MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Nate Diaz Resume Review | UFC 279: Chimaev vs. Diaz | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

At UFC 279, MMA anti-hero Nate Diaz makes his likely final fight in the UFC's Octagon when he takes on rising sensation Khamzat Chimaev in a welterweight pay-per-view main event. Diaz is as iconic a fighter mixed martial arts (MMA) and the UFC have, so if this is the final fight in a memorable career, it's worth looking back at the journey Nate Diaz took to get here. Intro 0:00 - 3:51 Manvel Gamburyan 3:52 - 7:11 Kurt Pellegrino 7:12 - 12:55 Gray Maynard 12:56 - 17:00 Marcus Davis 17:08 - 20:59 Dong Hyun Kim 21:00 - 24:42 Rory MacDonald 24:43 - 29:56 Takanori Gomi 29:57 - 34:01 Donald Cerrone 34:04 - 36:13 Jim Miller 36:14 - 41:45 Benson Henderson 41:46 - 47:42 Josh Thomson 47:43 - 52:38 Gray Maynard 2 52:39 - 54:28 Rafael dos Anjos 54:29 - 58:42 Michael Johnson 58:43 - 1:03:35 Conor McGregor 1:03:36 - 1:11:55 Conor McGregor 2 1:11:56 - 1:18:42 Anthony Pettis 1:18:43 - 1:21:58 Jorge Masvidal 1:21:59 - 1:26:00 Leon Edwards 1:26:01 - 1:29:11 Khamzat Chimaev and the future 1:29:12 - 1:33:35 Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. On September 10th in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the main event of UFC 279, one of the most iconic and important figures, frankly, in UFC history, will make his presumed swan song. Yes, Nate Diaz will face Hamzat Shumayev in a welterweight pay-per-view main event.

And it might just be the last fight that you ever see one Nathan Diaz take, at least inside of the UFC's octagon. But before that happens, BC, we decided to take a look back down the road and have a little bit of a reflection on the resume of Nate Diaz. So here is your morning combat Nate Diaz resume review. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. BC, when I say the word Nate Diaz, what comes to mind? You can't say Nate Diaz without saying younger brothers, Nick Diaz, the Diaz Army.

But when I think of Nate, I think 209. I think the Stockton slap. I think bloodied celebrating after beating Conor McGregor in their first fight. Not surprised, mother effer. Iconic, yes, but maybe the first real sort of anti-hero UFC celebrity fighter. And sort of, you know, he doesn't get there even with the Nick Brotherhood without the two fights with Conor McGregor. But he's also much more than when he reached the pay-per-view level there. As fun a career to go up and down as I can remember that we've done with this project,

and a guy who's timeless, and at 37, he's still in a very big fight. I know the circumstances in this one with his last fight in the contract couldn't be more unique or weird, being served up to maybe the next big thing. But when you rewatch what he did, does it give you more confidence for what he might be able to do against Hamza? So glad you mentioned that. It actually does a little bit. I think it'd be kind of crazy to not pick Hamza Chemaev.

But I think if you don't get, if you can't look at Nate Diaz's record, you can't go through the fights in the way that we have to prepare for this and not come out with just a general sense of respect, but a general sense of this guy's ability to perform even when the chips are completely stacked against him is remarkable, and it's real,

and we've got to bear witness to it in the course of doing our research. I want to remind everyone here, this was a labor of love for us. We really wanted to do this one for a long time, waiting for the right opportunity. I think this is it. And Nate Diaz, not just a guy who started his career

at 22 years old from a different era, so you get to see all the different eras, but BC, one thing I really take away from this before we begin looking at his journey with his first win in the Octagon, but the first thing I would say beyond that is, here's a guy who took a while to discover, I think, who he really was, or for the fans, maybe,

to discover who he was. There'll be points in this resume that we go through where the fans are booing him, and they don't like him at all, which is just impossible to imagine today. But it did happen. He's been through a lot in his career. He's had a couple of meandering seasons of time off or a couple of losses at welterweight that sort of redefined who he might be. But if you're going to be a timeless character, you've got to be able to last long and be an elite-ish fighter for a long time. And he's been that, Luke, for this whole run. Never an easy out.

You're going to have to kill him to get a win in his book against him. I mean, he doesn't consider if you outpoint him a victory. You've got to take it to him and stop him. By the way, very few have been able to do actually just that. Shout out to Josh Thompson. But as we start with his UFC debut, I'm trying to remember, first of all, when did he stop being Nick Diaz's kid brother? In some ways, it might not be until the Conor McGregor fights because he became such a household name. That's right. But I'm trying to think of— He became certifiably more popular even within the MMA fan base after the McGregor fight. Fair enough.

But I think, and we'll talk about this when we get to it, but to answer the question as sort of a general broad overview, 26 years old. He had tried 170. It didn't really work. He goes back down and fights Takenori Gomi, then Cerrone, and then he beat the bejesus out of Jim Miller, gets the title shot. Now, it didn't go right from after that, but that three-fight stretch, that's when I think

you really begin to see who Nate Diaz is as a fighter, as a man, as a competitor, the whole nine yards. All right. Nick says his brother said that Nate turned down a chance at season four of The Ultimate Fighter. Nick said, look, if you get that opportunity again, you got to be there. Well, here we are, season five. Nate's not only in it, he makes it all the way to the finals.

He certainly does. So the day, June 23rd, 2007, this is the ultimate fighter finale. He takes on Manny Gamburian, a training partner and friend of Carl Parisian, one of the Gokor Chivichian guys out of the sort of Armenian diaspora that's in California, Southern California, Glendale, their area. And these two guys had had decent performances. Obviously, they made it to the finals on the show. I remember Nate Diaz walking out with a gi, right? Purple belt still. He had Jake Shields in his corner.

It's been all the same kind of people orbiting him that whole time. But a young, fresh-faced 22. And by the way, I got to say, BC, he loses the first round. It's Nate Diaz, but it's such a raw yeah unpolished version of him both the striking both in his attempts at going for crazy submissions on the ground I'm trying to think I didn't watch tough five so I didn't see his trio of submission wins including the semi-final win over Gray Maynard which is important because he would go on to have two pro fights this is an exhibition right against Gray but I think this fight may have been the first time I saw Nick

Diaz I was like oh I'm sorry Diaz, that's Nick's little brother. Let's see what he's got. Even with the injury ending here, and even with a very close first round, you did see a tease of who exactly he is. And again, he can lose fights and then find ways to win them. And of course, he loses the first round. Again, Bernian gets on top and largely works from that position there for the majority of the round.

You see Nate go for a Kimura in round one. Doesn't go very far, BC, but it sets up that right shoulder injury because it goes to round two. Manny comes out. Now, he had had shoulder problems previously. In fact, all through his career he had shoulder problems. But he comes out, shoots that double, runs into Nate. Nate defends it. The shoulder pops out of the socket.

And that's all she wrote. You can see here on the photos this is exactly what happened. It's an anticlimactic win for Nate. But BC, if you really think about it, this kind of sets the tone for a lot of his fights where he's down and something happens. Usually he was the architect of it. But I'm going to point out that was the arm he went for the Kimura on. I think, again, a la Ortega, Jair Rodriguez, it played a contributing role to the shoulder injury. When you're going to fight Nate Diaz under really any era, and this is a more younger, less evolved era of the UFC game here, he's going to test your cardio.

He's going to test your grappling skills because, look, he almost pulled off an omoplata here to open second round. He'll try crazy things on you, and inevitably, Luke, it's going to wear down your cardio, but it can wear you down physically. It's an aggressive grapple fest with him, and maybe that did something to aggravate Gamburian's shoulder, but once he shot with the double leg, it was over. It was over. He becomes the season five winner. It's something

that when Bruce Buffer or whoever would introduce him in subsequent years, they would bring up all the time, or Joe Rogan or Mike Goldberg or the two commentators together at the time. They would constantly go back to this, and he had a pretty great run. Again, anticlimactic finish there, but Nate Diaz, clearly one of the better ones in that

class from that season. He gets the victory. He is now a UFC veteran. I didn't do the math with Gamburian being a connection with Parisian who fought brother Nick because there was a pre-fight feature before this fight in the Stockton warehouse, Caesar Gracie gym, where they asked Nate about being in the shadow of the brothers. Like what's so bad about being in the shadow of Nick Diaz. If you were in the shadow of Carl Parisian, that would suck. So it's a great early, neat, kind of salty quote, and now you can see the tension there. But he also had one of the great quotes in the interview when he said, the ultimate fighter, how suck, man.

I don't recommend it, to be honest with you. He did say that. Just like little dry humor. You could see Dana White's face in the back kind of like get soured as a consequence. But since day one, first time you see him on TV or in a live sense, there he is keeping it real. Now, we move forward. He had two other fights against good fighters. He had Junior Asuncao, who was the brother of Rafael Asuncao, and then Alvin Robinson.

He submitted both triangle choke and then a guillotine choke. But it takes us all the way to April of 2nd, 2008 in Broomfield, Colorado. UFC fight night, Florian versus Lozan. He takes on Kurt Batman Pellegrino, BC, funny story, I was at this fight, I went all the way to the roof of Colorado to go see this fight by myself, not as media, I paid for tickets just to go, yeah. Oh, you were hardcore. Hardcore back in the day, my buddies lived in Denver, I went to go visit them and I actually

went and got a ticket, so that was a thing that I did. BC, Batman, Kurt Pellegrino, a grappler out of the New Jersey area, a black belt in jiu-jitsu, highly respected guy on the mat. Didn't he end up teaming with Kenny Florian in Boston and Team Sid Young Tong? Yes, he worked with him as well, but he was from this area that we're in as we speak today. Very good, very credentialed grappler. And I got to say, he was giving Nate Diaz problems. He was. This is a very competitive fight.

And something I want to point out early in terms of who is Nate Diaz physically, he's kind of a freakish lightweight in that he's so long and tall, but yet kind of perfect for this 155-pound division. When you look at the physical stats in that first fight against Gambirian, for example, Nate's got a 5-inch height advantage, a 6-inch reach advantage. That would almost be the same here, 4-inch height, 5-inch reach against Pellegrino. This is an early advantage built into that spinely frame where he can control distance,

even though it's not the fully formed, stocked-in, dirty boxing style, or the fact that he's still throwing the off-speed punches and then throwing the hard ones. But early, I mean, his use of distance, it's funny. Mike Goldberg in this fight and a lot of these fights is just like, oh, my God, the Diaz brother style is just so different.

