ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

As soon as the judges’ scorecards were read, Ricardo Almeida knew it was time to end his fighting career.

Almeida still believed he could compete against UFC’s top welterweights. What he could no longer do was defeat some of the sport’s questionable judging.

Fighting in his home state of New Jersey on March 19, 2011, at UFC 128, Almeida came out on the short end of a unanimous decision to Mike Pyle.

“As a fighter, I’ve been on the wrong end of a couple of bad decisions, fights I thought I’d won but lost,” Almeida, who spent most of his mixed martial arts career at middleweight, told ESPN.com. “The one closest to my heart is the last fight in Jersey.

“It was close, but I thought I won that fight.”

Rather than be victimized by another "bad" decision, Almeida decided to take off his gloves for good. He might have lost to Pyle, but he wasn’t done fighting. Almeida was just getting started.

You know the saying, "if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em"? Well, Almeida took that saying to heart and, shortly after his loss to Pyle, became an MMA judge with the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.

The experience has been satisfying and eye-opening for Almeida, who has a newfound appreciation for some of the obstacles judges must overcome while scoring fights.

“Personally, it’s just giving back to a sport that has given a lot to my life,” Almeida said. “[NJSACB attorney] Nick Lembo invited me and I’ve had a great relationship with the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board and I accepted right away.

“What people don’t understand is that the view a judge has watching the fight isn’t the same view fans have watching on TV. It’s hard; it’s a different perspective.”

A judge’s vision can sometimes be obstructed by poles, referees and poor seating angles, which strengthens Almeida’s belief that former fighters are best equipped to score today’s action.

“There is always going to be controversy, but the more we can get guys who understand what’s going on inside the Octagon, the results are going to be a little more consistent,” Almeida said. “Another side of it is that the sport is evolving so quickly that a lot of fans don’t even understand the sport now.”

For a little more than a year, Almeida has been fine-tuning his skills as a professional MMA judge. On Saturday night he gets to show off what he’s learned on the sport’s grandest stage --UFC on Fox at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.

Almeida will score several bouts on that card, including the co-main event which pits welterweight Johny Hendricks against Josh Koscheck.

His presence as a judge has already garnered support from the fighters.

“He’s going to know a little bit more about the sport,” Hendricks said during a recent conference call. “He’ll know what position really means, and he’ll know when a strike actually lands.”

Koscheck added: “It’s good for the sport. It gets the perspective of a fighter, someone who’s been in the Octagon and knows jiu-jitsu and knows wrestling and understands the sport.

“As this sport grows we’re going to see more ex-UFC fighters become judges. It’s a good start.”

This will be the biggest night of Almeida’s young career as a judge. While he is judging the fighters’ performances, others are sure to judge his.

But with several events under his belt -- among them, Cage Fury Fighting Championships, Ring of Combat and Bellator Fighting Championships -- Judge Almeida is fully prepared for his UFC debut.

“It will be pretty intense, but I will be on my toes with this UFC event, because I know all eyes are going to be on me,” Almeida said.

“Yeah, I’m going to be nervous. It’ll be like I’m walking into a fight myself. But the spotlight only makes me want to be sharper and do a better job.”

In addition to his knowledge of MMA, Almeida also brings his high level of integrity. Some might question if having Almeida judge fights is a conflict of interest. He still runs his gym in Hamilton, N.J., where several high-profile fighters train, including former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

No worries; Almeida will never be assigned to judge a bout that has a direct impact on one of his fighters.

“Obviously that is not going to happen,” Lembo told ESPN.com. “There are disclosure forms and conflict of interest forms that every official has to fill out. If anything, Ricardo has voluntarily disclosed some things that I didn’t even think, as the commission attorney, disqualified him.

“That’s one of the reasons why he’s not on that [Nate Diaz-Jim Miller] fight. Diaz has a [Cesar] Gracie connection and Miller’s side [American Martial Arts] also has a connection to Renzo Gracie.”

Miller and Diaz are competing in a lightweight bout that could land the winner a shot at the title. Champion Benson Henderson is tentatively slated to face Edgar in a rematch on Aug. 11 at UFC 150. Almeida and Edgar are closely affiliated with Renzo Gracie.

