Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin / Photo credit: Christian Petersen/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP 18:27 p.m., April 26, 2023

A famous MMA fighter is currently wanted by the New Orleans police after practicing an illegal hold during a street fight. The respondent, who has not yet surrendered to the authorities, pleads self-defence.

Police in New Orleans, USA, have issued an arrest warrant for former MMA star Nate Diaz. The latter is suspected of having struck and wounded in the second degree the youtubeur Rodney Peterson, also MMA fighter. Wanted, Nate Diaz has not yet surrendered to the police at this time, said his lawyer Walter Becker.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, the MMA fighter is involved in a fight. He made a "guillotine" catch on Rodney Petersen. Unconscious, the latter falls in the middle of the street under the eyes of several people attending the scene. Emergency services were quickly called. After viewing the footage, investigators decided to issue an arrest warrant for Nate Diaz and charge him with second-degree assault.

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Advanced self-defence

Diaz's attorney, Walter Becker, "looks forward to presenting to the prosecutor all the facts pertaining to this incident, which clearly demonstrate that a trained fighter named Rodney Petersen aggressively pursued Nate, who acted entirely in self-defense." Nate Diaz, who left the UFC last year after fighting outside of his established contract, is scheduled to face YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, brother of famed YouTuber Logan Paul, in a lucrative boxing bout on Aug. 5 in Dallas.