They're long, but they make that reach longer by putting their shoulder. It's like, no, dude, they do a boxing stance. You're used to MMA guys squaring up and just coming at you. Their knowledge of boxing, and mind you, they're sparring at this point a lot with Andre Ward, the champion boxer in the Bay Area. So you're learning here that along with the ground threat, they have a non-traditional striking style, but the jab is accurate and Nate knows how to command distance very well. It's something, you know, we think of him as a submission specialist, but damn, young Nate kind of knew what he was doing. Now, here's the thing. Kurt Pellegrino in the first round briefly moved to mounted crucifix.

By the way, Joe Rogan didn't even know what the position was called at the time. This is how MMA was back in 2008. And Nate finds a way to get out of it, kind of hanging on. But you could see also this was going to be a problem for him for the duration of his career. Guys were going to put him up against the fence. He was going to have to learn to fight better against the fence, which, by the way, I think he really did. And also these kind of good wrestler grappler types, the guys who can wrestle and do jiu-jitsu, they were going to be a bit of a problem for him.

So he was getting thrashed a little bit in the first round. Second round comes out, and Kurt Pellegrino is all over him again. But a bad sequence gets going, and this is what we're talking about when we say Nate Diaz attacks targets of opportunity. He will bend but not break in many cases. Kurt Pellegrino is trying to put Nate down, lifts him up against the fence to return him to the mat to slam him. And when he does, Nate gets a leg over the shoulder in the process, pulls Pellegrino

down, and then locks up the triangle. You can see it here. And by the way, you see how he's turned at an angle with the calf fully over the back of the neck. Once he had it locked in, he is raising his arms. And iconically, there it is. Is that his first viral moment? Yes.

This is the first time. I mean, it's kind of funny. You could make a whole montage of all the people Nate Diaz has ever flipped off in his life. But this one, when he did that to the crowd, not he wasn't flipping off the crowd, but just as a general FU, because he was losing pretty badly up to that point. The crowd, you see, I was there. They went berserk for Nate Diaz. They did. And you can see that early character come out with that,

and I think that's a performance, yes, we should always remember for him, but an iconic moment of celebration. But is it so early in mixed martial arts here where every time it seems like Nate's trying to pull guard to get Pellegrino down and try to set him up for submission? And there's even a quote from Rogan of, I wonder if that was an error or just a strategy. Was pulling guard not a universal thing at this point?

It was actually people were trying to get away from it a little bit, I feel like. It was weaponized. The people were getting away from it. Now there's a little bit of a smarter inclusion, but that was the period. The early Nate is always ready to do that, to test his grappling skills against you. He loves aggressive wrestlers that he can try to trap. Yes. He likes to stick it to the wrestlers in particular, I think. But this was a huge moment. And again,

Diaz, still a brown belt at the time, had beaten a credentialed black belt in Kurt Pellegrino and then did it in this incredibly Diaz-like fashion. This is when he began to assert his identity onto the sport. Rogan screams, outstanding performance by a young Nate Diaz. But interesting, Pellegrino tried to slam him, and it's kind of what set up the sequence on the ground. Nate called him out for it afterwards, saying he shouldn't have picked me up like that. That's why he lost. That's exactly correct.

But again, also Nate Diaz just being a clever, clever guy. But that could have fueled the middle finger of Pellegrino trying to pick him up and slam him. But also he'd been moved to mount. I mean, Diaz, go watch the fight. Like on Fight Pass, Diaz gets worked over a little bit. Oh, Joe at some point after round one is like, the defense is there for Diaz, but he's getting beat up.

He was losing for sure, but a tremendous, tremendous comeback. And again, here's one thing we're also going to see. Nate Diaz is surprisingly, you think of it just as the Michael Johnson fight or the first Conor McGregor fight, but a lot of these post-fight events have him saying things that are very memorable or doing something iconic very late in the fight itself He's really good at that. What do you make for being such a character in an antihero? Every every single interview except for the Michael Johnson one for which will get to because it's iconic

His first answer is shouting out his brother that's right shouting out Gil Melendez and shouting out Jake Shields and the and the full team as Loyal soldier in that you know, Nick. It's perhaps the one constant throughout the course of his career. Every single post-fight, he's shouting out the exact same guys. Now, we move on. He has a few more fights that go up and down. He does submit Melvin Gallard, loses to Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida. The Clay Guida one was actually a pretty tough one.

But we want to move to January 11th of 2010 in Fairfax, Virginia. This was UFC fight night, Maynard versus Diaz. Here he is headlining not just an ultimate fighter card, essentially, but now a full-on fight night card. Funny story, BC. I was at this fight. I was there. This was in the then Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University. I actually did a post-fight show at the time for 106.7 The Fan.

Was that during the time that they played UConn in that tournament and made the Final Four? Yes. Or was that a couple years earlier? A little bit after that point, but yes. Yes, that's right. I think it was around 2006 or 2007 they did that. But in any event, it was a rematch with Gray Maynard, who he had fought previously on the show, BC. What do you recall about this event?

So he had tapped Gray Maynard out in round two, and it had been sort of taking advantage of Maynard's aggressiveness in his wrestling. This rematch turned out entirely different. And Maynard said before, and I love these early video packages, he's like, you know, I'm not going to try to point him or wrestle him. I'm going to try to knock him out. Nate's saying, you know, good luck if you're a wrestler or whatever you call these guys. You ain't doing anything to me.

But yet, here's the deal. Nate still had the physical advantages I'm talking about early on. In this case, four inches in height and six inches in reach. Yet, I think what Maynard was able to do, he didn't shoot for a single takedown in this entire fight, whereas their first fight was Maynard pushing the fight to the ground and then Nate eventually trapping him. This time, not only did Maynard keep it on the feet, but he was the better fighter from distance, and it was frustrating Nate.

What do you make of Nate, who's showing us early that Stockton boxing style, but he was unable to really have enough flurries where it goes down as a split decision loss, and we can talk about the scoring, but he wasn't able to body Maynard in the way he was talking the heavy game coming in. This is, and I remember by the way, the crowd was very unhappy with this. I mean, we were afterwards talking to MMA fans

in the arena. They were very displeased with both Nate and Gray Maynard, and he was still very much Nick's little brother, and I think they thought of him technically as that. He's like, oh, well, Nick's a good boxer. Nate's just sort of kind of coming along. There was a sort of a belief that he was just not that guy. And then to some level, that's actually pretty fair. His boxing just wasn't ready at that time to deal with this kind of a thing. And both guys didn't really go for it in that way either. I think Nate kind of thought he was doing enough. Gray thought he was doing enough.

But the difference to me, BC, was the impact of Gray's strikes. By the way, Randy Couture in the corner of Gray Maynard in this fight. Oh, really? Yeah, giving him some pretty hard advice as well. I kind of wake up and snap out of it. But the point I'm trying to make is, to me, the difference looked like there was just a little bit more steam on what Gray Maynard was trying to do. It would go down as a split decision, 29-28 for Nate, 30-27, and 29-28 for Gray Maynard,

who it would make sense that Couture was in his corner, because you know what Gray Maynard wore in the post-fight interview? A BC midlife crisis-looking Bob Marley, Randy Couture-style hat. Yes. But Luke Maynard would say, look, he had a game plan that was going to be to wrestle, but he threw it out the window because he saw the guy that had beaten him in the tough and he wanted revenge. But look, he didn't take out that revenge as brutal as normal.

In fact, he apologized, Gray Maynard, in the interview afterward to the crowd for booing for not being offensive enough. This was a win Maynard needed. He came in unbeaten but had the stigma of having lost in the tough. Was it enough to convince you that Gray Maynard was going to be on to big things? Because he would go on to multiple title shots in an epic rivalry, having already beaten Frankie Edgar in the first fight at this point. But he did enough to win, but it wasn't overly.

It wasn't. No, and I don't think that there was a lot. There was a lot of belief that because he was on the Ultimate Fighter, he was Nick Diaz's brother and because he was good. Yeah. I mean, again, the Kurt Pellegrino win was good. The Melvin Gillard win was good. That he deserved, you know, obviously an elevated position

But that probably it was a little bit too soon for him By the way also on this card Chris Lieben was on this card Rick story Rory McDonald fought Mike Geiman on this card Nick Katone How about a mere Sadala who got the biggest pop of everyone was also and this is Nate's first main event Yep, and if you count the ultimate fighter finale, that's a good point. So ultimately it's the second. But Nate now have lost three or four. Yes. So he decided it was time for a change. So he decides to go back to Walter Wade.

That goes to Rory Markham, who was a good fighter, I think, briefly out of the Miletic era. UFC 111 over in Newark, New Jersey. He wins this one walking away. But it actually wasn't the one that I thought was the most interesting one. It's the one after that where he takes on Marcus Davis in Boston, Massachusetts. This got fired the night at UFC 118, August 28, 2010. The reason why I picked this one, BC, is because the Markham one to me was not a walkover but not a real test.

Marcus Davis was something of a much better test, I thought, at that time. Plus, it's in Boston. I encourage all UFC fans who may not believe this to be true, Diaz gets booed and chants of Diaz sucks ring out in Boston the entire time in favor of Marcus Davis. Davis from Maine,

so close by New England guy, but look, had been known as, you know, he had some pro-boxing fights, he was known as a tough-ass fighter, but at 37, Luke, he had lost two of three coming in. Yes, he had, but Marcus Davis also with Team Sit Yaw Tong out of Boston there, so he was kind of the unofficial hometown guy. He was also known as the Irish Hand Grenade, and to me, BC, here's my takeaway from this

fight. This was the first time, especially at 170, where I was like, okay, Diaz's boxing is starting to get good. Marcus Davis at the time had a reputation as a guy who had previous boxing experience. They talk it up constantly in the fight. It was something that was known about Marcus Davis when he was competing at that era. He had a good record as a pro boxer. He actually had a pretty decent record.

And Nate Diaz gave him the business. I thought Marcus Davis had a huge problem navigating that distance the entire time. Look at the face. Now, of course, you know, Diaz always bleeds. Look at the face of Marcus Davis to the point where his right eye, the doctor had to come and look at it. I don't even know how he was able to see out of it. Nate Diaz worked him over. Yeah, and it was a lot of taunting early in this fight, and they got after it right off the opening thing.

