Retired or on hiatus, Nick Diaz says he's still the UFC's top draw

LAS VEGAS — Is Nick Diaz retired? Is he merely taking a break to get his personal life in order? Is he holding out for the right opportunity?

Perhaps all three, or, knowing Diaz, none of them.

The former Strikeforce champion and onetime UFC welterweight title challenger materialized backstage at UFC 170 and gave an impromptu interview, which weaved and rambled its way toward a decisive statement about his place in the sport.

Even though he’s technically retired, a fact the UFC has repeatedly emphasized, Diaz believes he’s indispensable to the UFC.

“Bottom line, I’m the only draw out here,” he said.

Diaz, though, is currently focused on his home life, as he is moving out of his old house and in the process of looking for a new one. Meanwhile, he’s training here and there, helping teammates prepare but not necessarily pushing himself the way he did when his fight schedule was filled.

“Right now, I’m going through a little bit of indecisiveness, running around here and there and getting some things done, and at the same time, trying to move out of my house,” Diaz (26-9) said. “It’s been hard to do exactly what I want to do, as far as training and everything like that. That’s what I’m trying to square away right now.

“This whole year I’ve been using to take care of myself, because I didn’t have a lot of people taking care of me while I was doing these fights. A lot of fights. Hopefully, sometime by this summer, I’ll have everything squared a way. If I wanted to do something, like take a fight, it would make a lot more sense now than living out of some apartment or some sh—y house, where I’ve got crazy stuff going on all the time.

“With fighting, it’s a traumatic sort of 11 years of fighting that you go through when you’re a fighter that fights the way that I fight, three to six times a year. You go through it a little bit. You work out all the, what you call it, nicks, then start to figure something out.”

If he does return, however, it won’t be merely for the thrill of competition – it will be for a title, and nothing less.

“I’ve been fighting for 11 years,” Diaz told MMAjunkie. “I don’t have to take a warmup fight. What, am I going to take a warmup fight, to help somebody out? Bring them up to my level? Because I’ve already been through that, and you still haven’t seen me take an ass-whupping.”

According to Diaz, it’s the desire to see him take one, or give one out, that separates him from the rest of the pack, and that value is worth something if he comes back to the UFC one year after he retired with a loss to Georges St-Pierre.

Although he lost, the UFC 158 pay-per-view event he headlined with the now-former champ was one of the more successful of 2013.

“That wasn’t just because of Georges St-Pierre,” Diaz said. “These guys aren’t doing that. They’re not doing that. They want to pay to see me fight; they want to see somebody get knocked out or they want to see me get tapped out, or they want to see me get my ass whupped, like people have been waiting to see. But they still don’t get to see. They’re like, ‘What’s wrong?’ Why aren’t I getting my money?’ It’s because he didn’t get his ass whupped yet.

“So, as far as I’m concerned, we’re not taking care of the fans until we see someone take an ass-whupping. We all know that’s what everybody wants to see.”

Diaz’s relationship with the UFC always has been up and down, but he said he and UFC President Dana White are now on good terms. With that said, he isn’t about to jump if the promotion approaches him with an opportunity.

“They come to me and they say, ‘Oh, I turned down a fight,’” he said. “I’m like, yo, we weren’t talking about money, what this is going to do for me. We weren’t talking about co-main events, so I could, what, sell a show, and then everyone could take my money.

“So, we’ll get it figured out. We’ve got to figure out who’s going to win, and who’s important, and if anybody wants to see me fight.”

One month ago, it wasn’t MMA that the UFC wanted for Diaz, but boxing. He said White called him to offer a bout with former boxing champ Roy Jones Jr.

“I haven’t been updated or filled in or anything on the status of anything since then,” said Diaz, who clarified that Jones only was interested in fighting MMA fighters in the square circle and not the cage.

“He’s a smart individual,” Diaz said of Jones. “He’s not trying to be an MMA fighter. You don’t start MMA in your later age.”

Despite his 35 fights, Diaz recently turned 30, and is nowhere near the age where most would say its wise to retire. Now, the question is whether he stays that way.

To that, Diaz might say it’s whatever – until he gets what he needs.