Jon Jones opens up on ‘serious' Nate Diaz brawl on reality TV show

Independent

23-05-2025

Jon Jones has detailed Nate Diaz 's exit from a Russian reality television show, on which the pair were working until the latter became involved in a brawl.
The MMA show, which has been described as a Russian version of The Ultimate Fighter, is being filmed in Thailand, where chaos broke out on the set this week.
'We had one of our young fighters, a guy named Zalik, he was playing with Nate,' Jones told Red Corner MMA. 'He wanted to play-fight with Nate.
'Nate kind of came in a little bit on edge, I think he had some previous beef with some Russian fighters, so he was a little bit on edge when he got here. Play-fighting with Nate was not the best idea. It became serious right away, and we had to replace Nate.
'I've been around the Bushido spirit for a long time, that martial arts spirit where everybody has a certain degree of... kind of certain rules you don't cross – like a martial arts spirit and everything. I don't think there's a lot of that here.
'Some guys are like warriors, and some guys are really just kind of street fighters. There's insults, there's weapons. This show... there's nothing like it, there's really nothing like it.'
Diaz's longtime friend and teammate Jake Shields, a fellow former UFC fighter, was also involved in the show until Diaz's exit. He explained the situation in a video on his YouTube channel.
'Nate went and slapped him,' Shields said, referring to the fighter who tried to grab Diaz. That led to a full-blown physical altercation, with Shields adding: 'Right when I started to go off on him, I got just blitzed from the side – 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. To me, it was very clear that it was the staff and the workers. That was one of those moments where it's like: 'I better defuse the situation.'
'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*** that.''
Diaz, 40, left the UFC in 2022 after submitting Tony Ferguson in the final fight on his contract. Since then, the American has boxed twice, losing to YouTuber Jake Paul on points and beating fellow UFC veteran Jorge Masival via decision.
Meanwhile, Jones . Jones, a former two-time light-heavyweight champion, holds the regular heavyweight title, while Aspinall owns the interim version. Despite that dynamic, which has existed since November 2023, the 37-year-old Jones has continued to dismiss a fight with Aspinall, 32.
Britain's Aspinall actually chose to defend the interim title, in a rare move, retaining it last July while waiting for Jones to defend the regular belt against Stipe Miocic. Jones stopped Miocic to retain his title in November, a year after the pair were initially due to fight, with an injury to Jones delaying the bout by 12 months.
Still, Aspinall has failed to book a fight with the American, who is considered the greatest fighter of all time by some fans, despite Jones's numerous failed drug tests and run-ins with the law.