“F@ck Gasper Gomez, and f@ck the f@ckin’ Diaz brothers. F@ck em all! I bury those cockroaches”

By Jose Ramirez

Anyone who has seen Scarface can recite these memorable words with the patented Tony Montana accent. In the movie, the Miami kingpin was responding to his boss, Frank Lopez, who had just confronted Tony about recent moves he’s been making behind Frank’s back. “What do you hear about Echevierra and the Diaz brothers? What about them? What about Gaspar Gomez? What is he gonna do when you start moving 2000 keys?”

“Fuck Gaspar Gomez! And fuck the fuckin' Diaz brothers! Fuck 'em all! I bury those cockroaches!”

Now, we have the MMA Miami kingpin saying the same thing - “Fuck the fucking Diaz brothers, fuck them all! I’ll bury those cockroaches,”

If MMA were the movie Scarface, Ben Askren represented Gaspar Gomez. Masvidal then went on to take care of one of the Diaz brothers. Now it looks slightly possible that a showdown between Nick Diaz and Jorge Masvidal could happen in 2020. If that fight does go down, who will come out victorious?

Nick and Nate Diaz are masterful fight promoters. Nate was able to get not one, but two money fights with Conor McGregor AND a shot at the BMF belt. Nick is doing his best to test the waters of his return to the UFC by antagonizing Jorge Masvidal, saying things like “The BMF belt is my belt. You just fought my baby brother”. Nick took offense to Jorge saying he ‘baptized’ Nate Diaz, and found a perfect opportunity, with storyline and all, to find a way back into MMA relevance. The question on people’s minds (certainly mine) is (or should be), is Nick physically and mentally fit to return to the octagon?

All you had to do was watch the Nick Diaz interview with Ariel Helwani to see something looked amiss with Nick. Some say he was drunk or high. He slurred some words and seemed scattered at times. He hasn’t fought in the UFC since 2015. Some say he suffered too many hits to the head and has Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Maybe Nick has been going through some shit the past few years. He stated he had anxiety, maybe he’s self medicating to ease the symptoms. But its hard to think that the Nick Diaz we saw and heard on the Helwani interview would have any chance in hell against the Jorge Masvidal we’ve been seeing in 2019.

All that put aside, Nick Diaz is a legend of the UFC. He was (somewhat) coherent throughout the Helwani interview (albeit a bit lit/drunk/both?). But he hasn’t won a UFC fight since 2011. Nick also has as much, if not more, scar tissue as Nate Diaz surrounding his eyebrows and cheeks.

If you watch Nick and Nate fight, its almost identical. They stalk you down, wear you out and swarm you with volume, not power. But Masvidal figured out that game plan. Nate couldn’t take Jorge down…can Nick? Nate earned the BMF fight because of his performance against McGregor. What has Nick done lately? What has been Nick’s body of work?

Masvidal wants this fight because it would be a nice payday, it would promote his storyline of being the Miami kingpin Tony Montana and he would get to say that he whooped both Diaz brothers. But why does Nick want this fight? Revenge? It didn’t appear that Nick wanted to restart his career. Nick has taken a lot of abuse throughout his professional fighting career and there is nothing to gain but a paycheck in fighting Masvidal.

My prediction? We won’t see a Jorge Masvidal/Nick Diaz PPV in 2020. Dana White and the UFC wouldn’t pull that trigger. It doesn’t make any sense since the real fight is between the Usman/Covington winner. But Nick is definitely going to try and pick a street fight with Jorge sometime, somewhere, some venue. Nick doesn’t really want to do the things required to get back in the UFC (weight cut, USADA). He’s baiting Jorge and the Helwani interview was the first salvo.

If we look at the stats, Masvidal has been on a tear. He’s in great shape and is trending to champion status. Nick hasn’t won a fight since a decision win against BJ Penn and hasn’t knocked anyone out since Paul Daley in April, 2011. If the two ever go toe to toe, I predict Masvidal would serve up another three piece and a coke and Nick to return it with a milkshake and whopper, but it won’t be inside an octagon.