on out:
"I can't have Nick and Nate come to a World Series of Fighting event again," Abdel-Aziz said. "I like these guys, but if they're not going to show me respect coming to the show, how can I let them back in?
"You've just got to be more professional in MMA. Nate and Nick, all the times I talk to them, they're good guys, but they need to start making a (positive) impression. I know they sell better because they don't care, but you're going to make people not like you if you do stuff like that. I know they don't care, it's attention, fights, guys want to fight each other. But you know what, fight each other in the cage. It was disappointing, to be honest with you."
Looks like that's one less avenue for fans to get their fix of the 209 for the foreseeable future.