“I don’t want to be part of a fight where there is any conflict of interest of any kind,” Almeida said. “I’ve trained with Jim Miller and we’re very close with Nate Diaz.”

Knowledge, enthusiasm and integrity: Almeida will bring it all with him as a judge Saturday. Besides, he’s developed into a solid judge, according to his superiors.

“He’s been very good or we wouldn’t use him,” Lembo said. “We’re not using him because he’s Ricardo Almeida; that doesn’t do use any good.

“We’re not in the business of selling tickets or getting media attention; we’re in the business of trying to assure the health and safety of the fighters, and provide the best officiating that we can.”

There were those who thought that Nick Diaz beat Carlos Condit at UFC 143, pointing to his constant pursuit as evidence. Diaz stalked, mocked and talked. He was "Stalkton." He was exactly who we thought he was.

Problem was, Condit wasn’t.

Condit went into the nastiest kind of retreat, one that stuck and ducked and moved and circled and landed leg kicks and counter shots with isolated ease. Isolated? Wait -- wasn’t Condit supposed to stand in front of Diaz and trade, looking for that big curtain closer? Weren’t chins supposed to come into question? Wasn’t Condit supposed to be tailor-made for the high-volume striking assault that Diaz is known for?

Condit had a mute button for the volume. He was either brilliant, or he was a high stakes version of Kalib Starnes, depending on your bias. In all circles, it was clear that he consciously avoided a brawl. And this is where feelings got hurt. In the end, Condit wasn’t about meeting bloodthirsty expectations so much as winning the fight, and he executed his game plan brilliantly. Good for (or shame on) him. Now he’s the interim welterweight champion, and don’t expect apologies from Albuquerque.

Yet for all the scorecard dissection that ensued, nobody was as disappointed or disillusioned as Diaz, who sort of retired right after. A totally impromptu retirement -- just a hundred seconds after a stubborn war he could never incite.

“I don’t need this s---,” he said to Joe Rogan.

He said he’d continue to help train his brother, Nate, but as for him and the whole pack of incompetent judges and all the pressure-filled, bustling hate? Devil take it. He doesn’t need the racket.

Which we all of course took with a grain of salt.

Nobody really thinks that the 28-year-old Diaz is walking. He does need the racket. All the dude has done since his earliest memories is mean mug whoever gets in his grill, and fight. He went so far as to balance out the street menace early by funneling it into jiu-jitsu in his formative years. These days, he is as much Cesar Gracie as Cesar Gracie. Diaz is known for his fiendish work ethic, and he trains compulsively. It’s what he does. It’s how he copes, and how he vents. We like it because we see such focused discipline coming out of unknown wilds. Maybe more than anybody, this game is Diaz’s lifeblood.

Only it’s not a game to Diaz, it’s fighting -- and that’s why judge’s scorecards become absurd to such a literalist.

This last distinction is why he’ll return to the cage before long. The old Dana White proverb to “never leave it in the hands of the judges” will resonate in him and work as kindling. Losing that way won’t sit well in the 209. White senses it, just like you and I. In fact, White was already dangling Josh Koscheck out there as a possible next opponent in the postfight news conference. Emotions got the better of Diaz, who has never filtered the urge to say what’s on his mind like typical professionals.

It helps that there are possibilities all over the place. Realistically, with Georges St. Pierre on the shelf until something like November, a rematch with Condit isn’t out of the question. Neither is fighting a Johny Hendricks or a Jon Fitch or a Rory MacDonald to avenge his brother’s loss. Or maybe Jake Ellenberger, who would love nothing better than to stand and trade heat with Diaz. How about rematch with Diego Sanchez, who knows the buttons to push to get Diaz’s chest puffing back out?

There will be suitors, some of them equipped with the kinds of mouths that will get to Diaz.

But that’s all window dressing. The thing is, Diaz doesn’t have it in him to quit, and there’s still too much left unresolved and just too many reasons for him to walk away.

And for those who have paid attention to Diaz’s competitiveness over the years, the biggest might be this -- he simply can’t.

LAS VEGAS -- It’s a simple question with a potentially very complex answer: Is Nick Diaz crazy?

