Nick Diaz (image via ESPN/YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Nick Diaz still sounds more than confident in his ability to compete with the UFC’s best. But, it also doesn’t seem like he’s overly excited to fight again.

Diaz is booked to fight Robbie Lawler this Saturday at UFC 266, in what will be his first fight since 2015. Ahead of his long-awaited return to the Octagon, Diaz spoke with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. While discussing his pending return to fighting, Diaz pointed to the people around him, as to why he’s competing again (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“All the people around me and all the money and the sponsors, they won’t let me get away from fighting,” Diaz said. “There’s things I could do, but that’s not gonna work out. I might as well just go and take my punches. … I don’t want to look back and say, ‘Why did I not just do it?’ I don’t feel great. I feel great to fight. I don’t feel great about everything (else). If I don’t do this, I don’t know how I’m going to feel about myself.”

And, when asked about welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, Diaz didn’t hold back while claiming he’d defeat the renowned fighter.

“I think I’ll beat the sh*t out of Usman,” Diaz said. “I’ll have a better shot against Usman than I do Lawler, just because I already beat Lawler. This doesn’t make sense for me to go in and fight Robbie Lawler again. I don’t know why I’m doing this. … This should not happen. Whoever set this up is an idiot. I don’t know why I’m doing this. I don’t know why this happened. I should be fighting Kamaru Usman – and that’s it.”

Lawler and Diaz fought for the first time in 2004, and the latter won the bout via second-round knockout.