Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
It only took 17 years, but the UFC is running it back. When Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler first met, they were young guns with everything to prove. The two men faced off for the first time, in the Octagon, at UFC 47 in 2004, where Diaz picked up a second round KO victory.
Lawler, then a Miletich Fighting Systems prodigy, had started his MMA career just three years prior, and was viewed as one of the top rising talents for the Zuffa promotion—after picking up 4 wins in his first five fights (with an injury TKO loss to Pete Spratt in the middle). Also three years into his career, it was just the second fight of Nick Diaz’s UFC run, having picked up an armbar victory over Jeremy Jackson in his debut.