The UFC welterweight must be hearing from select groups of fans that he is -- and one can see how the rumor started. He has skipped news conferences in the past. His own trainer, Cesar Gracie, once informed UFC president Dana White that Diaz snuck out of the window in his house just to escape the situation.

He’s known for giving awkward, at times off-topic interviews. Apparently, despite being pulled from a main event last year after he was deemed too unreliable by UFC brass, he still managed to miss three flights to Las Vegas for this weekend’s fight, according to White.

To Diaz, however, he’s not crazy -- the situation is. He’s here to fight. What’s crazy is before he has to fight, he has to sit at a table and answer questions from media. He has to get in the same room as his opponent and take pictures with him. He has to sit in front of a camera and try to figure out exactly what the UFC wants him to say.

“I’m just being realistic,” Diaz said. “People want to say, ‘Oh, Nick Diaz is crazy.’ I’m like, hey bro, what you see is what you get. I’m not out here trying to put on an act like I’m crazy.

“In my mind, [other fighters] are the ones who are crazy. They’re the ones putting on an act, doing what they’re told in front of the camera. The camera gives them a line and they say it 10 times. They turn these guys into robots. I’m not going to be that guy.”

During the UFC 143 prefight news conference Thursday, a fan in the audience asked Diaz what he meant when he said you need to love mixed martial arts so much, you hate it during a promotional video.

Diaz, seeming disinterested in the question, stared ahead for a few moments before answering, ‘That pretty much says it all, what I said is what I meant.”

It wasn’t exactly a memorable moment; however, the UFC President felt it illustrates why Diaz is viewed the way he is. More so than any fighter in the promotion, Diaz is a guy who doesn’t want to talk about what he does, even with a fan.

“This kid is fascinating,” White said. “You ask him a question he knows the answer to, 'but f--- you. Figure the f---ing answer out yourself. That’s how he thinks. ‘I don’t give a s--- what you think. I’m here to fight. It’s almost like he even hates [the UFC].”

While Diaz believes he’s the most ‘real’ fighter in the UFC, a potential opponent of his tends to disagree. For welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, Diaz isn’t real and he isn’t crazy.

He’s putting on an act, trying to intimidate.

“Nick is not crazy,” St. Pierre said. “Nick is a very smart guy. He hast to intimidate people. He’s like a school bully. I remember people bullying me in school; they tried to make me believe they killed people.

“I don’t buy this thing that he’s crazy.”

White on Overeem: 'I don’t think he’s in that much trouble'

News broke this week that top heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem has been charged with misdemeanor battery, stemming from an incident in a Las Vegas nightclub.

Overeem, who defeated Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 in Las Vegas on Dec. 31, was not arrested during the incident but faces a maximum penalty of six months in country jail for allegedly shoving a woman.

The UFC president said Thursday he does not believe the issue will affect Overeem long-term and does not anticipate it interfering with pairing the Dutch fighter against champion Junior dos Santos as planned.

“He had to use the restroom, this is my knowledge of what happened,” White said. “Security was going to take him but he said, ‘I don’t need security.’ Sure enough, he goes over there and his side of the story is some lady started yelling and swinging at him.

“I don’t think he’s in that much trouble. This isn’t a situation where he beat somebody up.”

Hendo waiting on title shot, unclear if Diaz/Condit winner will

It appears Dan Henderson is content on waiting to face the winner of a light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans in April rather than fight in the meantime.

“Dan Henderson is in a position now where it looks like he wants to wait for Jon Jones,” White said. “We’ll see what happens with this Rashad fight.”

The 41-year-old fighter made a successful return to the UFC from Strikeforce in November, outlasting Mauricio Rua in a five-round decision, which many felt was the fight of the year.

While that situation has cleared up, it’s currently unknown whether the winner of Saturday’s interim welterweight championship between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit would defend that belt or wait for the return of Georges St. Pierre.

St. Pierre is currently ahead of schedule after undergoing knee surgery and expects a return to the Octagon in November.

“It depends on what happens [Saturday],” White said. “Which guy wins, how he comes out of the fight, how he feels after, does he want to wait -- there are so many different factors, so who knows?”

