Nick Diaz drug test failure: It's time to grow up

I don't get it.

You're Nick Diaz. You're a 28-year-old man who has won 10 fights in a row. You've conquered Strikeforce, a second tier promotion, admittedly enough, but one you've basically run roughshod through. The UFC, the biggest fight promotion in the world, comes calling and wants you to come fight their biggest drawing champion without having to jump through hoops to do it.

Just sign a deal, do some press and fight for the title.

But you screw it up. You miss multiple flights booked just to get you from one city to the next and you miss a pair of press conferences that piss the boss off enough to take you out of the main event. Bye-bye title shot, hello undercard.

The fight game is wacky, though, and circumstances arise that you end up back in the main event. This time, all measures are taken to make sure you don't screw anything up, and you manage to get through just fine. You even win your fight in impressive fashion, all the while building a bigger fanbase through your "wild" antics and devil may care attitude.

Then you get your title shot given back to you, despite all the nonsense and headache you caused before. Forgive and forget and all that.

But, once again, the wacky fight game throws a few curveballs.

The champion, Georges St. Pierre, gets injured, leaving you with a fight against fellow top contender Carlos Condit at UFC 143. You accept and while tales run rampant that you missed another flight or two, you manage to get to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for what you hope will be a scrap.

When you don't get one, instead ending up frustrated and feeling lost, you quit. You complain that it's all not fair and you were screwed and he just ran and blah, blah, blah. You take your ball and go home, presumably leaving your employers in the lurch, the same folks who went to bat for you and put up with your constant headaches, navigating every road block you threw in their path.

Then to top it all off, unbelievably enough, you fail the drug test. For marijuana of all things.

This is nothing new for you. In fact, you've frequently bragged about your ability to beat the tests commissions administer. You've made it no secret that you partake in pot and while opinions vary on whether that's problematic or not, there is absolutely no doubt that it's unacceptable to fail a drug test for a fight in the UFC.

Because those are the rules. Like them or not, they're the rules, ones you refuse to abide by.

I don't get it.

The folks at UFC catered to your every whim. They did anything they had to do to make sure they had you fighting inside the Octagon. You were paid an absurd amount of money -- again, despite not performing all the duties written into your contract -- and even though you had just threw a fit and quit your career, they were ready to give you an immediate rematch. They were going to put everything else on hold for you once again just to give you what you wanted.

But you pissed it all away. All because you couldn't stay away from cannabis.

The UFC is now in a position that will inevitably make them look bad. After all, they've only caved to your every demand already. Now that you've disrespected the hell out of them by throwing it back in their face with your inability to stay away from your recreational drugs, they have to figure out how to handle you.

An early statement from UFC President Dana White makes obvious that they're not entirely sure how. Not yet, anyway.

I don't get it.

Was it not enough? Was a fat new contract and immediate title shot not enough? Was it not enough to have the love of a legion of fans who are still throwing their support behind you despite your repeated inability to show even a modicum of respect to anyone other than your family and the members of your fight team?

Is getting high that important to you?

I don't get it.

Speaking of the fans, there are plenty of them telling me I should cut you some slack. "It's just weed," they say. "It's not like it's a huge deal."

Exactly. If it wasn't such a big deal, you should have been able to put the bong down for a while so you could take care of business at your place of employment. They only made sacrifice after sacrifice for you, taking P.R. hit after P.R. hit just to get you back inside the cage. They benefited from it, of course, but there has to be a line in the sand.

And you've been firmly on the other side this entire time, defiant until the very end.

It's time for that to stop. It's time for you grow up and get your sh*t together. Because, frankly, it's not fair to the UFC, it's not fair to your opponents, and, most importantly, it's not fair to the fans.

We're talking about weed here, man. That's all. Just some pot that you couldn't stay away from.

I don't get it.