But it was weird not only to get booed, as we mentioned, there was Diaz sucks chance that broke out during that. But this is what Nate can do with striking. Now, it's weird because this is his second fight after moving up to welterweight, yet he still had a six-inch reach advantage, which he used here, and he badly bruised up that right eye, as we talked about. It would be after this what eventually became a dead end at welterweight, where once he did not have that reach and height advantage, Luke, it was a different story. This was maybe the last fight in this weight class here where he enjoyed

it it looked more like a lightweight fight for him he was able to control the distance and his offense when he's starting to go downhill and he can visually see you either succumbing to the fatigue or seeing the damage break out in your face he's doing ds stuff he's pointing every time he lands a big shot and uh how about joean attacking that referee? I'm sorry, the doctor, ringside doctor who came in. Get him out of here. He was like, well, this guy probably hasn't seen an MMA fight before, you know, as if saying, look, let the guy fight. We're barbaric. This is what we do. Yeah. Also, I want to point out, Diaz chant sucks during the fight, as we talked about. And then in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Diaz gets booed again during this point.

This idea that Nate Diaz has always been universally loved or universally welcomed by MMA fans, you want it to be true? It matter-of-factly is not true. It's something that he had to earn over time. Also, not that this was the case every time or not that this was exclusive to Nate Diaz, but pay attention. By the way, number one thing, he constantly fights southpaws as a southpaw. I can't tell you how many, most of his opponents are southpaws. It's kind of wild. Number two, how many times he has to go to another guy's

backyard. He does it all the time. This is one such case where he had to go fight the guy who was more liked by the crowd, sort of the accepted Boston guy in Marcus Davis. You constantly see Nate helping out other people in their territories. And as we start to get closer to the buildup to the McGregor fights, for very little money, Luke, we'll get to that later. I just want to say one thing here is Nate says he broke his right hand in round two. And his call out, because Joe said, look, are you going to stay at Welterweight? What's going to happen? He called out the tough guy wannabes at 155, like Maynard,

who think they are hot shots. Yet he didn't go back down to lightweight and seek the rematch. He went up the welterweight ranks, and that's where he would find trouble. So the whole idea was that he was apparently having trouble making 155 or getting the most out of himself. Remember, these are early days of weight cutting where folks just did not know a whole lot of what they were doing. He could make the weight, but I guess he just didn't feel great.

It felt better to go to 170, so he tried. He beats Rory Markham. He beats Marcus Davis. But then that takes us to a bit of the problem area, as you indicated. January 1st, the brand new year, 2011, UFC 125. This was in Las Vegas, Nevada. He takes on Dong Hyung Kim. Now, by the way, you might be asking where this is on the actual card itself.

It's on the main card. It's about the second fight up. Okay, BC, I appreciate that Nate was trying to get the most out of himself. I appreciate that he was trying. I appreciate that he beat a good fighter in Rory Markham. He doesn't turn down. It doesn't seem like fights like at least harder than. But there's two fights.

We'll talk about them both here very quickly. The Dong Hyung Kim fight after this Rory McDonald fight. He, I would say this. I had a respect for what Nate was able to do in terms of surviving with his jiu-jitsu, occasionally attacking with leg entanglements, certainly working through difficult positions along the cage. In fact, I thought that Diaz won the third round in this Dong Kyung Kim fight. But it also appeared to me very clear that whatever physical advantages he was able to retain at 155, they were gone in this fight. But it also appeared to me very clear that whatever physical advantages he was able to

retain at 155, they were gone in this fight. That's why I'm telling you the reach and height advantages. He didn't just have like a couple inches. He was regularly having five and six inch reach advantages in height and arm length. This one, they're the same height and Kim actually has a one inch longer reach, the stun gun. So even though it's 29, 28 on all three cards, when he's finding people that don't have that obvious hole he can expose, what does Nate Diaz expose? Great. If you've got a weak chin, he'll expose it. He'll put up the volume and start to wear you down.

If you don't have a good gas tank, he'll expose it. If you're bad boxing, if you're weak or he can mentally pull you into a fight, he'll expose that, you know, bad boxing. Here's the type of animal he's facing at Walter weight here in Kim and then Rory in the next fight. Equal or bigger in size, even though Nate can have some success attempting submissions, he can't dominate them on the ground. He can't find that hole in their game because it's not there. Kim was 13-0-1 coming in here.

He's not going to succumb to power. He's got a great gas tank. It became a thing where it's like, what does Nate do to win outside of dramatic submission search? That search was there. You can see he's close there. But when he can't get that and he can't lure you into a brawl that will break you down, it's weird. It's like you watch these early fights and you're like, is Nate ahead of the game because his psych striking is so unique? Or is he ultimately still behind the game because, you know, he doesn't use his feet a lot to kick.

You can calf kick him, as we would find out. Doesn't throw a lot of body kicks or head kicks. And is really boxing? Or if he ends up on his back, he'll chase his submissions. Is he ahead of the game or is he simplistic or both at the same time in terms of his? Again, I don't think he, this is not the stage of his career where he's figured himself out fully as a fighter. Number one. The second part is, I think in some ways he was ahead to have better boxing.

And obviously his jiu-jitsu, again, he was a brown belt submitting a black belt in Kurt Pellegrino. Dong Hyun Kim, by the way, very good judo black belt. But, you know, again, I think Diaz won the third round here. He was able to give him some problems. It makes you wonder about a five-round fight. This is one of the first times I was like five-round fights at this point didn't really exist in the UFC. It makes you wonder, had this one been five rounds, a guy like Nate Diaz is built for that. But in other ways, we're back at the Kurt Pellegrino fight, where somebody who can wrestle a little bit,

somebody who's got good defensive jiu-jitsu or good grappling, let's say, in this particular case, because he's a judoka, and in this case, the 170 package together. It's a continued weakness for Diaz that unfortunately would plague him throughout the course of his career. He could will himself at lightweight to find that opening find that vulnerable hole and then we talked about go all in in that moment and find it whether it's submission or breaking your will these welterweights are too big man and now you find Rory McDonald who's also too primed this is a 21 year old R McDonald, who had finally had his big early setback

when he got stopped by Carlos Condon, when he was getting a little bit wild, and he got into a brawl. This would be a much more reserved, technical, but still strong. Dude, you look at the size between them. Nate had a... Sorry, Nate. They're the same height, and Rory has a one-inch longer

reach. So same situation as Kim. Physically, Rory was thicker. Much thicker. And as we would see in the third round when he's slamming him up to three times. You say they're not all slams. The third one was, Linus Morris said, head over feet, Luke. This is a don't be surprised. Yeah, you can see it here.

The first two were Matt returns, but he is just, I mean, let's just be honest about it. Rory McDonald manhandled him. This, of course, was April 30th, 2011. I was there for this one, BC. And calf kicks. UFC. This is the beginning of what's Nate's hole? You could calf kick him into, not submission, but you can really wear

him down. For sure. So this is UFC 129. For folks who may not know what it was, this is the apex of Canadian MMA. This was St. Pierre versus Shields. Of course, Nate Diaz's teammate was on this card as well in the main event. This fight was on the prelim card on Spike. It was the main event of the prelim card on Spike. And BC is correct event of the prelim card on Spike.

And BC is correct. You go from the Dong Kyung Kim fight to the Rory McDonald fight, it felt like in many ways almost the same kind of fight in a way where Diaz is able to make a decent account of himself in the striking department, although Rory McDonald kept hitting the Superman punch to inside leg kick that kept rocking him back. But the big difference, the real big difference, was Rory McDonald was just so much stronger than him.

This was when, even though he had got stopped by Condit, this was, here's your looking at the next GSP. Same camp, and at 21, he looks ready for the best. Look, I didn't know he turned pro at 16, Rory McDonald, who just retired at age 33. He beat Jordan Mean at 17 on the regionals. I mean, this was somebody who... That's why he retired at 33. Folks like that's young. I'm like, not if you started at 16. Forget how early he started. He was 10 and 1 coming in,

but look, the score is 30-26 on two cards, 30-27. Domination for Rory, the Waterboy McDonald? How did I not remember this? So he was Waterboy, Aries, Red King, Canadian Psycho. Those are the four nicknames he's had, Waterboy at the time. They announced that in front of this crowd. Again, I want to say this one more time. This was the crowning achievement of Canadian MMA. This was at the— Well, they did get booed during some of the inactive moments.

Fair enough, but this was at the—what's the big one there in Toronto? I went to this one. It was the Rogers Arena. Sky Dome Rogers Center. I can tell you exactly what it was. Rogers Center, yeah. This is Bronstetter area, okay? Yes, this is at the Rogers Center in Toronto. I went to this one. It was the Rogers Arena. I can tell you exactly what it was. This is Bronstetter area, okay? Yes, this is at the Rogers Center in Toronto. There were 55,000 people there. Now, that might not sound impressive to you because they've gone to Marvel Stadium in Australia before, and so they've repeated some of these feats, but this had never been done before. And you can see this massive Canadian pride the whole way through. So they had

St. Pierre on the card. They had Rory McDonald on the card. They had all these Canadians on the card. Rory McDonald was clearly being sort of set up as the next guy. Sam Stout, maybe? Yep. Here we are again, BC. Nate Diaz going to someone else's territory

and as a consequence, making them look better. Now, of course, it's not, you know, Nate Diaz signed up for the fight. He wanted to be at 170. But when you're wondering why Nate Diaz has a chip on his shoulder, there are obviously a myriad of complicating factors. But the consistent narrative of him having to go to someone else's territory in big fights, a lot of times against a very difficult opponent, you can see why he thought, when is it going to be my turn to get that kind of treatment? Without question. I'm trying to pick up his to get that kind of treatment? Without question, do you, I'm trying to pick up his logic in accepting some of these fights. You know what I'm saying? Like,

was he under one of those tough contracts like American Idol where you're locked down on a small rate for a while? Yes, of course, that's a big part of it as well. And yes, his brother, I'm not sure if his, I think his brother was still in strike force at this time and was doing quite well. I think he wanted to blaze his own path as well. That's another part, too. It's like there was so much narrative about Nick Diaz's brother, Nick Diaz's brother, Nick Diaz's brother, that he wanted to go and just do things that were a little bit on his own. And the move to 170, it wasn't like it was bad up front.

He beat Rory Markham. He beat Marcus Davis. But when you got to that upper tier. When he's fighting guys that are physically the equal of him, but they're stronger and there's no obvious hole in their game, at this weight class it's a difference. Listen, this was Rory McDonald training with Faraz Zahabi. This was Jong-Kun Kim.

