Nick Diaz Tests Positive for Marijuana, Rematch With Condit Off

At some point, Nick Diaz will run out of chances. Just not now. Just not yet. Despite Diaz's positive drug test stemming from his participation at UFC 143, you can expect him to be welcomed back into the UFC with open arms, if and when he's ready to return. That's what happens when you're talented and popular and in your prime.

Now the question is: will he return?

Like most questions pertaining to Diaz, we'll just have to wait and see, with the understanding that anything is possible. This is a guy who missed out on a UFC championship fight and the chance to make a seven-figure payday because he couldn't organize himself enough to make three separate flights to media obligations. You think he has long-term plans?

There is some chatter from those around Diaz that he really is planning to call it quits, that he doesn't want or need MMA anymore. It wouldn't be surprising if that's truly how he feels now. He's less than one week removed from a fight in which he believes he unfairly lost, and less than a few days removed from hearing that he flunked a drug test and is likely to face a lengthy suspension. In his mind, he probably feels like the sport doesn't love him right now, so why would he love it back?

The funny thing is, his popularity rating seems to be at an all-time high. After the Nevada state athletic commission disclosed his positive test, most of the chatter has been in support of him. Given the sport's young demographic, it's not surprising that most don't see marijuana use as an offense worthy of losing your job, or even being suspended from it.

To them, Diaz is just another one of the wrongly persecuted victims of a misdirected war on drugs. After all, they reason, how is marijuana use beneficial for fighting?

So in that way, Diaz has already won the public relations war without saying a single word in his own defense. So, too, has the UFC, which is likely to bring him back into the fold whenever his suspension is up -- and it will most likely be one year. Company CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said so much during a recent Twitter conversation with fans.

From the UFC's perspective, there is just too much money to be made with Diaz to wipe your hands of him and walk away. He has become MMA's counterculture icon, it's anti-hero. On top of that, he's one hell of a fighter, a forward-moving, punch-throwing machine who is murder on the ground. The UFC is, after all, in the fight business, and few represent the rawness of prizefighting the way Diaz does.

That gameness makes Diaz a magnet for those of us who prefer our MMA served up with a side of primal rawness, and that isn't going to go away just because he disappears off our TV screen for a little while.

Sports is one of the few areas in which absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. That's why the comebacks of stars like Michael Jordan and Brett Favre and George Foreman were such big stories. Even if Diaz doesn't belong in that class of superstardom in the real world, he does have that cachet in ours. So if Diaz decides to come back after his yearlong ban is over, it will be a huge story.

But it will be interesting to see if it works in reverse.

Diaz memorably once said that "in order to love fighting, I have to hate it." But at some point, he might just hate it so much that he really, actually hates it. If that were to happen, this would be the time. He has other hobbies. He loves sport jiu-jitsu. He loves triathlons. By all accounts, he's an excellent coach, so he could make a living that way if he wanted to.

Counting the Carlos Condit bout, he fought seven times in the last 24 months, and five of those times, he prepared for five-round bouts. That's a lot of wear and tear on both the body and the mind. This break will test his love/hate relationship, strain it to the point that it might become beyond saving. If he finds that he no longer needs MMA, he gave us plenty of memories for the road.

It's obvious there are many parts of this sport that he can live without. Regulation, judging, point-fighters, etc. The list goes on and on. But for the next year, it's going to be very different. Those complaints are easy to make when you're in the moment, but what happens when all of it is taken away and you're left with nothing?

Then it becomes very simple. Then it comes down to this one thing: The sport moves on without you, but can you move on without it?

Less than 48 hours hours ago, after much griping, it appeared that Nick Diaz would indeed receive his rematch with Carlos Condit. Now it's unclear when, or if, Diaz will ever fight in the UFC again.

The polarizing Stockonian tested positive for "marijuana metabolites" in the aftermath of UFC 143, according to Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer. Given that this is Diaz's second offense, a lengthy suspension is likely forthcoming.

It seems strangely fitting that after five days of fervent debate, the positive test puts the Condit-Diaz controversy to bed in the most Diaz-like way imaginable. As the UFC and Condit were busy plotting their next move, a slew of Diaz's colleagues sounded off on the announcement.

Nick Diaz was the aggressor of the fight while he was high as a kite is a testament to how good he really is and how much pot he can smoke.

— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) February 9, 2012

I was positive after 143.... Very positive, condit won... Lol

— malki kawa (@malkikawa) February 9, 2012

Lmfao to the haters.

