Nick Diaz Doesn’t Really Like Fighting, But Would Want To Face Leon Edwards Instead

Just a few days ahead of his rematch with Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz said he wanted to be fighting someone else.

Diaz, who is returning from a six-year hiatus, said that he doesn’t understand why he is fighting Lawler, the man he already defeated. He believes he should be fighting for the title against Kamaru Usman.

“I think I’ll beat the s— out of Usman,” Diaz said in a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “I’ll have a better shot against Usman than I do Lawler, just because I already beat Lawler. This doesn’t make sense for me to go in and fight Robbie Lawler again.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this. … This should not happen. Whoever set this up is an idiot,” he added.

But despite his call out to Usman, the current UFC welterweight champion, he said he doesn’t even like fighting all that much.

“All the people around me and all the money and the sponsors, they won’t let me get away from fighting,” Diaz said.

The 38-year-old said he does not like the pressure, but he has fans and people want to see him inside the cage – that’s why he’s back. The last time he fought around six years ago against Brazilian legend Anderson Silva.

Now he’s coming back to face 39-year-old Lawler who is on a four-fight losing skid. Though he said he’s going in to win, he has some hesitations.

“Do I feel confident? I never do. I never have. I always feel like I’m going to get trashed out there,” he said.

“I feel like that every fight,” he added. “I’m kind of a dark and dim person leading up to a fight. I just despise these people who are happy to go out there.”

Even when he’s not in the octagon, seeing Nate, his younger brother, fight is tough for him.

He previously attended Nate and Leon Edward’s battle.

“I took harder punches watching that than I ever did in sparring or in any fights,” he said. “It’s my baby brother, you know? It’s hard to watch him fight.”

Diaz is meeting Lawler in a middleweight matchup Saturday night at UFC 266.