These are good grapplers. You're not going to just get these guys to make big mistakes. Kurt Pellegrino took some risks, and that's what he was able to pay for it. But 15 more pounds of muscle on these guys. I think this was the time he realized, oh shit. Okay. I'm 25, 26 years old. I can't fight these dudes at 170 anymore. I've got to get back to 155, which is a better weight class for me and BC. Well, one thing to note just real quick is that Rory cut him open and something we haven't talked about, even in a lot of these wins that we're mentioning, almost every fight that we've talked about, Nate has a cut around his eye. Yes.

A lot of scar tissue that I wish you saw with the scarlet brow. The exit's that way. Okay. That's becoming a thing. It was a thing in the Modsville fight. And by the way, 26 years old already has that as a bit of a problem, in part because of his fight style. And then now it's a sort of accumulated thing that he's still working on. But let's set this up, BC. We kind of hinted at this at the beginning of this show.

I want to go back and remind everyone. He went to 155 to start his UFC campaign because he had fought previously at welterweight, I think, back in the WEC days. But he goes from 155. He doesn't like how he feels. He has a couple of up-and-down performances. He goes to 170. He goes 2-2 in that run, but the two he loses were back-to-back against the very best of that division. He takes a little bit of time off. He goes from April until September

of 2011, and I think in September of 2011, he goes on a three-fight run where I really believe that is absolute peak, prime, and for that moment, unstoppable Nate Diaz. 26 years old, entering his sort of adding the experiences with him, mentally tough and strong as always. I mean, every interview he's saying, I think I'm the best. Like if I were to ask you, BC, what do you think is the win streak where Nate, here's I'm going to ask it.

What is the win streak where Nate Diaz looks the best? It's certainly this three-fight window that we're starting now. The only other fight I'd maybe offer is the final fight against Gray Maynard, which we'll get to. Maybe some of that is where Gray Maynard was at that moment, you could argue. Yes, he was a little bit shopworn. He found his confidence again. But, Luke, we talked about fighting guys his own size where he doesn't have that advantage.

Back now again at lightweight, Takanori Gomi, Nate's got a four-inch height and a six-inch reach. Look, if he has a six-inch reach against you, which the advantage he continually has, it's going to be really hard for you to get inside. And Gomi, for being a very big name, Nick had fought him, so Nate's got the respect for him here. He still has seven losses. And what, five of those seven were submission losses? I mean,

he could get caught here. This was the type of matchup where if Nate was going to come back and reinvigorate himself, the canvas was there to paint the masterpiece. This didn't last a full round. It's a bit of a masterpiece. Nice left cross early to drop Gomi. Nate's on such a rhythm here that he's almost dancing as he's shuffling and throwing combinations. So this is UFC 135, Denver, Colorado. This, of course, is the headlining fight was Jon Jones versus Rampage. I was at this fight as well. I remember Mark Hunt and Ben Rothwell huffing and puffing. We talked about elevation from the Salt Lake City card. Sure. You had a lot of this as well, but they didn't even need to worry about that in this contest because as you indicated, BC, Nate Diaz goes out there and beats the fucking brakes off Takanori Gomi. And it's not just in one dimension. This is why to me, BC, it's the beginning of the full Diaz, the Nate Diaz picture.

He beats him up on the feet. He beats him up when they clinch. He destroys him on the ground. He goes from submission to submission to submission. He trapped Takanori Gomi under a sheet of ice. He had nowhere to go in this fight. Diaz did, true or false, BC, whatever he wanted, when he wanted. It even seemed like he pulled guard there in the mix of some flurries that would set up the finish. And he almost had the arm bar. Nice triangle attempt by Gomi. It was the last stand that he was going to make, but the slam didn't break the hold. Gets the tap out, and here's Joe Rogan excited afterwards. Quote,

No doubt about it, the best performance of Nate Diaz's career. Just spectacular in every part of the game, to your point. The first of three in a row here, a refreshed Nate at lightweight. Could be problems here in this title picture as we keep going.

And by the way, don't you agree, just for a second, I thought he physically looked better too. Yes. Like at 170, he didn't look flabby,

but he didn't look cut up going back to 155. There's times when you're like, do they even want to be here? And it's not just Nick recently coming back and that was kind of a debacle, but it's like there are times.

There's wilderness rambling in their career where they lose a couple and you're like, are they even mentally checked in? He's checked in in this one. This is the start of something good, actually his best run. Yeah, dropped him with a one-two, hurt him, had Gomi in trouble, finished him off on the ground. Nate Diaz looked sensational. And by the way, who does he shout out in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan? Of course, Jake Shields. Of course, his teammate. And by the way, he also gives credit to Gomi. He's not entirely antagonistic

to everyone as his favorite fighter ever. So it was a bit of an honor for him to fight. So, this is part one of the three-fight win streak that I think is his best. We stay in 2011. By the way, he fought four times that year. We go to UFC 141. This is where he takes on Donald Cerrone. This is the Lesnar

versus Overeem card. Remember this one? December 30th, 2011. Doesn't this feel like it was more recent than 2011? It feels like it was five years ago, not 10. But in any case, you might be asking, where was Nate Diaz in this card? Pay-per-view co-main. So he got a little bit of a boost from that Gomi win, and he takes on Donald Cerrone. And they had had an antagonistic pre-fight buildup. There was a video package that talked about it. Apparently, they had walked past each other at a press event. Don Cerrone had put out his hand for Nate to shake it, and Nate slapped it away, Luke. He did.

It was like, we're in the same division. I don't really want to be your friend. Nate says, yeah, you shouldn't have done that. We're not cool like that. You broke the Stockton code by trying to be friendly, basically, is what he's saying here. Luke, if you want to know what version of Donald Cerrone was this, arguably the best ever. Why? He was 17-3 overall, riding a six-fight win streak, and he had just TKO'd Charles Oliveira and subbed Dennis Seaver. So this was a cowboy

who was not living on name. This is prime, tough, rugged. You know, you see the damage. I mean, what became a theme in this first round? I think Nate would go on, by the way, to set a record for most strikes landed in the three-round fight. It has been subsequently broken, but yes, he set it in this fight. It started in the first round. Why did Cowboy not move his head once in that opening round? Because Nate was just teeing off with like...

Well, let's set this up for just a second. So the referee brings them into the middle to give them instructions, and says, you know, shake hands or whatever, and Donald Cerrone gives him the finger. He gives Nate Diaz the finger of all people. How about Herb Dean? He goes, all right, you can touch gloves.

If you wish, right? Or not. And so they separate, and Cerrone gives him the finger. And then Nate Diaz proceeds to box his fucking ears off. Now, I will give Cerrone credit. There are moments throughout the course of this fight, rounds one, two, and three, where he's kicking Nate Diaz off of his feet constantly. You talked earlier, BC, about figuring out that leg kicks appear to be a bit of a weakness for Nate Diaz. RDA was watching this fight, by the way.

That's right. It wasn't enough to get the job done for Cerrone here, but he did lay a bit of the blueprint about what might be available. But the real story, the real story. Well, hold on. Before you even get to the real story, they're the same height here.

Cerrone, a large lightweight. So it's almost like a welterweight fight. Cerrone had floated between only a three-inch reach advantage for Nate. So he had to take on more damage to get inside. But it was just his ability to just— Cerrone's always a late starter, but this is the ultimate late starter, Cerrone, who got lit up, bleeding from the mouth to end the first round, Luke.

It got a little bit worse in the second round. Cerrone was never quite out of it, was still able to do some things. But, dude, he was kicking his ass. And this was a moment here where Cerrone was looking like a future title, a future champion in a lot of ways. When we get to the viral moment to start round three, it's like, he's going to stop Cowboy. Did you see the look on Cowboy to start round three? It was like- So I believe we have the picture. You should play it if we have it. This is, hold this for just a second. This is the beginning of round three.

Remember, before round one started, Cerrone gave him the finger. Nate Diaz proceeds to beat Donald Cerrone from pillar to post. So as they're about to start round three, Nate gives him the double birds, to which Cerrone goes, yeah, I kind of deserve it. With blood still dripping out of his mouth. Now, Cerrone in round two had dropped Nate twice with calf kicks, and he had landed a knee that dropped Nate. But Nate was always able to take that damage as he pretty much was throughout his career and come right back with more flurries.

And walked him down. Yeah, Cerrone takes him off of his feet at 437, 410, 310, 253. He was landing on Nate, but the problem was Nate was landing way more on him, physically popping his head back, getting him off balance, having him on the retreat.

There was just, he could not get Nate Diaz off of him, I think was the real sort of scenario there. Punctuated by this double middle finger to begin round three. 30 to 27 twice, 29, 28, all in favor of Nate, who would say to Cowboy afterwards, sorry about all that shit that went down. It's just TV, end quote. It's just TV. Fair enough.

Now, this brings us to, I think, one of the more impressive performances of Nate Diaz's entire career. Again, this three-fight stretch, to me, is the most magical run that he had. It takes us to a main event. We're now in the Fox era. I think we've been in for some time. Reebok in the house, baby. Reebok in the house.

This is UFC on Fox. Diaz versus Miller. Not far from here. East Rutherford, New Jersey. A real shithole. There's a lot of Jersey people here. I'm just trying to make them mad. In any case,

it's the main event. It's on Fox. The name is in the actual title. Diaz versus Miller. It takes on Jim Miller, who this was prime Jim Miller as well. A guy who wrestled at Virginia Tech

and a black belt in jiu-jitsu. This is the mountaintop run of Jim Miller's best chance to enter the title picture, which a win here would have done that. He was one-seven of his last eight coming in, the only loss being to Benson Henderson before he won the title. At this point now, Benson Henderson, I believe, is the champion at this moment in time. What do you know, BC? Where are they?

Whose backyard? Jim Miller's backyard, New Jersey, of course. Constant, constant for Nate Diaz. But, Luke, another fight with a five-inch reach advantage. So if you want to ask yourself, this is the third of that three-fight run that is the best of Nate Diaz at lightweight in terms of being a legitimate title contender. What is the difference between this and not the two losses at welterweight

that forced him to come back down because we talked about that? But even the earlier Nate, he is much more willing to set the tone offensively, get off first, and try to use that cardio weaponized. There's times in the second half of Nate's career, maybe due to age or whatever, where Luke, he's the counter puncher too often looking for that big punch that he can point at you and change the momentum. This is him taking control of setting the momentum. He went after Donald Cerrone on a measured pace and beat the shit out of him in the first round and stayed with that despite a couple of scares or hiccups. There were no real scares or hiccups here against Jim Miller. I mean, he is just walking him the F down.

