Glendale, AZ — There is something quintessentially Diaz about losing a fight and coming out the winner. Yet once again, that was exactly the case at UFC 263 with Nate Diaz.
Diaz went five rounds with #3 ranked welterweight Leon Edwards, and lost four of them. In the fifth frame of the non-title bout, however, Diaz rocked Edwards, and went hunting for the finish.
“In a real fight in the real world, that fight’s a wrap. He was sleepwalking,” Diaz exclaimed during the post-fight press conference. And despite the unanimous decision defeat, the MMA community at large was quick to declare Diaz a winner.
Of course, even Nate knows that technically, he isn’t. “I wish I would have won the fight, but it went how it went,” he’d said earlier. Still, the high profile loss sets Diaz up for another big fight moving forward.
“I want to fight in three to four months. I’m ready to hop back in there,” Diaz told media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ. “If I was unscathed, I’d be back in next week. I was just unmotivated to train anymore because I already put in all the hard work for the last fight in Texas, where it was supposed to be.”
Diaz, however was cut in training, forcing the bout to be pushed back a month. That resulted in what he called a loss of motivation ahead of the UFC 263 card.
“I kind of lost all motivation to train and work out hard and all that. So I kind of just lingered around for a month, getting ready for war like that. At the end of the day, he won or whatever, but I felt like I’m the better fighter regardless,” explained Diaz. The peak of the bout, he added, is what matters in the fight anyway. “What happens in the end. Congratulations to him, why wouldn’t you fight anybody but the top guy if you’re going to fight at all? I wish it would have went my way, but it’s all good.”
As for who he wants next, Diaz is open to all comers, as long as it makes sense. “I don’t have nobody in mind. I’m going to go back home and look at what’s popping and who’s doing what. And whoever wants to fight, let it be known, and if it makes sense and it’s a good idea for both parties, then let’s dance.”
There’s also the specter of brother Nick returning to action — putting both the Nick and Nate Diaz army on call for the first time in years. “It’s good that the world’s moving again, and sh*t’s getting back to normal. If my brother’s around me, that’s the best thing that could happen,” he said on that front. “That’s the greatest fighter of all time as far as I’m concerned. Whenever he’s going to move and whenever they want to make that move and make something big with him, there’s nothing better that you could see in martial arts.”
Watch the full UFC 263 post-fight press conference with Nate Diaz above.
