Daniel Cormier doesn't think Nick Diaz fights again: 'He looked like a different man'

Daniel Cormier doesn’t want to see Nick Diaz fight again.

With news from Diaz’s coach Cesar Gracie emerging that the Stockton superstar is looking to compete again before the end of the year, Cormier has expressed doubt about whether he should.

Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) returned from an almost seven-year long layoff at UFC 266 in September for a rematch Robbie Lawler, but he wound up getting stopped in the opening minute of Round 3.

“My last visual of Nick Diaz, I don’t feel like we’re gonna really see him again in the octagon,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “The pictures he looked shredded, inside the octagon he looked like a different man and it didn’t seem like he wanted to be in there.”

Diaz’s return bout was originally scheduled for welterweight, but as the event drew near it was abruptly shifted to middleweight. Diaz looked uncharacteristically out of shape when he arrives to fight week, and there was concern about his mental and physical condition.

Although UFC president Dana White initially lauded Diaz’s performance against Lawler, he later said that he’d rather he didn’t fight again, but the 38-year-old remains under UFC contract and is therefor owed fights.

The TKO defeat to Lawler marked Diaz’s first stoppage loss in nearly 14 years. Diaz hasn’t won a fight since defeating B.J. Penn at UFC 137 in October 2011.