And when he has that advantage in terms of length and he's that motivated, he's a different fighter. Look, this isn't surly Nate Diaz, you're not paying me enough. That guy's coming soon. This is still, I think I'm the best lightweight in the world. And when he's going downhill, dude, he's just a force. He's hard to stop. I mean, he made Jim Miller shoot. I mean, that's how this whole thing got wrapped up for him. To your point, here's another part I would want to say. This is Nate Diaz in complete confidence of his abilities and chances to win. Even now, you'll see him back up against Leon Edwards,

and he's kind of hedging moment to moment, or he's playing some games with Jorge Masvidal to stop some of the onslaught. You don't see a hint of that in this fight. He is just taking Jim Miller to school the whole time. Goes to the second round. The first round, really, I think Diaz drops him. Second round, he hits him with a knee, and Miller wanted no part of it. He shoots.

Diaz stuffs it, shoots for a guillotine. Miller rolls. You see now Nate come on top, reassert the guillotine, and have Jim Miller, what appears to nearly bite his own tongue off, as you see him roll through with a guillotine here. Let's see if they got the final picture. I call this the stockatine. Yeah, you can see it there.

It's kind of obscured by his hand, but his mouth guard fell out in the process. There it is. And he's biting on his own tongue as a consequence on live television. BC, that is Nate Diaz in his element. There's only two words to say to that. Metal militia, motherfucker, right? Yeah. There's only two words to say to that. Metal militia, motherfucker. Right? Yeah. He becomes the first man to stop Jim Miller ever.

They're doing the Nate flex. He's aggressively flexing and taunting into the camera and I think it's his way of saying, look, three in a row here, give me that title shot. They would answer. They would answer that call. They would. So we bump up now. So he gets three incredible wins, three amazing finishes all by way of submission.

Or excuse me, the Serenity one went to the decision. But he gets the armbar of a gom and he gets the guillotine choke over Miller. So they said, screw it. Let's give you a title shot. We jump now to December 8th of 2012. We go to Seattle, Washington. This is for the UFC lightweight champion, UFC on Fox, Benson Henderson versus Nate Diaz. This, of course, is the main event given it's for the title.

I'm going to say it one more time. I know that Benson Henderson has sort of adopted Arizona as his home place, being from the MMA lab, but he is from the Tacoma, Washington area. This was in Seattle. Henderson was very much the hometown guy. Nate Diaz going to someone else's yard, backyard, to do them a solid. I want to point out how often it happens in his career. Yeah, and title fight atop this Fox card. As you mentioned, this is one of these quarterly Fox cards. We're like pay-per-views, basically. I'm regular TV. Is this top of the mountain for a guy? I don't want to say we forgot

about in Benson Henderson, but I think because he's had this final twilight chapter where he's been an opponent at times, and we've seen him lose his bigger fights you forget what made this guy great at lightweight and even though um nate's got a three inch height and six inch reach which had been a theme of nate dominating benson henderson is basically a welterweight in a lightweight's body here and you're finding that theme when somebody who's not going to succumb to the to the cardio which benson always has great five round championship cardio not going to succumb on the ground, which Benson always has great five-round championship cardio, not going to succumb on the ground. Benson Henderson's legs, as they said on the broadcast, were twice the size of Nate's.

Guys with size and skill do give Nate problems. Is this top-of-the-damn-mountain champion Benson Henderson the best he ever was? So here's the thing. This was Nate Diaz at his very best, I thought, heading into this contest. The problem was this was also prime Benson Henderson. He's just beaten Frankie Edgar twice in very good fights, like this is five fight, one streak. This is prime Benson Henderson, and so what ends up happening is what you might imagine. He is able

to take Nate Diaz down seemingly at will. He's able for the most part to avoid any kind of real submission threat. There were a few times in the course of this, by the way, this is a five round main event. You can see an outside ashy Garami from Nate Diaz when he's trying there, but it doesn't

get very close. And to me, BC, we talked about the swag. We talked about the confidence. Oh, there it is. There it is. It turned into that, where I think Nate realized that... That was round three when he was down. He was down. There was really no way he was going to win. I think Nate got frustrated in this one.

Oh, absolutely. But why did he? Calf kicks. Look, Benson Anderson was like one of the – was he the first guy who really made that a monster part of his offense? First, I don't know, but he definitely popularized and made that use much wider than it was before him. Right off the bat, he's – in round one, he's kind of making Nate wobble

and kind of brutalizing him with the leg kicks. But it's – you know, once he worked his boxing in, you'd think Nate would have a huge striking advantage, even with the six inch reach advantage, Benson got inside on him, starts bloodying Nate's nose up. Damn, you know, when it's like, so this is where you had to ask yourself, like, this is the very best of Nate ever in terms of legitimate rankings and trying to get to the title picture.

Is he not technical enough when he fights a really technical elite fighter? Because there's some guys he out techniques when he needs to, especially on the ground. Well, here's the thing. Benson Henderson's a black belt in jujitsu too, and a black belt in taekwondo, and a dynamic, fast, risk-taking, but still very durable athlete. Remember, Benson Henderson had a fucking toothpick in his mouth, which Joe Rogan asked him about, and he was like, I don't have a toothpick. He was just doing a weird bit. But this is what I mean. You get a guy who's got the wrestling skills plus jiu-jitsu skills, and they're a physical athlete.

That's a tough combination for what Nate Diaz can offer. And Nate couldn't get in his head. And that meant after the end of round one, you remember, Nate got right up in Benson's face, nose to nose, did nothing. Flipping him off in round three on the ground, did nothing, could not lure him into a brawl. Luke, a big win, 50-43 on one card, 50-45 on two, so it shows you full domination. But I want to start talking about money.

I mean, this is Nate Diaz's, in some ways, mountaintop moment in terms of how far he could get challenging for a title in the UFC, right? He came close other times. In a relatively conventional process. And I know this is not a pay-per-view, but it is a quarterly Fox card, which is treated as one. This card, ratings-wise, did $3.41 million on Fox. Nate Diaz is in the main event of a UFC championship fight, which should be his, again, mountaintop moment of climbing the ladder.

And his pay is $50,000. He didn't win, so there's no bonus. This is 2012. You know, boxers on regular HBO or Showtime are making two and a half, three million each in main events. Not titles, depending on what star level they are. It's not everybody, but you get the point. 50,000 to be the opponent in a nationally televised main event that did nearly four million viewers. And Benson as a champion is getting 78,000 base, 39,000 as the bonus for the victory.

For the headlines that still dominate today in fighter pay, this is 10 years ago. 10 years ago, the B-side in a UFC title fight on national television in front of 4 million made 50,000 to be there. If you're watching on national television, an NBA game, the 12th guy or 15th guy on the bench is making the league minimum of 800,000 or whatever. I'm sure 10 years ago too. You talk about the disparity. You talk about what fueled Nate taking such long breaks before he finally became this pay-per-view star against McGregor. This is the beginning, I have to believe,

of the seed planting of the bad blood in him of like, look at what I'm doing for the company. I'm taking on anyone. I'm not turning down fights. I'm putting on brawls. I'm putting myself in there He ain't getting paid shit for it Luke. Yeah, don't you just look at that and gasp? 50,000 I lived through it in real time It seems insane to go back to but I remember I remember this all the time and folks wondering like why is Diaz such a? Malcontent you tell me you tell me why he's such a malcontent. He's fought nothing I've I mentioned one person here who has not some easy victory for him This is some just nobody he could walk through in their backyards for what I think most would consider a relatively paltry amount of money. Gee, I wonder why he has been such a malcontent,

which would the word might be. But the journey is not there. It doesn't stop there at BC. We go now to the next fight, which would be a real low point, frankly, in the career of Nate Diaz. The low point, you'd have to say. Probably the low point, maybe would be a real low point, frankly, in the career of Nate Diaz. The low point, you'd have to say. Probably the low point, maybe, depending on one's perspective, certainly. He takes on Josh Thompson. This is April 20th of 2013. And this one's kind of interesting, BC. I've never really paid attention to this.

This is the UFC and Fox card, headlined by Benson Henderson and Gilbert Melendez. By the way, a teammate here again of Nate Diaz. And I thought, by the way, Gilbert Melendez won that contest, but take that for what it is worth. Nate Diaz on the main card. Here's another thing you could say. Well, you could say, well, he's a North California guy, so this is a hometown game.

But it's not. Josh Thompson is the guy. This is in San Jose, California. Josh Thompson is the guy from San Jose as an AKA guy. So, of course, he gets the much bigger pop. Even in California, BC, he is not necessarily the hometown guy

I want to point out how often this happens So Josh Thompson at this point first fight back in the UFC in eight years Luke since 2004 when he thought You're having the best trilogy maybe in the MMA history with Gilbert And directly removed from that third fight where he lost the Strikeforce title in that match with with Gilbert Melendez May come back to the UFC, looking for a big fight. This was on national television. Fox, as you mentioned, 3.31 million viewers peaked in the main event. Nate in, what, the co-main here?

$15,000 salary. No bonus. Right. You're like, dude, can we move on? I'm like, no. No. $15,000. $15,000 to fight Josh Thompson.

Josh made $95,000 plus the $10,000 win bonus. Can you just imagine? So look, Josh Thompson wasn't even in the company. Oh, they had bought? They had bought Strikeforce. Okay, so they're bringing him back into the fold. I know he had just lost in the Strikeforce title match, but he's getting $95,000 day one here.

Nate just lost in the UFC title match in which he made $50,000, and he's coming in at co-main event on national television in front of 3.5 million people at $15,000. You do have to point the finger back and say, well, you accepted it, right? To an extent, to an extent, but also like who are you gonna go? You're gonna go to Strikeforce now? Like that's not really even an option anymore. And more to the point, it's just about the, I would argue the predatory practices in this

particular case by the promoter. But here's the other part about it. $15,000, $150,000, $15 million. It ain't easy to fight Josh Thompson. This version of him was very good. Look, give the punk credit. He was fucking awesome. He was really—folks don't know about the career of Josh Thompson.

Athletic, could wrestle, very good striker, well-trained, good team. Crazy Bob Cook at AKA in his corner. And I thought this was the first time someone put together at BC a complete performance against him. You can say that about Vincent Henderson, but here's what I mean. On the feet. Sticking and moving. Leg kicking himself. Never being a stationary target.

