Prior to finding jiu-jitsu, Diaz was hanging out with a partying crowd as a young teenager. He’d get in gang fights and was at a crossroads.
“I started doing jiu-jitsu right away. I was 15, but I was 13 and 14 I was watching the UFC. Maybe younger than that. I was renting VHS UFC’s and watching UFC fighting and stuff like that, you know, smoking weed and I used to hang around a bunch of kids like they did a bunch of drugs. That’s kind of what we did,” Diaz said.
“But then I started training jiu-jitsu when I was 16. That’s all I did, and I was beating pro fighters. I was beating them on the mats, was beating them in the gym. Grown fighters. And I was competing in jiu-jitsu,” he explained.
Like with most friendships, life happens. Some of Diaz’ friends went on to college, got jobs while others went a different direction.
“We had a whole like 20 of us or something. We’re all friends … I had a pretty good group of friends. I mean, a lot of them did good or went to college, moved away. And then some of them stayed started f*cking up,” Diaz explained.
“I didn’t really maintain friendships for a long time. I was busy. I was fighting three to five fights a year for 17 years. All I was thinking about was weight. How much do I weigh? What am I going to eat? After a while you realize there’s more to life. That’s when I started getting into some trouble again. I was bringing some old friends back in the picture, and that really f*cked things up.”
Diaz had a successful fighting career and admitted to having a substance abuse problem at points in his life. He spent most of his earnings on training for and participating in triathlons. He’s more proud of being a triathlete than a mixed martial arts fighter.
“Looking at like my career as an athlete, as a world class athlete, as like a triathlete, I think I take more pride in that because none of the other fighters in the sport or in the world, none of them have done what I have done. They don’t even know about it,” he said.
“I’ve done so many races. I’ve done more races than pro triathletes. I would just race and race. Like, I spent my money from fighting on racing.”
Diaz found himself in a dire financial situation. He no longer had basic needs like transportation.
“That was one of my biggest problems before coming here. I didn’t have the means of transportation. I cut my circle shorter, and I didn’t have anybody to call. I had nowhere to go, so people thought it was best that I wind up here,” he said. “I just had a falling out with my current agents. I had a falling out with some friends. Nobody saw it my way and so I wound up here.”
“I’m grateful to be here, but I’m not grateful for anybody that had anything to do with me being here.”
