How Nick Diaz Changed MMA w/Josh Thomson | Joe Rogan

Uzman and Kobe will make space to throw punches, which could get them in trouble against somebody like him. Because his power in his left hand is fucking nasty. Fucking ridiculous. Like if you pull up the... If you see the fight with him when he... When he wobbled or dropped Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz don't get dropped to shit. I know. But how crazy is Nick Diaz? Nick Diaz forced him into a dogfight. That's just scary. Forced him into a dogfight. And that was one of the most freakish, weirdest knockouts. It was amazing. But the thing is, that was when UFC had first taken over Strikeforce. And I was sitting there cage-sized and I'm thinking to myself, This is hands down the greatest MMA one-round fight ever seen in my life. It was amazing. It was amazing. He just wore him out. He just put that fucking Nick Diaz pace on him and wore him out. But when he clipped him and rocked him and dropped him, I was like, Oh my God, Paul Daley's gonna stop Nick Diaz? This is crazy. This is nuts. It's just the fact that Nick fought him that way. Nick didn't try to take him down. Nick didn't try to submit him. He just went after him. Just like, Come on, let's do this. But let's not forget the history of Nick Diaz, man. It all started with Robbie Lawler. The history of Nick Diaz started with Robbie Lawler. Like, Come on, motherfucker. I got this. And that's what elevated him to that next level. I called that fight. He walked into the Octagon. He started yelling, Stock him, motherfucker. Stock him. And Robbie Lawler's like, What is happening here? What is this? Like, Robbie Lawler was this dark destroyer. Everybody's scared of him. He was a spooky dude. He was flatlining people. And Nick Diaz, not only was he not scared of him, he was talking mad shit to him. He was fighting him. He was like, What bitch? What are we doing, bitch? What are we doing, bitch? And people don't understand this. It's so funny. I was talking to Big John the other day on our show. I was saying like, Hey, man, guys, I didn't get so damn tired. When guys talk to me, it stresses me the fuck out, man. I'm like, I just started sweating. And I'm like, This is, Shut the fuck up. We're supposed to be fighting. I couldn't believe it. I was like, Dude. Do you remember when Nick Diaz did that to Frank Shamrock? Yes. And Frank Shamrock was like, I can't believe this is happening. Because it's usually Frank that does this. Yes. I trained with Frank for years. And I'm like, I'm in his garden. He's like, Come on, Josh, get up. Like throw punches. Do something. I'm a fucking sub you. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And you're just like, Shut up, man. Shout out. I just want to punch you harder. And it makes you more tired. And the fact that Nick was doing it and out cardioing him. Yes. Frank's thing was always being the best shape. So you could put like when he beat Tito. Yeah. Just put that pace on him and Tito couldn't keep up. And then he finished him. Yeah. Frank was not the same guy when he fought Nick at that time. But let's be real. Like at that time, like it was just, it was awesome to see somebody like, like Nick do that because Nick though, if you recall at the end of the fight, he picks Frank up. He's like, you're a legend. Do not sit down there like that. You're a fucking legend. And that's what people talk to me all the time about my fight with Nate. And I say, look, man, I have nothing but respect for both those guys. Those guys are fucking animals. Not only are the animals, but what I love is I love people. We were talking about Big John being a good guy before we came on the show and Big John McCarthy. And I said, absolutely. And when I think of guys that are good guys, I think of guys that stick by their friends no matter what. You got to remember that brawl that happened on CBS, right? We were talking about that as well. That brawl with Mayhem Miller, Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, but guess what? That whole scrap pack, they die for each other. And you can't knock friendship like that. And I look at those guys and they're really good people from Gilbermoland is his wife, Gary, Nick and Nate and Jake. Jake's like still one of my good, good buddies. Gil is as well. But even though I don't talk to Nate anymore, really, like, but it's still, I have nothing but respect for those guys themselves. They did it on their own and they're fucking amazing. I will buy their pay-per-view every single time they fight no matter what. Agreed. And you know, Nick Diaz changed the game in terms of his elite cardio. He did something that was a new thing. And that new thing was he's not going to hit you with 100% power. He's going to hit you with 50%. But he's going to hit you twice as much and you're never going to get to breathe. And he's going to stay on top of you and he's going to talk to you the whole time. So he's going to fuck with you psychologically. He's going to disrupt your breathing by constantly hitting you. And then once he realizes you're hurt, then he's digging into the body. Then he's putting it on you. And on top of that, black belt jujitsu skills, really good wrestling takedown defense, fucking chin made of iron and an unstoppable will, like his will to beat you was just unstoppable. When Nick was at the top in Strike Force to this day, I think he's one of the best fighters that's ever done it to this day. No, I agree. I think a lot of that unstoppable will though comes from him doing triathlons. I was like, hey, I cannot stop. Otherwise I lose my time and I'm only got five more miles or eight more miles until I get to the bike or until I get to the run or until I get to the, I'm done with the swim. Those are things in your mind as an athlete, you're always thinking like I'm almost there. Okay, I'm only going to run until the two minute mark. I'm only going to run to the five. You set goals for yourself as you go. Should I smash the goal? Okay, one more goal ahead. Those are the things that top athletes do and I feel like that's what he's done with his career. He used triathlons to help get him there. He was always good, always nasty, like good jiu-jitsu, great, phenomenal guillotines. His game has always been really good. When he upped his game in that boxing and the pace, like you're saying, just the touch, touch, touch, now, bam, bam, touch, touch, touch, bam. That's next level boxing that we hadn't seen in MMA at the time. Yeah, and sparring with Andre Ward on a regular basis too. Yes. Look, he did really change things. He really changed things, particularly with that fucking cardio of his. He has some spooky cardio.