Nate Diaz Is Awesome

Nate is awesome for a lot of different reasons. He’s one of the most exciting fighters around, putting forth so much fantastic boxing offense in his fights. Also he’s an amazing submission grappler, lots of beautiful looking submissions during his UFC career. He’s misunderstood by a large majority of MMA fans, they seem to think he’s “stupid” or a “jerk” or whatever simplistic labels they throw at him. He’s a complex fighter and he has a lot of tools to help him during fights. Look at Jim Miller, one of the most composed fighters around, totally losing his cool and going for a failed flying knee after Nate taunted him. Nate’s smart, and he’s also a pretty cool guy to people that actually know him. What other guy would throw out that he thinks his friend (Gilbert Melendez) is the best in the world in his weightclass after having the best performance of his career? What other guy is constantly crediting his team (Cesar Gracie’s Nick, Jake, and Gilbert) at every opportunity he gets? Here’s a sweet story from an MMAWeekly interview with Cody McKenzie that shows that Nate is pretty awesome.

McKenzie, in fact, roomed with Nate Diaz, who recently claimed a title shot with this past weekend’s UFC on FOX 3 win over Jim Miller, for the first few weeks of his trip. While calling him and his brother “punks” would be a compliment by most people’s standards, McKenzie said he saw the other side of the oft-criticized fighters. 

At training sessions, the Diaz brothers were quick to impart their wisdom, they apologized profusely if a punch or submission hurt a training partner, and frankly, they were just fun to be around, McKenzie said. 

Then, during one of his first days in Stockton, he and Nate were driving around when they noticed a broken down car. A husband, wife and child were stuck. 

“Most people would drive by and think, ‘Man, it sucks to be you,'” McKenzie said. 

Instead, the younger Diaz stopped his car, checked to assure everyone was safe, directed traffic around the breakdown, and then pushed the car out of harm’s way while wishing the family better luck. 

H/T: MMAWeekly.com