During a recent filming of a Russian reality show called ALF Reality, Nate Diaz and his entourage got into a physical altercation with one of the contestants. Diaz’s friend and longtime training partner, Jake Shields, was also involved.
ALF Reality follows a format similar to The Ultimate Fighter. Its previous season featured Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan as coaches. This time, it was Nate Diaz and Jon Jones. Sources reveal that Diaz had to leave the show after the brawl and return to California.
In a video posted by Shields, he described the production as disorganized and said that ongoing issues escalated when one of the fighters confronted Diaz.
The video shows the Russian fighter speaking to Jon Jones before approaching Diaz. The fighter appears to grab Diaz, who immediately shrugs him off. Moments later, the situation escalates. Shields narrates, “Nate went and slapped him.” The altercation intensifies when a member of Diaz’s team punches the fighter.
According to Shields, instead of removing the Russian fighter from the show, the producers allowed him to return to the same room, where another melee broke out. This time, Shields got involved and tackled the fighter who had initially confronted Diaz.
“Right when I started to go off on him, I got just blitzed from the side,” Shields said. “Not where the fighters were—a couple of guys just started blitzing me. It seemed like they were crew members, not fighters, because the actual fighters were in their chairs.
“To me, it was very clear they were part of the staff. That was one of those moments where I thought, ‘I better diffuse the situation.’”
After the brawl was broken up, Shields said the chaos continued, which led Diaz’s entire team to vacate the premises. Diaz was shortly followed by some of the fighters on a motorcycle but his team was able to elude their assailiants and leave the country.
Following the incident, Shields made it clear there’s no chance Diaz will return.
“Why would we go back and film the show? It’s one thing to be fighting fighters—that’s why I went out there with Nate. I thought it was a possibility some of them would try to test him. But when the crew is potentially hitting you too? No, f*ck that,” Shields said.
