Jon Jones Shares Account of Brawl Involving Nate Diaz in Thailand

"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.