„It got serious right away, play fighting
with Nate
Diaz was a bad idea.“Jon
Jones, who’s currently serving as a captain on the Russian
spin-off of the TUF reality show in Thailand, told Red Corner MMA
about the conflict betwen Nate Diaz and
one of the fighters from his team.… pic.twitter.com/HQ0gUctVmu— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
May 22, 2025
Jon
Jones’ co-star, Nate Diaz, is
no longer a part of the mixed martial arts reality show they were
working on.
Jones and Diaz were filming a show for Russian television in
Thailand. A brawl recently broke out on the show’s set, seemingly
during the filming of the first episode. A fighter named Zalik was
seen approaching Diaz, who shrugged him off before a full-scale
brawl broke out. A teammate of Diaz even punched Zalik to escalate
matters further. Diaz and his team subsequently parted ways with
the show and returned to the U.S.
Jones’ version of things were pretty much matched other reports. He
also added that some participants of the show lack “Bushido”
spirit, adhering to mutual respect that he has seen amongst most
mixed martial artists.
“We had one of our young fighters, a guy named Zalik, he was
playing with Nate,” Jones told RedCorner 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.”
Diaz’s longtime teammate and friend, Jake Shields,
was involved in the melee and gave a detailed account of the altercation.
Shields claims the entire show was ill-managed from the get-go.
According to Shields, Diaz slapped the guy who tried to lay hands
on him. Shields accused not only the participants, but also the
crew of attacking him when he entered the fracas.