Michael Bisping thinks it’s time for Nate Diaz to hang up his street-fighting gloves.
As you’ve no doubt heard by now, over the weekend, Diaz once again found himself ensconced in controversy when he choked out Logan Paul lookalike Rodney Petersen during a brawl in New Orleans that later went viral. In the aftermath, Petersen showed off a head injury sustained during the altercation and vowed revenge upon Diaz, but as Bisping notes, things could have been much worse for the Stockton native.
“We know Nate Diaz, he’s gangster, he’s from the streets, he doesn’t take no s***, but literally every time he’s going somewhere these days he’s getting into these kind of altercations,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “It must be exhausting. The man is almost 40 years old for crying out loud, but still always getting into s***…
“Nate Diaz is very, very lucky here, because Rodney, old Rodders, is talking about knocking him the eff out. He could be talking about suing him and all other kinds of trouble that you might find yourself into. Obviously he could go to the police and press criminal charges, that would be one thing. I’m glad that’s not happening, but the old true American thing is the lawsuit. They come after your money, they come after your paper, they come after your hard-earned cash. Nate Diaz has had a tremendous career, earned a lot of money.”
But while Petersen may not be pursuing legal action at the moment, that doesn’t mean Diaz has gotten away cleanly. On Monday, the New Orleans police department issued a warrant for Diaz’s arrest on the charge of second-degree battery. In an official statement, Diaz’s representative Zach Rosenfield said Diaz is claiming self defense and intends to work with the District Attorney to clear up the matter. Should Diaz be convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison and a $2,000 fine, but as Bisping notes, things could have been much worse.
“He’s almost 40 years old. Got to be careful because one day that could catch up with you,” Bisping said. “Remember, a lot of people are carrying guns these days. He could have been stabbed. The guy could have cracked his head as he went down. Fortunately, none of that happened.”
Bisping knows about the dangers of getting into these sorts of altercations as when he was a young man he spent a month in prison for participating in a public brawl outside of a bar, and so his advice to Diaz is to perhaps be a little bit more responsible moving forward.
“That’s fantastic press,” Bisping said. “There’s no such things as bad press, simple as that. Nate Diaz is the talk of the town, but at his age, I think he should stop doing that. Everywhere he goes there’s altercations.”