Clinch breaking. Yes. Whereas Vincent Henderson would kind of embrace the clinch and usually take him down. This was a get off me kind of approach. And he was chewing Diaz up. And Josh is small, so he had that same disadvantage I talk about in terms of height and he was chewing Diaz up and Josh is small So he had that same disadvantage I talked about in terms of height and reach for normal Nate opponents at lightweight He overcame that with technique and the threat that he established early a clean head kick early in round one got Nate's attention

He landed the second time although it was partially blocked showing Nate that you know, wherever you think you're gonna be I'm dangerous and can catch you holes. He walks to a certain direction. He pulls Nate into it. Nate thinks it's going to go low, so he sticks his head out to get his feet behind him, and it lands clean. Well, Nate's bloody from an elbow in the clinch. So Josh, on the ground and in the clinch is having big moments. This is a very good performance from Josh. And when you look up and down this great resume of Nate Diaz, who has stopped him?

Nobody. Well, there was the cuts against Jorge, but Nate was kind of having, he was still in that to a certain degree. He got knocked the hell out here. This is the only man that's done it in the history of Nate Diaz. Am I wrong? Well, you're not wrong, but he didn't get knocked full out. What happens is he gets the head kick again and then he gets dropped and then a barrage of punches. But here's the real key. Let's look at the photo here. We make sure to put it before the show. The towel. See how the towel came in? Diaz's corner threw the towel in his defense.

And I don't know if he was dealing with injuries in the camp or not. I don't know if there is. You can see the towel being thrown right there again. They went in to save this dude. But it was the kick that landed and then the subsequent punch. And he just had nothing. He couldn't stand. He wasn't not cold, but he was hurt by the kick.

And the punches were firm and clean. And his corner had enough. Yeah, he wasn't not cold, but he was hurt by the kick, and the punches were firm and clean. And his corner had enough. They saw enough. Josh Thompson remains the only guy to do that to Nate Diaz, even to this day. And Nate Diaz has fought some fucking hammers along the way. I mean, it was kind of like what Edwards did to Usman, just the opposite leg, right?

Yeah, a little bit. Maybe a little bit. A little bit. Oh, yes, to a degree. But I'm just, to a degree. But I'm just trying to point out here, this was a real bad loss for Diaz's career. I remember his stock after this. After the Henderson fight where he not only lost but was given the finger because he just couldn't get anything done.

And then to get stopped by Josh Thompson. It wasn't like he was fighting chumps. But the nature of the losses to go from thorough to them being stopped. The MMA community was beginning to toss Diaz out. Remember, you've seen that meme where the guy lets go of the toy? Yeah. I don't want to play with you anymore. It was that kind of moment in the community.

Well, Nate's frustrated, but we're back in another main event opportunity. Yes, he does rebound from this pretty nicely. So we go to now UFC on Fox, excuse me, the Ultimate Fighter again. Rousey versus. Team Rousey versus Team Tate finale back in Las Vegas. He gets a knockout of the night, BC, with now his second pro, but third overall meeting with Gray Maynard. Now, I do believe, BC, it is fair to say Gray Maynard was in a somewhat compromised state since then. Or I should say at this point.

In hindsight. So it's weird. I see a lot of people saying this is actually the most dominant, best-looking performance from Nate Diaz. Now, it was not even a full round. It was dominant. But to be fair, despite them having the history in the rivalry, Maynard was 1-2-1 in his last four coming in, and both losses were stoppages against Frankie Edgar and TJ Grant on strikes. He had had a split-decision win over Guida. So this is not, you know, this is no longer prime Gray Maynard.

But given their history here, Luke, Gray Maynard's saying before the fight, this guy's got pillow hands. I'm going to knock him out. I think Nate wanted to prove a point. Maybe it's the frustration of having lost twice for very little money at the high level. He wouldn't get big money here, $30,000 in a main event on regular TV here for the tough finale, but it was outside of the early takedown from Gray, it was all Nate. He rocked him, stopped him, kicked the shit out of him.

Fight went half a round. 238 of round one is when they called it. And there was an edge to Nate in this one. He was mean. You thought it would be the type of thing that would lead to another momentum, and it wasn't, but it was another high point in his career. It was a reminder of what he could do. It was a real get-back kind of win.

It was an in-your-face kind of win. It was a very Diaz kind of win in a certain kind of manner, if you want to look at it that way. But it didn't sustain a new wave of fortune. It didn't foretell of things to come in that way. Just a good reminder. And by the way, a good way to win a rivalry as well, I suppose, on that. So it takes us, BC, to something where I want to point out something as well. We mentioned he fought four times in 2011, right? He fought twice in 2012. He had the Thompson loss and the Gray-Maynard win in 2013.

Now we go to 2014 where he fought just one time. 2015, just one time. But for 2014, it's UFC on Fox, Dos Santos versus Miocic. You might be asking, where is Nate Diaz in this case? He is in the co-main event. He is taking on Rafael Dos Anjos. But BC, for folks who may not remember, this is peak Nate Diaz at odds with UFC prior to certainly

the modern era anyway. He missed weight because he had a really bad injury heading into this. He had been at odds with the company and been fined for a certain language he had used. This was a real bad time. Does it make it better that he is in the co-main event here of a nationally televised Fox card, which is like a pay-per-view, and he's getting paid $16,000 base salary. He lost so there's no bonus

and fined $4,000 for missing weight, which is his fault, obviously. Yes. But, you know, RDA... It was a fight of the night bonus, but I don't know if he was eligible since he missed weight. Well, RDA, who comes in having 7-1 in his last eight, despite that loss to Habib during that run, which was, you know, a clean domination by Habib, this is arguably the most dangerous RDA there was because he would use this.

And this is kind of the beginning of Nate being a kingmaker in the second half of his career. Guys that he would lose to would then go directly to a title shot. It would be here for RDA. But RDA making $86,000 on paper to come in 41 with the win bonus. Is Nate just in a long-ass contract he can't get out of? Like, what the hell is going on here, Luke? It's freaking $16,000 in the co-main event. How does a former titles challenger, like, how is this even possible?

The contracts are not in his favor. They're draconian. They're draconian at this point. Still, this was not that long ago. We're talking 2014. All right, how does RDA do it despite having a dis- Any way he wants, basically. Well, yeah, but really the calf kicks, Luke.

He chopped him the hell up. Worse than Rory did. Worse than whoever did that also on this run, Luke. It was a continuation of that, but it was the most brutal of anyone. Also, this is also, we talked about Peek Benson when Nate fought him. Here's Nate fighting Peek, I would say, we talked about peak Benson when Nate fought him. Here's Nate fighting peak, I would say are pretty close to peak RDA, right? Because RDA doesn't have the belt at this point, but RDA had just stopped Benson Henderson. With a flying knee, yes.

Before this contest, so you're getting a version of RDA who is, I mean, red hot. And Nate had to encounter him unmotivated, injured, missing weight, hating life at this point, and it showed. He had a bad performance. You know, this actually might be a lower moment than the Josh Thompson knockout loss. I think so. Because of where his headspace was, and if you notice late in the third round, though, Nate trying, Nate slaps from the bottom.

He slaps RDA, trying to get him to, like, brawl with him, and RDA just slaps him right the hell back. You love that. Also, the leg kicks were so bad in this one that the referee had the doctor look at them between rounds. I mean, look, RDA was savage. Which you may have, you might be like, oh, you're being serious. Yes, you may never see that again where a referee is, not an eye injury, not a cut, nothing, leg kicks. 30-26, 30-26, and 30-27.

Also, the Wheaties logo, roll the pictures one more time. I don't know if we have them. I may have just noticed this after the fact. The Wheaties logo, right? You can see it right there at his feet. See that? The Wheaties logo was on the octagon. At this time, I think Pettis is still the champion.

Because RDA would go from this fight to knock him out. That's right. And then also, Steven Seagal was watching this fight. He taught Anderson Silva everything he learned. Hey, Luke, this would be the lowest point in all reality, like we said. I remember thinking this was it. I remember thinking, look, be the lowest point in all reality, like we said. I remember thinking this was it. I remember thinking, look, we'd seen him in the title level. Yeah, he's got a name.

But, dude, when he steps up, he kind of loses. You never would have guessed at this moment, what is he at this age? 29, 28, 29. You know, would I have guessed that he would go on to main event pay-per-views? No. Would I have guessed that he would come back around and kind of sniff, you know, being considered for titled shots because of his name and ability? No.

I really thought this was the beginning of the end. And you can never count out a Diaz because it's the same reason why there are a lot of people saying, look, Hamzat, slow your roll on. He's going to tear him away. Nobody does that to Nate Diaz. Really, outside of Josh Thompson, nobody does that to Nate Diaz. His ability to constantly reinvent himself despite the odds around him, whether they're self-enforced or not, has been amazing. He's a warrior.

He's a survivor. And that takes us, after a long layoff, to a very important fight in this story, Luke. Yes. Now, let's be very clear about something. You talked about this being the low point. It wasn't just the low point with his own career. It was the low point, I think, with the fans. Yeah. This was the low point with the promotion. This is really

everything had kind of fallen apart. Everything he had built in that three-fight run and whatever redemption he got from the Gray-Maynard rematch, everything had kind of fallen apart through this. But here comes the redemption story. As you indicated, BC, Orlando, Florida is our destination. December 19th of

2015. Speaking of Dos Anjos, this is Dos Anjos Cowboy 2 in the main event. Of course, at that time for the lightweight title, Nate Diaz on the main card, taking on Michael Johnson. Guess what he's making here. I'm going to say 50?

40 grand would get the 20 grand bonus. But here's the key. To show you how low Nate was considered here, despite being a name as a proven product, he'll give you fun fights. Michael Johnson, in the pre-fight interview, says, I'm going to retire Nate Diaz. I'm going to knock him out and retire him. Wow. So that was a thought that was relatively in play, that he was that close.

And also, I want to point out, this is not the Blackzillian's backyard, but we're in Florida. So they booked the Florida guys on here. Here, once again, is Nate Diaz going to somebody else's backyard. The visual difference at the start of this fight, and Goldie would point it out, is coming off that year-plus layoff, the best shape of Nate's career. He looked tremendous. By far. So, in his mind, he had already had the dead end at welterweight.

He had already sort of, you know, went to the title level but couldn't get there. Two losses in a row. I think this is him going, look, let's start at the beginning. Let's refresh. Let's do it. No stone unturned. Take a long time off. Refresh the mind.