The past few months have been very difficult for Jake Shields.

His father, Jack Shields, passed away in August and a couple of weeks later he lost for the second time in a row. Jake Ellenberger needed less than a minute to stop him during their Sept. 17 bout.

Shields had never experienced a two-fight skid in his pro mixed martial arts career and he intends to end the streak in his next bout. If he has his way, that will likely happen in February 2012. And when Shields steps back in the Octagon, he'll definitely have a point to prove.

“I’ve started to train hard again this week,” Shields told ESPN.com. “And I look to come back better than I’ve ever been.

“I want to show that I am a much better fighter than I’ve shown in UFC. I really want to prove that in my next fight. It doesn’t matter who I fight. I will fight anybody they want me to fight.”

The emotional pains of losing his father still linger, but Shields is improving each day. Support from family and friends have been extremely helpful.

But Jack Shields was more than a father; he was a close friend, a trainer and manager. If Jake Shields is to ever achieve his goal of becoming UFC welterweight champion, someone needed to step and fill part of the void created when his father passed away.

While his dad played a key role in training camp, the rest of Shields’ team remains intact. Cesar Gracie continues to oversee prefight preparation and develop game plans. Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez and the Diaz brothers -- Nate and Nick -- are still his key training partners.

Training was never a concern for Shields (26-6-1); that part of his fighting career was already in good hands. It’s the other area his father oversaw, management, which had him up at nights.

It might not seem like a big deal to those on the outside, but these days, professional fighters are very careful when it comes to selecting a manager. Shields knew there was no one he could trust like his father, but after a month of searching, he decided to put his career in the hands of Glenn Robinson and Authentic Sports Management.

“It feels like a trusting, good family environment here,” Shields said. “And they cover all aspects of management.

“No one can replace my dad, that’s a bond you can only have with your dad. But I wanted someone who feels like family, and that’s how it feels with Glenn.”

Safe to say, Cesar Gracie earned his money this week.

Heaven only knows what the past few days have been like for Gracie, let alone the past 11 years.

As the longtime coach and manager of one of MMA’s most unmanageable fighters, he sounded like he’d finally had enough on Wednesday when he had to admit that after no-showing back-to-back news conferences, Nick Diaz got what he deserved in getting booted out of the biggest fight of his life against welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre at UFC 137.

Certainly he couldn’t have been totally shocked. Gracie has mentored Diaz since he was 16, after all. If anyone knows what’s brewing inside the talented but troubled fighter’s head from one moment to the next, it’s got to be him. Yet even after all the incidents of the past -- the positive drug tests and hospital brawls and televised gang beatdowns--– Gracie seemed particularly discouraged after this latest and gravest turn of events.

Yes, he said, he understood the UFC’s position. No, he said, he didn’t know where Diaz was. Yes, maybe he was finally, finally ready to admit that his star pupil has some problems. That maybe the kid should seek professional help.

That was two days ago. Fast forward to Friday and, through surely no small amount of finagling by Gracie, Diaz is back. Back in the UFC. Back on the same card even, now scheduled to fight B.J. Penn on Oct. 29 in the co-main event of the pay-per-view he was originally supposed to headline.

Unbelievable? Insane? Bizarre? You betcha. For an MMA coach? Just another day at the office.

“You mean this crazy rollercoaster that we as coaches ride every day?” a chuckling Trevor Wittman tells ESPN.com when asked about the Diaz situation. “Yeah.”

Trainers and managers are perhaps the fight game’s most important and least heralded brotherhood. Spend a few minutes talking to any of them -- the Wittmans, Bob Cooks or Greg Jacksons of the world -- and you invariably come away struck by how reasonable they all seem. How unflappable. How normal.

Then you consider their charges. Even in the strange, catch-all of professional athletics, the average MMA fighter undoubtedly falls on the more unreliable end of the spectrum. Just as Gracie has done with Diaz, a trainer can work with a particular fighter for his entire adult life. He can put in countless hours, innumerable training sessions and dozens of fights to prepare him in every conceivable physical way for the biggest moment of his career.