— KJ Noons (@kjnoons) February 9, 2012

Telling me that the top fighters in MMA smoke pot regularly is like saying that @ryanbader and @Kingsbu suck at beerpong: FACT

— Tom Lawlor (@FilthyTomLawlor) February 9, 2012

RT @DUANEBANGCOM I know it only has 3 leafs but don't tell me the adidas owner doesn't smoke weed twitter.com/DUANEBANGCOM/s…. Funny one

— javier vazquez (@javiershowtime) February 10, 2012

Nick Diaz tests+ for weed, so Fkn what!!He should be praised for doing so well hi! Plus he has a medical marijuana license! Wtf

— Adam Schindler (@Schindiggity) February 9, 2012

I don't do drugs.... I suck naturally.

— Forrest Griffin (@ForrestGriffin) February 10, 2012

RT "@ForrestGriffin: I don't do drugs.... I suck naturally." I don't know How naturally is but he sounds like a lucky fella. Haha burn

— Forrest Griffin (@ForrestGriffin) February 10, 2012

The #ComeOnSon award for the first quarter of 2012 goes to.... Nick Diaz.

— Jason High (@KCBanditMMA) February 9, 2012

"@Michael_Pugh: @mayhemmiller and @MieshaTate What are your thoughts about Diaz's test failure?" #stupid

— Miesha Tate (@MieshaTate) February 10, 2012

There is absolutely no freaking way that Nick Diaz test positive for Marijuana #trolling

— David Rickels (@TheCaveman316) February 9, 2012

They shouldn't test for it but they do.

— Jason Mayhem Miller (@mayhemmiller) February 10, 2012

People failing drug tests for marijuana and steroids . I don't want to hear nothing when my tests come back positive for Viagra !

— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunsonMMA) February 10, 2012

I read that Diaz may lose 80,000 of his 200k purse. Cesar could have let me train & follow nick around for 40k to make sure he was clean

— Brian Rogers (@BRogthePredator) February 9, 2012

"@spilledbagofice: Nick should just say there was some THC in a supplement he got from GNC.#blameGNC" everyone else does. Haha

— Duane Ludwig (@DUANEBANGCOM) February 10, 2012

Tricky Nicky got caught smokin' that sticky! # #UFC #RT

— Joe Duarte (@JoeDuarteMMA) February 9, 2012

@twitchykun weed is the opposite of performance enhancing haha

— Joe Duarte (@JoeDuarteMMA) February 9, 2012

@KCBanditMMA The @DiazBrothers209 R 2 of the realist doods I've met in this sport! Ive got nuthin but good things 2 say about em. #Realtalk

— Danny Castillo (@lastcall155) February 9, 2012

To make you feel slightly better after the shit news of Nick Diaz testing positive, I offer the black keys youtube.com/watch?v=490s68…

— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) February 10, 2012

UFC President Dana White has weighed in on Nick Diaz's failed drug test with a prepared statement that's tamer than most UFC fans would probably expect from White.

"I am beyond disappointed that he tested positive for marijuana," White said in the statement that the UFC distributed to the media. "It is now in the hands of the Nevada State Athletic Commission."

The prepared statement comes across like something a PR staffer would write for White, not like something White would say himself: It doesn't contain any F-bombs, and it doesn't say anything about what this does for Diaz's future with the UFC. White has also been silent on Twitter, where he usually doesn't hesitate to mix it up with fans when controversy explodes in the UFC.

But the way White is responding may demonstrate just how much he's seething that Diaz continues to refuse to "play the game" the right way. White may be so angry about Diaz's unprofessionalism that he doesn't want to say a word because he knows his anger may lead him to take things too far.

Because this is Diaz's second positive marijuana test, the Nevada State Athletic Commission may suspend him for a full year. That would take any decision about what to do with Diaz out of White's hands until February of 2013. By then, White may have simmered down long enough that he's willing to give Diaz another chance.

Or by then the UFC's welterweight division may have moved on without Diaz, and White may decide to let Diaz go entirely, and let him be a disappointment for some other promotion.

The MMA (After) Hour is a new feature on MMAFighting.com where we'll provide you with breaking news and interviews in audio podcast form when there isn't a regular episode of The MMA Hour scheduled.

On this first-ever edition of the podcast, we discuss Nick Diaz's positive marijuana test with MMAFighting.com's Ben Fowlkes, what this means for Diaz's MMA future, what the UFC should do next with Diaz and Carlos Condit, and much more.

Listen to the show after the jump or download the audio directly here.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Nick Diaz fights in Las Vegas, does his usual schtick enlarging his fame among his diehard fans and leaving the rest of the MMA world slightly confused, but intrigued. Then the drug-test results come back, and suddenly he has a real problem that won’t go away. Not without a suspension and a fine, in all likelihood.

For the second time in his professional career, Diaz has been busted for marijuana use by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The first was back in 2007, when his spectacular submission win over Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33 was changed to a no contest after Diaz turned in a urine sample with THC levels that would make Willie Nelson blush.