Refresh the body. And let's make one more big-ass run at it. And he came out with that intensity right off the start. And at about three minutes in of the first round, at the three-minute mark or so, or maybe the two-minute mark, but about three minutes in is when everything began to turn Diaz's way. Now, of course, in the end, it's a unanimous decision, 29-28 in his favor. So Michael Johnson was hardly out of this fight in that sense. But Diaz had that reach you have gone back and talked about, I think quite rightly,

over and over again. And at the three-minute mark is the first time you see Diaz smile at Michael Johnson because I think he felt like, bitch, I got you. I got you right where I want you. Now, again, Michael Johnson went through the leg kicks a little bit. Not enough, I thought, in this contest to get it done. He had some decent moments where he would pop Diaz as well, had some good body work. But BC, true or false, the boxing of Diaz, yes, it was back in the Maynard fight,

but here was a competitive fight against a ranked contender at the time, and Diaz put it on him with his boxing. I don't want to forget about, though, the closing sequence of this fight. I had forgotten that Nate got rocked by a big punch, and it looked like he was a little wobbly. He was able to close the show. Johnson tried for a takedown lead as well. But look, when Nate's going downhill, look at the taunting in this fight, the pointing, the laughing, the smiling.

Even doing this. When he's the aggressor and he can get his shots off, and with Michael Johnson, there wasn't a ton of a takedown threat. He's a boxer. He can get you out of there, but this is at lightweight. He found a way to get back in and find the very best of Nate. In incredible shape, ripped up, and over three rounds, as you mentioned, winning by one point on all three cards. But it was clear.

Michael Johnson kicked him after the bell. Did you see that? Yes. Tried, yes. And that tension would take us into the post-fight interview, which you could argue is up there on the Mount Rushmore of Nate iconic viral moments. Not just Nate iconic viral moment, but what's one of the most impactful post-fight speeches ever in terms of what someone did to get something else. This might be number one.

You guys might all remember it, but it is worth pointing out. Let's roll it. This is a beautiful performance against a very tough guy in Michael Johnson. How do you feel about it? Yeah, Conor McGregor, you're taking everything I work for, mother******. I'm going to fight your *** now. You know what's the real fight, what's the real money fight? It's me, not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference.

Don't no one want to see that? You know you beat them already. That's the easy fight. We want that real right here. Hey, and I'm not- Unfortunately, we can't like that on Fox. You forget, BC, he did it on- We can't say that on Fox, yeah. We can't say that on Fox.

Even Rogan's like trying to pull the microphone away. He did it on national television. That is one of the most iconic- What's the date on this fight? So the date on this fight, I believe we're in December of 2015. It is December 19th at the Amway Center, where we saw- So let's talk about where we are in the historic timeline. This is the same month that Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo with one punch after kind of

becoming the UFC's favorite son over that previous year. Fighting Mendes on short notice, being willing to do anything despite injury, fighting on a busy schedule. Conor McGregor has taken over the public narrative of who's the next big thing. And it's at a time too when it's like Lesnar's gone away,

Rousey's still here, but Conor took it and ran and became the biggest star this sport has ever seen. So who's angrier than Nate Diaz, who is on national television here again, not getting paid anything close to what he's deserving or earning? He picked the right call-out of the right person at the right time, but he would really need the right amount of luck to actually get that fight, which brings us to March of 2016, a couple months

later. Right, so basically, people forget this, Conor McGregor was supposed to fight Rafael Dos Anjos for the lightweight title. Think about moving up and away, just won the featherweight title by one punch. If you've never seen the press conference, he eats Rafael Dos Anjos alive, Conor McGregor does, wearing the Pablo Escobar, or El Chapo, I think, was who he was wearing the shirt. In any case, that fight falls through.

RDA can't make it. Foot injury. Foot injury. They can't make it, so they have to find replacements. We talked to Uriah Faber about it. He was one of the contenders they were trying to find. Uriah revealed, Nate, how he did the back and forth with the UFC. Dude, that was like stone cold.

Nate, as a negotiator, ended up working himself into the pick for even more money. I think he would only get paid $500,000 for the first McGregor fight on paper, which obviously doesn't count a pay-per-view bonus. It would go up to $2 million, by the way, on paper for the rematch. But when you heard that Conor McGregor's not going to fight for the lightweight title, but at UFC 196, a fight out card I was at, and it's one of the most incredible nights in the fight's game history. Misha Tate, Holly Holman, the co-main event.

What did you think about who might win? Like, this is Nate in a pay-per-view main event. Listen, I think one of the things I realized doing this whole exercise and going through and watching these fights is I think I have, at times, probably slept on Nate more than I should have. And I've not been a guy who thought he was bad ever, but I think a lot of us at the time got swept up in the larger narrative about Nate being a I should have. And I've not been a guy who thought he was bad ever. But I think a lot of us at the time got swept up in the larger narrative about Nate being a malcontent. Remember, we kind of glossed over the fact that it's during this time around the

Rafael dos Anjos era where Dana White famously said, Nate's not a needle mover. His brother is. This guy's not, right? We had kind of had his whole message inculcated about how Nate's not that great. Nate's not that good. He's a lesser Nick. And the reality was that was always unfair from the word go. It was not really all that true. It was manifested to be true by sort of force of the promoter and, of course, media being compliant as well. But Nate had other plans. They had other plans.

And shout out to him negotiating himself up to a $500,000 base salary. Look, he deserves that for all those other shitty fight nights. This is why you want him to get the Jake Paul fight, because he is overdue for a big payday. Now, it takes us to UFC 196 BC. Did you cover that fight? Not live. I don't think I covered that one live. UFC 196 March of 2016.

You were there? I was there, and I had covered a couple UFC cards. In fact, my first UFC card I covered was the tough finale with Rose Nama Yunus and Carla Esparza, also in Las Vegas. This was my first Las Vegas pay-per-view UFC fight week. And coming over from boxing where, you know, we've had fun pay-per-view weeks and the Mayweather run was fun for many reasons. I had never experienced a fight week as fun, maybe with the exception of Mayweather Canelo because the Mexican fan base just brought such excitement to that. This was out of control. Do you remember the presser? It wasn't the water bottle one.

It was the one where Conor got up in Nate's face and pressed the buttons enough where Nate took a swipe at him. And I remember just- They had the one at the UFC gym as well about how you're making animal loons with one sign and gang signs with the other. And they had let the fans into all these press events and McGregor could not be hotter. Luke, coming into this fight, it was just fun to be part of this. It was fun to see Nate get this opportunity.

And don't forget, this is a welterweight fight in which Conor was just a featherweight the day before. He's kind of moving up in some ways to weight class there, although he was preparing, obviously, for a lightweight fight. I remember thinking, look, the weight disparity, there was some MMA hardcore saying, no, no, Nate's going to win this. But I remember thinking, look, if Conor McGregor can get off on him, Nate doesn't get knocked out outside of the Josh Thompson fight. But Conor's just a force in the first round of this fight. Conor was a freaking force. Conor was throwing everything he wanted, landing a lot of it. Bloody Nate up. Now, what we'd find out afterwards is Conor didn't make the weight the right way. Once the weight changed from lightweight to now a welterweight fight,

he said he was eating steaks all week. He didn't have the gas. The line for the rematch was steaks, not salad, or something like that. Look, in terms of, like, turns in MMA history. The opposite of that, sorry. Turns. Obviously, the fifth round on the same night of Tate-Holm had a massive turn.

But, you know, maybe Carwin Lesnar is the only comparison here to what happened where one round looked a certain way, and then the second round went the complete other way. Nate didn't dominate to start the second round, but at the end of the first, Luke, he was ripped up, bloody, beaten. And I remember thinking, look, how much more before our ref stops this dude and cuts? Conor really is that dude. He just moved up kind of two weight classes against the toughest SOB we've had in a while.

And, Luke, he's putting it the hell on him. He opened round two putting it up the hell on him. But that change in momentum is among the most. It wasn't just a moment and then it had changed. Three-minute mark of round two putting it up the hell on him. But that change in momentum is among the most. It wasn't just a moment and then it had changed. Three-minute mark of round two. You could feel it coming. And now I'm in the media room next door. And I could start to feel like a rumbling that you can feel it.

And as it happened, as it got to that moment, I don't know if I have anything to compare that to. And I wasn't even in the building. I was adjacent to it. It does feel like Lesnar-Carwin a little bit to me, but this is, you ask me if my wife watches fights, very rarely. This one she made time for. She's a big Nate Diaz fan.

This one we made time for, and we were both, that's right, because I wasn't at this fight. We were screaming in the living room at the three-minute mark of the second round. Here comes Poirier, bitch! No, but we just couldn't believe what we were looking at, because to your point, like, you know, Nate was hanging in there in the first round, but Conor was

teeing off, throwing spinning hook kicks, big-ass left hands from, like, way far away, and then finding a way. But then you could see in the second round, here's the moment. In the three-minute mark, Nate begins to take center. And when he begins to take center, he begins to land on a much more visibly fatigued Conor

McGregor, and then a big one-two lands that stumbles him. And then fatigue made him a coward to the level where Conor McGregor shot. Remember that? He shot in. And again, that's what Jim Miller did to him, too. He had been there before. Sits for the guillotine. Conor rolls.

He tries to take base again. Nate stops him, takes him out, pounds on him. Conor rolls. He tries to take base again. Nate stops him, takes him out, pounds on him. Conor turns. He puts the choke in from the blind side, locks it up, and there's an immediate tap

from Conor. So that's it. And Joe Rogan lost his fucking mind. Maybe that's the beginning of this new era of UFC putting the cam on the announcers.

And almost the announcers are trained to know that when the knockout happens, go crazy because you'll be on the broadcast later. I mean, Mauro Ranallo was doing that with WWE around this time, but that was like, this was one of those just fucking viral, insane moments. I told you the story of my cousin Mike Campbell, who was there that weekend.

I gave him my press pass, which was a seat in the arena, eye level, last row in the first section. It's very unethical for you to do that. And he watches as his first two UFC fights, Holman Tate and McGregor Diaz won. Luke, we said we were so happy that Nate finally got this payday that he deserved retroactively. Wasn't this the most Nate Diaz way to win a freaking fight? It probably was.

Getting bloodied, getting battered. Even as he wins it, he's dripping blood. Hanging on, then finding a way to stun him with the boxing, forcing a guy who had talked about people being weak for shooting, making them shoot, and then using that incredible jiu jujitsu to finish him off. The crowd went insane. The commentators went insane.

But we talked about what he did after the Michael Johnson fight. And here comes one of the, by the way, after beating McGregor, getting up and doing this. Which became a mural. Which became a mural, excuse me, and just an iconic shot. And then finally they clean him up and Joe Rogan puts a microphone in his face. I don't need to tell you what happens next, but just for the purposes of reminding you, let's take a look. Nate Diaz, you just shook up the world. How's that feel?

