Nick Diaz Is Not a World-Class Triathlete, He Is Not Even in the Same Galaxy

Because MMA sites all pretty much copy each other anyway, MMAFighting, Cagewriter and MMAMania all reported that Nick Diaz was a competitor this year at the 2011 Donner Lake Triathlon, finishing 36th out of 292.

Without perspective, those numbers are almost meaningless.

To create some sort of frame of understanding, Cagewriter ran with angle that Diaz placed ahead of former professional baseball player Eric Byrnes. But because baseball players don't usually need to run more than four bases at a time, that particular result is pretty anecdotal.

So how good of a triathlete is Nick Diaz?

To put Diaz's triathlete achievements into better perspective in the hopes that Joe Rogan and others don't start calling Diaz a world-class triathlete, I submit the following:

None of the Donner Lake participants are top-100 world ranked, male or female.

Of the 29 men who finished ahead of Diaz, 11 were over the age of 40, and four were over the age of 50.

Of the six women, two were age 40 or older.The field included 44 participants aged 50 or older, including 10 participants over the age of 60.

In the 25-30 age group, Diaz finished sixth of 23, putting him in the top 27 percent.

Nick Diaz is currently ranked 831st in the USA national triathlon rankings in the 25-29 age group, and was not ranked at all last year.  To put that in a global perspective, the highest ranked American in the overall world triathlon rankings is Greg Bennett, ranked 53rd.

Endurance has never been a problem for Nick Diaz in MMA, but although he undoubtedly could tire out other world class fighters, it's a different story in the world of competitive triathletes.

Diaz may be ranked as a top-five welterweight fighter, but unless "world class" encompasses the top 10,000 or so triathletes in the world, Diaz is not a world-class triathlete. With all due respect to MMA hype and hyperbole, he's not even in the same galaxy.