MMA veterans Nate Diaz and Jon Jones will now be coaching opposite one another on the upcoming season of the ALF Global MMA reality show. The show has managed to reach thousands of people and that’s thanks in no small part to the famous faces they’ve managed to draft in as coaches in the past. Top contenders like Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan have appeared on the show in the past, and they’ve even played host to former UFC world champions like Aljamain Sterling. Despite that, a season featuring Jones and Diaz is probably going to be the biggest they’ve ever staged.
The show works slightly differently to The Ultimate Fighter, as the coaches will never end up fighting each other on the grand finale. That’s because they use fighters who are under contract with other promotions, so their interactions are limited to just the coaching element. There is one exception to that though, as past coaches have actually had friendly grappling matches against one another during filming. This is an option that would be available to Jones and Diaz if they wanted to battle it out, although the huge size difference between them would potentially even rule that out as well.
Absolute divisions do exist in Jiu-Jitsu of course and Nate Diaz is known for being open to challenges, while Jon Jones would likely have no issue as the man with the advantage. Diaz has plenty of experience in Jiu-Jitsu matches and Jones has competed in no gi before, although neither man has done it for quite some time now. Still, Diaz has historically competed at either lightweight or welterweight and Jones spent most of his career at light-heavyweight before moving up to heavyweight. When both men are not cutting weight, there’s probably more than 60lbs between them and that really does make it hard to imagine them grappling any more competitively than simple sparring.
ALF Global announced the news that Nate Diaz and Jon Jones will coach against each other on the latest season of the MMA reality show in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
