Nick Diaz was arrested this past week for driving under the influence in Stockton, California. The former UFC welterweight contender got caught by Lodi Police after a routine traffic stop.
According to reports, when Diaz was brought to a local jail he asked to go to the bathroom and tried numerous times to make himself vomit in order to try and come off as sober.
Police hit the Stockton, California native with a DUI and additional charges of obstruction of justice. Reps from the Diaz camp have not responded but the UFC released the following statement: We are aware of the situation and are in the process of gathering the facts. We understand that there is a legal process that will now take place and that Nick Diaz will have the opportunity to address the situation in the near future.
It will be interesting to see how the UFC responds with Diaz set to take on Anderson Silva on January 31, 2015 at UFC 183. That is a big time money fight and unfortunately this incident has put the UFC in a corner where they can either sweep it under the rug, or react and suspend the fighter, or release him altogether.
If the UFC wants to be considered a top sports organization they need to act like one…okay maybe not like the current NFL. Although Diaz has never shown a professional attitude in anything, the UFC can’t suspend some guys for out of the cage incidents and give other fighters a pass based on who they are and what fights they have upcoming.
President Dana White has released fighters for inappropriate tweets, so what will he do with a fighter who got caught drinking and driving? No matter how much we love to watch Diaz fight and no matter how many fans love his bad boy act, when the dust settles, the UFC needs to send a message. They need to act.
Unfortunately, over the years the Ultimate Fighting Championship has run their organization with a double standard when it comes to punishment. If you are a name, a draw, and can make the organization a bucket load of money, these sorts of out of cage incidents don’t get resolved, they just get ignored.
Although a completely different type of incident, the Ray Rice, NFL, debacle should be a clear message to the UFC in how not to handle these sorts of behaviour issues.
It’s 2014 and the UFC has a chance to send a message and also provide some help to one of their athletes who clearly needs it.
What say you? Does the UFC need to send a message to their athletes?
Oh, do you mean like how the UFC released Jon Jones after his DWI and car crash?
I understand where you are coming from. They did however release Jason High for shoving a referee and this is a tad worse than that. – Jeremy