Nate Diaz believes the UFC tossed him to the side after losing the rematch to Conor McGregor.
Diaz and the UFC haven’t seen eye-to-eye over the years. Diaz’s popularity skyrocketed after submitting McGregor back in March 2016. Diaz cashed in on the rematch, earning a $2 million fight purse. In the end, Diaz lost the second encounter via majority decision. Since that time, Diaz has sat out and hasn’t been satisfied with the UFC’s attempts to bring him back.
Diaz Says UFC Tossed Him To The Side
Diaz will return to action this Saturday night (Aug. 17). He’s set to take on Anthony Pettis in the co-main event of UFC 241. In an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Diaz gave his take on the inactivity up to this point (via MMAFighting.com).
“The whole time I’m sitting there waiting, like, when is someone gonna step they stupid-ass up and start calling for a fight? Because that’s what I did,” Diaz said. “You’re the guy getting all the love and all the s*it that I’ve worked hard for and they’re just handing it over and promoting it and I put work in. And if you’re not thinking this guy’s getting what you worked for, you’re f*cking not working hard enough. That’s thought of over miles and rounds and over training f*cking thoughts. A lot of work was put into those thoughts. If you’re not spittin’ that and saying that s*it, then you shouldn’t even be in that position. So I saw what was happening and I went out and took it. ‘Okay, this is what I’m about to do.’ Two years flew by, I’m like, I ain’t gotta be beggin’ nobody to f*cking fight. I don’t need to fight.
Diaz continued, saying that the UFC pretended that he had vanished and was turning down fights.
“I beat the best guy at the moment, I beat the best guy, and you guys are just treating me like, vanished, then I’m like, ‘Oh well f*ck me, so f*ck you.’ But then after a certain while I’m like, what’s wrong with all these fighters? I’m a bigger draw, a bigger fight than anybody in the game and you guys are going to just sit back and not participate and ‘black sheep’ me—not ‘black sheep,’ it’s like ‘ostracized,’ put me on the outskirts of the whole conversation. ‘He dropped from the rankings, he’s this, that, he’s turning down fights.’ I’m like, dude, you’re going to start offering me prelim fighters and be like, ‘He turned this down.’ You guys were using that against me.”
