UFC's Jeff Novitzky optimistic Nick Diaz will fight again

Does Nick Diaz want to fight again?

That question has been pondered over and over again by the MMA world.  UFC President Dana White doesn’t think Diaz has the fire. UFC VP of athlete health and performance Jeff Novitzky, however, is a bit more optimistic.

Novitzky thinks Diaz will return to the cage once he works out his issues with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which placed him under a provisional suspension for failing to report his whereabouts while being subject to the UFC’s drug-testing program.

“Nick was our first fighter that ran into the whereabouts issue,” Novitzky said on “Joe Rogan Experience.” “So he got three whereabouts failures in a rolling 12 months, so he’s currently going through that process. It’s a tough one.

“I think he does (want to fight). I think he does. I’ve sat down with him over the past couple months trying to resolve this whereabouts issues. The unfortunate thing there is, look, the whereabouts failures are there to catch people that are cheating and trying to avoid testing. I just think Nick’s lifestyle led to those three whereabouts, not that he was trying to avoid testing. We’re trying to work through that.”

Brad Horn, a USADA spokesperson, confirmed Diaz (26-9 MMA, 7-6 UFC) is still under provisional suspension “pending the resolution of his case, as the matter is still pending.” The UFC announced the suspension in June. Athletes who fail to report their whereabouts three times within a 12-month period face a suspension between six months and two years.

Novitzky explained Diaz’s troubles with USADA as a failure to take personal responsibility for his duties under the UFC’s anti-doping program.

“(Diaz) trusted certain individuals to do his whereabouts for him,” he said. “What I think happened was, over time, those individuals were in and out of his life, and it was unbeknownst to him that he was missing all these things. But again, there’s strict liability here. He’s currently under sanction, but we’re hoping to resolve that pretty quick.”

Of course, it’s not the first time Diaz’s schedule has put him in trouble with regulators. Back in 2009, a fight with Jay Hieron in now-defunct Strikeforce was canceled when he no-showed a pre-fight drug test.

Diaz once spoke openly about how to circumvent commission testing for marijuana. That didn’t keep him from testing positive on three occasions for the drug, with the third positive resulting in a five-year ban that was reduced to 18 months after massive public outcry.

It’s been almost three years since Diaz fought in the octagon, losing a unanimous decision to Anderson Silva (34-8 MMA, 17-4 UFC) that was overturned when Silva tested positive for performance-enhancers and Diaz tested positive for marijuana.

Even while sitting on the sidelines, though, Diaz remains a huge object of intrigue to MMA fans who love his anti-hero persona. Thus, people still want to know when he’ll be back.

On the same day Diaz was flagged for a potential anti-doping violation, UFC President Dana White gave an interview to MMAjunkie in which he was skeptical of the one-time UFC welterweight title challenger’s return.

“I highly doubt it,” White said. “I don’t know. I honestly don’t think that, and I can’t speak for him, you’d have to speak with Nick himself, but if you ask me – people ask me, ‘Do you think Ronda (Rousey) is coming back?’ No. I think Ronda’s going to retire. Ronda hasn’t retired, but my opinion is, I think she will. I don’t think Nick Diaz will ever fight again. I just don’t think he has the desire anymore.

“The thing about fighting, first of all it’s a young man’s game. You’ve got to be young, hungry. You’ve got to be an animal to jump out of bed every day and go in there and train the way that you do. The things that you have to do to get to the UFC, let alone break into the top 10, or the top 5, or be a world champion, you have to love it. I just don’t think that Nick loves it anymore.”

For his part, Diaz has been quiet about his future, though his younger brother, UFC star Nate Diaz (19-11 MMA, 14-9 UFC), said a return was just a matter of presenting the right contract offer – and some respect.

“We put in our work,” Diaz said. “And I’ll put in more work. But ask nicely, (expletive). Ask nicely.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.