Fast forward five years, and it’s the same story, only this time in the UFC, and at a time when he can least afford it.

If you were surprised to learn that Diaz has a bit of a thing for weed, I have some news about Ernest Hemingway and booze that may shock you. If, like most of us, you already knew that Diaz liked a puff from time to time and just assumed he’d gotten better at fooling the drug tests, the news is probably more of a vague disappointment than anything else. It’s not that he uses one of the most harmless drugs (and least performance-enhancing ones) on the banned substances list -- it’s that he got caught for it.

Of all the questionable things Diaz does -- from slapping and taunting opponents to making the lives of the UFC PR staff miserable -- smoking weed is actually probably the most defensible. After all, he lives in California, where medical marijuana is legal. His trainer, Cesar Gracie, has publicly stated in the past that Diaz has a prescription for it, and if anyone could make the case for needing a little something to soothe his general anxiety, it’s Diaz.

My point is, most people in the MMA world probably don’t care that he smokes weed. It’s not giving him an unfair advantage over his opponents, and it isn’t jeopardizing his health. I suppose you could argue that it makes him a poor role model for kids, but no more than fighters who like to knock back a few too many adult beverages at the after-parties, and certainly not more than those who abuse use steroids or other performance-enhancers (not to mention, Nick Diaz is your kid’s role model? If so, you’ve got bigger issues coming your way real soon).

But if some fighters can get permission to up their testosterone levels before a fight, why can’t Diaz use something that helps him relax and enjoy Reno 911 re-runs?

The answer is: because the athletic commission says he can’t. Right or wrong, those are the rules, and Diaz knew it. The UFC might have been content to look the other way as long as he passed his drug tests, but the moment he fails to hold up his end of the bargain is the moment he has a problem.

Rematch with Carlos Condit? It’s a non-issue now. And can you imagine if the decision had gone his way, and if the organization was left waiting out a Georges St-Pierre injury and a Diaz drug suspension before it could make the fight that fans desperately wanted to see?

At the same time, it’s sad and a little bizarre that the least harmful thing Diaz does to himself is among the most harmful to his career. As much as he loves to complain about wholly imagined injustices, this one is sort of real. If a guy can get permission for testosterone, why can’t he get it for marijuana? If he smokes it legally a week before his fight, why does it matter whether it shows up in a urinalysis?

And yet, it does matter, at least to the NSAC. Diaz knows it is, as do his coaches, who have at least some responsibility to try and look out for the guy. They learned this lesson once already, so it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for them the second time around. It’s also difficult to feel too angry or betrayed. This isn’t an attempt to cheat, it’s just a failure to get away with something that none of us really cared he was doing anyway. It’s an oversight. It’s a screw-up that lends itself to the existing narrative of immaturity and irresponsibility in unfortunate ways, and at perhaps the most unfortunate time.

If Diaz thought MMA wasn’t worth the trouble when he lost a close decision, what’s he going to think now that the NSAC is likely to fine and suspend him? What if one of the most interesting and entertaining fighters in the sport is run into an early retirement by his own inability to deal with adversity, combined with an antiquated rule regarding a misunderstood substance?

It will be a shame, certainly. It also be frustratingly pointless. More than anything, it’s just dumb. Diaz didn’t break this rule as an act of civil disobedience. He simply messed up his own system somewhere along the line. That, or he found a brand new way to sabotage himself. Either way, he’ll have plenty of time to think about it now. So will his employers at the UFC.

The Nevada Athletic Commission has confirmed that Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana at UFC 143 and will face disciplinary action, almost certainly canceling his planned rematch with Carlos Condit and throwing his future into question.

"Mr. Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites. A complaint for disciplinary action against Mr. Diaz has been filed," Nevada Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer wrote in a statement distributed to the media.

After losing to Condit by unanimous decision, Diaz was expected to get a rematch before it became clear that there was an issue with Diaz's drug test. Now Diaz is likely to be suspended at least six months, and possibly longer because he's a repeat offender. Diaz was also busted for marijuana after his upset submission victory over Takanori Gomi in Pride, and that result was subsequently changed to a no contest.

Diaz's future is in doubt not only because the Commission may suspend him, but also because the UFC may decide he's more trouble than he's worth. UFC President Dana White has repeatedly lamented Diaz's refusal to "play the game," and if Diaz can't pass a drug test at the biggest fight of his career, the UFC may not trust him to participate in big fights going forward. There's also the matter of Diaz's post-fight comments, when he said he doesn't know if he even wants to fight anymore.

It's also unclear what will happen with Condit, who was declared the interim welterweight champion for his victory over Diaz. At the moment it appears likely that Condit will sit out until Georges St. Pierre has sufficiently recovered from knee surgery and can return to the Octagon, which is tentatively planned for November.