John "Greco" Salgado

John “Greco” Salgado is a New York City combat sports veteran. He will be fighting a Glory rules bout at Lou Neglia’s Combat at the Capitale on 1/21/17.  Here he is doing a final, light session with his good friend Tim O’Connor (they became friends and training partners after fighting each other a few years ago).  Kris Anders will also be fighting at Capitale but it will be his first time entering the ring… John has been training him, as he was himself preparing for his fight.

Kris was finishing up when I got there and I cornered him for a shot - sorry, Kris ;-)

Stockton's Son

Nick isn't there when I walk in so I sit down with his manager and we start chatting. After about 10 minutes, he comes to the table and I remember thinking: “Wow, he is a ninja”. He seemed to come out of nowhere. Right off the bat, he was Nick. The one I thought he would be from watching him on TV all these years. Only this time, he was sitting right in front of me eating a quinoa burger, or at least picking at it after destroying two fried eggs. It was my first time meeting him officially (we had crossed paths at Glory in 2014) and I have to admit I was freaking out a bit walking to the restaurant – he’s my favorite fighter.  Right before leaving work to go to the meeting, I texted my best friend forever: “I’m scared!” and he replied with an appropriate “Don’t be scared homie”, immediately followed by a more straightforward “Bitch, be cool!”. I got comfortable right away though because Nick exudes zero pretense. He laughs easily and seems happy I know combat sports (I had to get my street cred: "Yeah, I fight too"); besides, I know from experience, it's refreshing to have someone speak your language. We touch on a few subjects: his recent dinner with Anthony Bourdain, Jean-Claude Van Damme, black beans, house music, settling down, missing home, training, GSP... To me, hopefully, a prelude to traveling to where it all originated: Stockton, CA. We make plans to meet a couple of days later to document his upcoming seminar at Renzo Gracie in Jersey City.  When we say goodbye, we shake hands and I am taken aback: his palm is very soft.  I suddenly find myself struggling to reconcile this hand with the Stockton slap. 

I took on the lunch crowd on Sixth Avenue my brain overflowing with excitement. My first meeting with Nick amounted to exactly what I texted my BFF as I ran back to work: “Success!”. 

A few days later, I meet Nick at Renzo Gracie. I witness fans gearing up and getting psyched at the prospect of not only meeting him but learning from the master. Prepping cameras, playing around on the mats, others warming up more seriously. Amidst the crowd, there's a little girl sitting quietly on the bench, patiently waiting. When Nick arrives and starts teaching, she pays close attention. She is the youngest attendee, but you can tell she means business. School is in session. I notice at one point that she has changed and is now wearing Muay Thai shorts. After the seminar, she is the first one to take a picture with Nick (being that she is the youngest one) but it's clear that she is in no rush to leave his side – she's very much in awe.  I take a couple of pictures of her, introducing myself to her and her father, Dan.  Her name is Jodie "The Beast" McCarthy, in town from Ireland for UFC205 and to take seminars with her favorite fighters (she also loves Joanna).  It turns out that she is 2x Irish champion, a European champion and 6x World champion in Thai Boxing.  At 10 years old. She also practices BJJ and MMA and her hat says: "2024 The beast is coming".  We’ll be waiting.

A couple days later, on Friday 11/11 (a few hours before my birthday), one day before the long-awaited UFC 205 at MSG, it's time for a Meet & Greet at Stout on 34th Street.  I get there as the room is already buzzing and the line of fans has no end in sight; camera in hand, I try to position myself not to be a nuisance both to the fans who had paid to be there, but also to the fighters.  At one point, I walk towards Nick to say hi and he gives me a hug and introduces me to Nate who says “Hi, I’m Nate”.  Joe Schilling, Jake Shields and Luke Rockhold are hanging out interacting with the fans and I get busy struggling with the light (once, in a moment of panic, I politely declined to take a picture of Chris Weidman and Lou Neglia when they asked me because “there [was] no light”…).  At one point, I get a semi-quiet moment with Nate and I tell him it was a no brainer that I wanted to work with Nick since he is my favorite fighter. Nate replies: “He’s my favorite fighter too”, and we both look at Nick who is staring back at us. And there we were, two fans. I loved that moment, because of what it said about Nick and because of what it said about Nate. I had heard him say in many interviews that his older brother was his favorite fighter but in person? That bond was undeniable.  While Nick resumes the meet and greet, I tell Nate that one of my best friends loved him even though she had never watched a fight in her life (she liked the realness that transpired through the interviews that I would send her and that we could relate to) and he immediately wants me to tell her that he says hi, insists I text it to her. Then, at the end of the night, he runs behind me to take a selfie that we would send to her as well. She loved it. Also, he noticed I had an accent three words in, even though we were surrounded by what seemed like a thousand people, patiently waiting to have their moment immortalized. I was impressed.

Midnight strikes and it's officially my birthday. I leave the boys at the bar and walk back to the train station. When I get home, I start the process of editing my (badly lit) photos and gathering my thoughts - I was convinced, more than ever: Nick Diaz has tremendous power.  Even though he hasn’t fought in almost two years, his name is in every conversation, with countless fans and professionals hoping for his grand return. Every week, yet another UFC fighter wants to be the one to welcome him back to the octagon. His snaps are aired as breaking news segments. Everyone wants to know when Nick will fight again and come back in their lives - despite him famously saying that he does not enjoy fighting, that it is, in fact, a curse. Even my friend, Nate's biggest fan, knows his story now and wants to know "when are we going to Stockton?".

For better or worse,  the octagon will come calling again and Nick's gift to us will be another piece of himself that he leaves in there every single time he goes to war, every single time he performs. As Cesar Gracie would say, a poet in action. Finally meeting him in person was a confirmation of what I knew all along: Nick is real but, more importantly, he is truly himself. 

*** Thank you to Adam Carriker, Matt Staudt and Cullen McCann and of course, Nick, for being so gracious. ***