Mixed martial arts veteran Nate Diaz has prematurely departed a Russian reality television series he was filming alongside Jon Jones in Thailand.
Diaz had traveled to Thailand to serve as a coach on a show formatted similarly to The Ultimate Fighter. However, filming was cut short very quickly after a massive altercation erupted. This incident led to Diaz leaving the production and flying back to his home in California. His longtime friend and training partner, Jake Shields, was also part of the show and documented the chaotic events as they unfolded, even before significant filming had commenced.
Sources later confirmed to MMA Fighting that Diaz`s departure was a direct result of an intense brawl that broke out between some of the show`s participants and members of Diaz`s own team.
Nate Diaz`s representatives were reportedly unavailable for comment regarding the situation.
In a video shared on YouTube, Jake Shields stated that the production felt disorganized from the moment they arrived in Thailand. However, the most serious conflict reportedly began when one of the competing fighters confronted Diaz during an introductory segment.
The footage provided by Shields shows the fighter first speaking to Jon Jones before turning his attention to Diaz. It appears the fighter attempted physical contact with Diaz, who immediately shrugged him off.
Shields described the situation escalating moments later, with Diaz and the fighter becoming physically involved, stating that “Nate went and slapped him.” The situation then fully erupted into a wider brawl after a member of Diaz`s team landed a punch on the fighter.
According to Shields, rather than removing the fighter from the set, he was allowed back into the same area, which allegedly led to another melee. Shields claims he became involved in this second incident, tackling the fighter who had initially clashed with Diaz.
“Right when I started to go off on him, I got just blitzed from the side,” Shields recounted. “Not where the fighters were, a couple of guys just started blitzing me, which to me seemed like they were crew working there, not fighters because the fighters were in the chairs.”
He emphasized, “To me it was very clear that it was the staff and the workers. That was one of those moments where’s like I better diffuse the situation.”
After the altercations were broken up, Shields stated that the “chaos” continued, prompting Diaz`s entire team to collectively decide to vacate the premises and leave the reality show production.
Shields mentioned that the production team eventually attempted to find a way to get Diaz and his team to return to the show. However, by that point, everyone involved had mentally checked out and was ready to head back home.
Shields explained their decision, questioning, “Why are we going to go back and film a show — it`s one thing to be fighting the fighters, that`s why I went out there with Nate, I thought it was a possibility some of these fighters will try to test him — but when you have potentially the crew hitting you, too it`s like no, f*ck that.”
Just a few days later, Nate Diaz and his full team flew back to California, bringing the reality show experiment in Thailand to an abrupt and premature conclusion.
Marcus Blakely