Nate Diaz is insistent on a rematch with Jorge Masvidal following UFC 244, and if he doesn’t get it, don’t be surprised if he takes an extended vacation again.
New York, NY — While the moniker of BMF may have been coined by Nate Diaz, he didn’t come away with the associated title Saturday night at UFC 244. Instead, lit up by Jorge Masvidal, Diaz saw any hope of a win snatched away via a doctor’s stoppage that, while unpopular, was far from the worst stoppage MMA has seen.
For Diaz, the blow comes after what felt like “a non-stop fight camp,” he said following the event, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. “I think I could have used a little more time. My eye was already sh*t from my last fight. And anyways, you sneeze on me, I bleed.”
Diaz noted that the cut in question is one that has been a recurring issue, above the same eye. The result of years of wars and a build-up of scar tissue no doubt. The timing of the fight didn’t help either.
“I knew they were going to throw me right back in immediately also,” he said. “Why couldn’t after the [Anthony] Pettis fight it be six months?”
“I’m going in under the most f*cked up circumstances. A little more time would have been nice,” he reiterated. But despite that, he feels the doctor did him dirty Saturday night. “I heard that my eye was the same coming out of the second round as it was coming out of the third round,” Diaz stated. “The doctor played me, he’s like ‘aww man I don’t know.'” When Diaz replied that he was good, he got a “yeah cool” from the doctor. “Then he goes back to the other guy and he’s like ‘fight’s off.’ I’m like ‘what the f*ck?'”
While he accepts the loss, Diaz believes the fight needs to be run back. “If you’re the baddest motherf*cker, you going to take that as a win? It’s like when I fought Conor [McGregor]. It was a win, it was fair game. But I wasn’t finished, he knows I wasn’t finished. I was ready to rock.”
Pursuing the rematch, said Diaz, “that’s my plan, that’s my next move. I would love to run it back. That’s the only thing I want to do. That’s my full attention now.” He’s just not so sure it will happen.
“I can already see the f*ckery coming,” he said. “I know how this game works. I give all the rematches and make names for all these people. I believe I was responsible for this whole sh*t. I brought the President, straight up. I didn’t see the President going to no title fights.”
The rematch, he believes, would be fair, however, given how the first fight ended. Diaz was behind, but not out. “Hopefully, they don’t throw a bunch of money and clout Jorge’s way. They’d be like ‘uh let’s do something else, he’s got to fighter number 27 again.’ Because that’s the name of the game, it’s repetitive. Dana’s already talking that sh*t.”
To be fair to Diaz, UFC President Dana White did downplay the idea of a rematch post-fight. He seems to have Masvidal pegged for bigger things.
“I need to get my rematch,” Diaz reiterated. “I’ll come back, do things right, do things safe, come back 100% and win this fight. And seal the real deal.”
The Stockton native seems to believe Jorge Masvidal himself could be the key to the fight being run back. “I think he’s a real fighter, like I am. That’s why this all happened,” Nate explained. “I’m like, ‘I’m not going to come back for no phony,’ making names [for them]. I’ve been making names for people for years. I used to fight at 155, every person I fought, they would even talk about it and say ‘he gets a title fight if he beats Nate.’ That’s a weird thing to say. He gets a title shot if he beats me? What do I get? ‘You get number 27 again.'”
“I think that he’ll run it back. I think, you’re going to be a man of your word, you’ve got to run it back,” Diaz continued. “A real fighter will. Conor didn’t take the rematch, hopefully Masvidal takes the rematch. I’ve been taking all the rematches, because I’m like ‘yeah I won and I’ll do it again.'”
If not, we may not see Nate Diaz in the octagon for a while. “I hope everybody gets on the same page and we work together. Otherwise, there might be a f*ckery three years off again.”
Watch the full UFC 244 post-fight press conference with Nate Diaz above!