Then the guy doesn’t make weight. He doesn’t fill out his paperwork. He doesn’t get on an airplane or, as the case may be this time, three airplanes. Suddenly, all that work seems like it was for naught.

“It is what it is,” says Cook, also laughing. “There is a reason why these fighters are driven to step in the cage and challenge themselves. It’s my belief that not just your average Joe wants to do that. You’ve got to have something special in you -- or something special missing, one of the two.”

Guys like Cook and Wittman ought to know. They run two of the nation’s top MMA gyms -- Wittman at Grudge Training Center in Colorado, Cook with American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose. Both have trained world champions in boxing and/or MMA. Both have lent guys money, let guys live at their houses, loaned them cars or whatever else they needed to survive the months and years leading up to their “big break.” They've also both had the bottom unexpectedly yanked out from under them when they least expected it, just as Gracie did this week.

“You work with fighters and you put your time and effort into these guys and you love them like they're your kids,” Wittman says. “We kind of take this role of being somewhat of a father figure. [Trainers] take these guys under their wing, they give them all their time, they drive them around, they help them with their outside lives, you put a lot of time into these guys and, when someone makes a decision like [Diaz], it all comes back on you.”

What a strange and maddening thing it must be to be the man behind the man. When a fighter is winning, it’s typically all about him. My God, his striking looks great!, the guys on TV say. He’s really worked hard! the journalists write. What a warrior! When things go wrong? The same fighter had a bad game plan. He looked over-trained or under-trained or he got bad advice from his corner. What he needs to do, we all say, is find a new camp.

“There’s the saying, ‘You can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make him drink ...,’” Cook says. “All you can do is voice your opinion of what the right decisions are. Sometimes the fighters will agree with you, sometimes they won’t. Hopefully they can have enough respect or wisdom or faith to just go with it and do what’s in their best interests.”

You look at a situation like the one Gracie found himself in this week and you wonder how it could all possibly be worth it. Considering the innumerable ways a fighter can screw up, it’s actually surprising it doesn’t happen more often. Why put up with the headaches? The answer, the trainers say to a man, is that they really can’t help themselves. Most them are former fighters themselves and the fight game has seeped into their blood. They probably couldn't quit it if they tried.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I get hurt or fighters step away from me or whatever it is,” Wittman says. “I love to see guys earn world championships. I love it. To be able to see a guy get to the highest level of the game and get that belt put around his waist, I mean, those are the moments I’ll never forget. Those are the moments I’ll take to the grave with me.”

Those are the good times. On Wednesday? That was the bad.

All those hours. All that blood, sweat and tears and then your guy misses his flight. He gets cut. He faces what is probably the darkest day of his life. People spend 48 solid hours mocking him, mocking you and mocking your methods on the Internet. The boss is livid, saying your guy will never work in this town again. You know what you do then? You do the only thing you can do. You do exactly what Gracie did this week.

You do whatever you have to do to get him back in.

Georges St. Pierre has shown a variety of skills in his domination of the UFC welterweight division, but his ability to take down opponents and control them has perhaps been the most overwhelming part of his game.

Cesar Gracie does not think St. Pierre can control UFC 129 title challenger Jake Shields, though. More »

Since stopping Paul Daley on April 9 in an entertaining Strikeforce welterweight title defense, Nick Diaz has sounded more interested in boxing than fighting MMA.

His trainer, Cesar Gracie, has even mentioned first Fernando Vargas and most recently Jeff Lacy as possible.

Diaz has complained publicly about his pay. He’s also given his opinion that there’s a lack of quality opponents for him in Strikeforce and he’s expressed uncertainty whether he has a future in MMA.

Coker pointed to Tyron Woodley as a worthy challenger. A two-time All-American wrestler at the University of Missouri, he is 6-0 in Strikeforce.

“Tyron Woodley has been bugging me all weekend,” Coker said. “Nick doesn’t feel like he has anybody left to fight, but ‘T-Wood’ is a guy that’s getting better and better. I think Nick fighting ‘T-Wood’ is probably his best wrestling test to date. I don’t think Nick’s fought a wrestler that has better skills in wrestling than Tyron. That’s a fight we’re definitely looking at.”