10 Possible Opponents for the Nick Diaz BJJ Superfight

Nick Diaz may still be officially retired from the sport of MMA. He's still facing a possible suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for failing a drug test after his bout with Carlos Condit earlier this year.

But Nick Diaz isn't going quietly into that good night.

Diaz's manager Cesar Gracie confirmed yesterday that Diaz will be competing in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu super fight at the The World Jiu-Jitsu Expo on May 12 in Long Beach, California.

Who will his opponent be? We have no idea, but that never stopped us from making a few educated guesses.

10. JT Torres

Lloyd Irvin's latest grappling phenom, JT "The Spiderman" Torres is a crowd pleasing dynamo. The New York native, still just 22 years old, has the chance to become the most successful non-Brazilian jiu-jitsu player in history.

9. Georges St-Pierre

Can you imagine how red Dana White's face would get if he found out his big money PPV main event was actually taking place in front of a few hundred fans at a Brazilian jiu-jitsu expo? Suffice to say, that won't be happening. Besides GSP's recovery from knee surgery, there is just too much money in a GSP-Diaz showdown to do it here.

8. Jason High

The Strikeforce welterweight volunteered to face Diaz on Twitter. He's undefeated in Strikeforce, but hasn't fought since September and is raring to go. Although a fight in the gi would be outside Jason's wheelhouse, he told fans he's game for any kind of match they want to sign.

7. Renzo Gracie

Cesar Gracie was not happy with his cousin, MMA legend Renzo Gracie, for training Georges St-Pierre for a fight with Cesar's student Jake Shields. How about Renzo and Cesar's other top student Diaz settle the score on the mat?

6. Ben Askren

Diaz loves to shake things up. And what would get more people's attention than a matchup with the Bellator welterweight champion? Askren, a 2008 Olympian, defends his title on April 6 on MTV2. If things go well, that's plenty of time to recover and shock the world with an inter-promotional grappling dream bout.

5. Diego Sanchez

Sanchez and Diaz had one of the most exciting fights in UFC history. Why not try their luck on the mat and see if they can make magic happen once again?

4. Ryan Hall

If you can't get Sanchez, you can shoot for Ryan Hall, the grappling wizard who beat him at the UFC Fan Expo in Toronto last year. Hall is a proponent of the 50/50 guard, a style that might confuse the old school Diaz.

Hall is a weight class smaller than Diaz, but his years of experience and familiarity with open weight competition should help bridge that gap. This would certainly be an interesting bout for grappling fanatics.

3. Andre Galvao

Galvao is a former Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Abu Dhabi Combat Club no-gi grappling champion. He's one of the best in the world on the mat, but hasn't lived up to his promise inside the cage. 

His mixed martial arts record is just  5-2, but against Diaz he wouldn't have to worry about anything but grappling. That could make for a long night for Nick.

2. Marcelo Garcia

My writing partner Kendall Shields broke down Garcia's impact on the sport of grappling with a telling anecdote in The MMA Encyclopedia:

"

Although he's far from a household name, any fan who watched Travis Lutter's non-title bout with UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva has at least heard of Marcelo Garcia. When play-by-play man Mike Goldberg, in his enthusiasm, repeated a comment by matchmaker Joe Silva suggesting that Travis Lutter possessed not merely average black-belt level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, but in fact 'Michael Jordanesque' abilities relative to his peers, Joe Rogan was having none of it. “No,” Rogan said flatly, “No he’s not. He’s not that good. Marcelo Garcia is more like Michael Jordan.”

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Could Diaz beat the Michael Jordan of grappling? Probably not, but he seems like the type of man who would like to give it a try.

1. B.J. Penn

Penn and Diaz went toe-to-toe in a boxing-heavy fight last year in the Octagon. I'd love to see them go at it again, this time on the mat where they are both at their best.

It's a long shot, but Penn is one of the few UFC fighters with the balls to take this bout despite all the risks—injury, loss or angering the golden goose.