UFC
Nate Diaz "completely content" with being No. 2 if friend Gilbert Melendez captures UFC Lightweight Title
Nov 18, 2014 - 9:55:24 PM Nate Diaz "completely content" with being No. 2 if friend Gilbert Melendez captures UFC Lightweight Title

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"I'm completely content with Gilbert being No. 1 and me being No. 2. I'm good with that, because that's my partner. When Gil gets the belt, when Gil wins this fight and gets that belt, I won. That's a win for me. That's my brother. That's pretty much my goal here... People are dumb; they don't know how to answer the damn question. If someone's even considering talking about fighting you, then what the f*** are you friends for? I don't think people even know what friendship is in this sport. I hear people, 'Oh, I'll fight him if we get paid a million dollars.' My partners are my partners and it's not even a consideration. Other people just give hints and 'ifs,' so it makes everyone curious... If anybody ended up stepping up and beating him, which I don't see, then it's always been like that. If I lose, he's going to pick up the scraps and take out the guy. Not too many guys are going to beat both of us. I'm content with him being No. 1 and me being No. 2, and that's pretty much the objective here. It's pretty much you've got Pettis and him fighting for the belt and competing for that position. I think I'm already No. 1 and No. 2 right now, so the deal is almost sealed."

-Nate Diaz talks to Chael Sonnen on the "You're Welcome podcast about why he'll never fight friend and teammate Gilbert Melendez (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com).

Penick's Analysis: While I don't agree with Diaz as far as where he thinks he's situated in the lightweight division, I completely respect his take on Melendez. Unlike other sports where competing against friends, and sometimes even family, can happen, MMA is a unique case in that the intent is physical violence against the opponent. Friends and close training partners have to trust each other while prepping for fights, but they can't really do that effectively if they have to worry about potentially facing that person in the cage. It becomes an unfortunate issue when a number of top fighters in the same division emanate from one camp, but it's infrequent enough that it's not necessary to push the issue in cases like this.