Hey, I'm not surprised, mother----. It just, there's one Nate Diaz. There's one Nate Diaz there's one Nate Diaz that was truly a moment you can't completely transformed his fortunes completely transformed his career a major success he turns out to be in MMA and it feels like overnight but I hope through this exercise folks understand this was a long time and that moment was so impactful that just yesterday I'm doing a bit, Brendan Schaub said on his podcast that that moment is what made him name his first comedy special. You might be surprised. Not the Rogan thing, that moment. I don't think that's true. He said it yesterday. I'm not even kidding.

But as iconic a moment. So Nate goes from not journeyman, but like durable warrior who the fans love, who maybe doesn't always get the best luck and shoots himself in the foot sometimes to Luke, a legitimate pay-per-view star. The rub you could have gotten from rallying behind Bloody to stop a Conor McGregor who's that popular as the featherweight champion. Luke, he's now a pay-per-view star. I did not think we would ever get to this point. He's not the needle mover except, oh wait, all of a sudden he is.

It's just a function of what your imagination can be. And Nate always believed in himself, not merely as a guy who could win, but as a guy that he could be popular and make money and be the kind of attraction that he ultimately turned out to be. Now, the problem with beating Conor this way is you can't do it once, BC. You've got to do it twice. So they meet up again. We fast forward. Well, it was supposed to be,

Luke, this was March UFC 196. UFC 200 was that July. It was supposed to be them. Conor McGregor famously said, what? Didn't want to do the media. Didn't want to fly from Iceland in training camp with Gunnar Nelson to go to Las Vegas to do this press conference for UFC 200 to penalize him. He retired on Twitter, though.

Dana would push it back to UFC 202 in August. I had an option with ESPN to go to SummerSlam in Brooklyn and cover that or go to Vegas and do this. And I don't know what I was thinking at the time. We had just launched the WWE page at ESPN. I picked SummerSlam. Yeah, you're a dumbass. All right, this is what you get for watching wrestling. This second fight here, Nate Diaz versus Conor McGregor 2.

Nate, like I mentioned, we get a $2 million base salary. Shout out to Nate. Luke, not only did it break the pay-per-view records, this card, for it was, is this a top five UFC fight of all time? Because I don't feel like it gets the respect it deserves. Not for me, but again, August 20th, T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. Would you say it's a great fight? Yes, yes, it was.

This was the one where Conor said, okay, you got the best of me, but his pre-fight talk was all that I'm going to keep it at 170. I want all the same circumstances as before. And what I'm going to show you is that when I apply myself properly, I can get the job done. And BC, I thought in large part, that was basically true. The fight went the full distance. We thought Conor was going to gas and it looked like he was on his way there, but he did have a bit of a late rally. It should be noted. And you can see here, this was one of the big difference. He, he. He simplified his game plan to where he went back to the leg kicks, dropping Nate, I think, three times, once in the first round, twice in the second round. It surprised me in the second fight,

even though he had dominated Nate in the first round of the first fight, it surprised me to see Conor have that big a success where he's dropping Nate. Yes, because he didn't really do that in the first one at all. He bloodied him, but he didn't drop him like that. But the reason why this fight was so dramatic, not only was it five rounds of action back and forth. In fact, don't forget, it was so violent. People forget how violent this fight is. Dana afterwards was like, I'm not going to match him a third time because they'll kill each other.

And also don't forget about where this fight was virally in our culture. And it's why it broke the UFC record for pay-per-view buys. That was inevitably broken by Conor versus Habib. Is that the buildup in the press conference throwing water bottles at each other, that shit was out. That's national news across everywhere. Jake Shields throwing the coffee. Jake Shields grabbing the laptop or trying to and it's stuck.

These two are celebrities, Luke. These two are like... There are not many times where a UFC fight really crosses over into the major mainstream. This one was everywhere. It was all over Fox Sports. It was all over ESPN.

It was all over every water cooler discussion. Every one of my friends who didn't watch MMA was asking me about this one. This one had transcended to a very new level that other even big UFC fights, like Million Dollar Pay-Per-View or Million Pay-Per-View buys don't reach this level. This was a special case. You got to give, even though this isn't about Conor McGregor, you've got to give him credit in hindsight for turning back his notion of being someone who gassed all the time. Like there were two legitimate moments in this five-round fight

where I thought, oh, Conor's gassed. It's over. He did dig deep. Do you think, looking back, that he deserved on the scorecards, meaning Conor McGregor, the win in this rematch? We actually have the scorecard. We can put that up. Let's take a look at it here for just a second.

He wins 48-47, I believe, on all three of the judges' scorecards. And you can see here, Glenn Trowbridge, Jeff Mullen, and Derek Clearly. They all score it. Let's see. It's a majority decision because one card is 47-47 because of a 10-8 third round in favor of Nate Diaz. Oh, that's right. There was a 10-8 third round.

That was when Conor gassed badly and Nate put it on him to close the round. And Nate put it on him. In fact, the stats, I have them here in front of me. They speak to this here a little bit, if I may, in this second Conor McGregor fight. Again, he gets knocked down three times. Nate Diaz, much busier, attempting 435 strikes, but only landing 166. McGregor attempting 322, landing 164. But listen to the round-by-round breakdown.

That's more relevant. So we're going to go Diaz-McGregor, 25-34, 37-34. That's that big round two, although he does, there's two knockdowns credited for Conor McGregor. Round three, 49-26. And I thought that was when Nate was really going to begin to turn things. But credit to McGregor. He found it.

He found the gas. Here we go. Diaz-McGregor, 36-46. And then in round five, 19-24. A pretty remarkable job. It really could have gone either way. Do you remember how you scored? I had it for Conor just barely.

I think I had Conor 3-2. That's what I had, Conor 3-2. If you could go back to this point, August of 2016, they had just broken the UFC record essentially twice with the first two fights, or I think they were one and three in UFC history in this rivalry. You would have guessed Nate Diaz would take the ultimate rub of two fights with Conor McGregor, two in which he performed great,

one in which he won, argued that he won the second one, and would have gone on to fight name famous celebrity old guy fighter and would just continue this pay-per-view run. But he didn't. But he didn't. He took three years off.

Three years off. Three years up. Now, he had finally gotten paid because of these two cards. But it wasn't as if he planned to take three years off. There was a lot of back and forth with the UFC during this run of Dana saying he's impossible to deal with. We tried to offer him fights. I know for a fact they offered him a Tyron Woodley fight after a time. But look, he had now entered a different tax bracket. Would it be fair to say in hindsight, now he's making, like I said, two million on here. I know he's going to demand a lot. I always argue during this three-year run, he deserves it.

He is now a major, major player, and the UFC never sees that. This three-year absence felt to me, again, I know they were offering him the Woodley fight when Woodley was champion. This three-year absence to me felt like the fans finally recognized who Nate Diaz was, and the promotion refused to recognize in many ways. And know they're saying oh we offer fights but it's not for big money they're not offering they probably put him back at a you know lower price bracket he probably said f that I know what I'm worth I know like he knows his worth and he wasn't just going to pour it out what did we make okay it's it's one thing to say what did we miss in that

three-year window in terms of big fights that could have been and we can go back and forth who cares really what did we miss in Nate in terms of that? That's his second prime, right? That's his second sort of- I think what we missed was some of the better years of his competitive ability, because we'll talk about this here in just a minute. He's taking on Hamza Chemaev, UFC 279. Nate's 37. We saw him as a 22-year-old kid, and he was too raw at that time. But again, we go back to it. The Gomi, the Cerrone, and the Miller trio fights when he's just about to be 30 years old. That is when he is absolutely locked in, physically great. He's had some good performances subsequent to that.

We've talked about some of them. He's had some not so great ones. But at 37, I do feel like, obviously, this was before that, but I think from that 2016 to 2019 period, we missed some good spots of Nate's early to mid-30s where he could have been dealing on some folks. We would have lost some, too. I don't think he was the best guy. And you never know what that time-off

did to give him the fuel to do this Chamaya fight and whatever he's going to do next. Sometimes that's there. But hey, let's fast forward three years. Three years later. Do you remember the build to this? There was a press conference in which Nate was there in Los Angeles and we were all fired up. Three years removed. He's going to fight Anthony Pett this? There was a press conference in which Nate was there in Los Angeles. We were all fired up. Three years removed.

He's going to fight Anthony Pettis, which was a cool fight on paper in a lot of ways. He was supposed to fight Dustin Poirier for a time. That's right. That was going to be the year before at New York City. It didn't happen. Let me set this up. Hold on. At that presser, they announced Conor McGregor's return.

Yes. And Nate walked out. Yes. So he's still feeling like they're effing him off. Yes. They kind of are to a degree All right, August 17th 2019 UFC 241 he takes on Anthony Pace you might be asking where was he on the card? This was headlined by me Oh church versus Cormier which one one I believe this was the rematch because Cormier is already the champion

Yeah, so Diaz versus Pettis is your co-main. Now, I thought that this was a very smart move by Nate Diaz because I thought Pettis was a little bit shopworn at that point, and Diaz could swoop right in with better boxing. He's fresh. He's had three years off, and he could do something to him. That's exactly what happened, including with even better wrestling. He selectively found a good opponent with a good name,

with a good exciting style, who he could catch. Who was still dangerous. Still dangerous. This is a pettis who stopped Stephen Thompson after this. Yes, yes. So he's still dangerous. No doubt about it. But was beatable in a way that Nate could make it work, and he did.

He did. He looked tremendous. Now, look, it wasn't a callback to who he was before, but it's still the premise of if Nate Diaz can get off first and be the aggressor going after you, it wasn't the same level of volume or aggression and he did have to be leery of taking shots back. But true or false, you came out of here going, you know, he might still be able to compete against the elites in this game.

Like, I was re-confident again. Because after three years, you don't know what you're going to get. I thought after this one, with the right matchups, he could beat a lot of guys. That's why I like the Poirier fight. Like, Poirier's a tough guy. I would pick Poirier to win, but with the way in which he looked here, I was like, just the right matchup could fit

him just right. I remember thinking he would get another title shot. I thought this was enough to revamp him, but Luke, do we have the post-fight interview to throw to? I don't think that we do. Because it actually was... Oh, we do. Yes. I'm sorry. We do. We have this great victory. Do you think we'll be seeing you fighting regularly now?

The reason I was off is because everybody sucks. There's nobody to fight. But with this belt, I want to defend it against. Jorge Masvidal had a good last fight. Good last fight. All respect to the man, but there ain't no gangsters in this game anymore. There ain't nobody who's done it right but me and him. So I know my man's a gangster, but he ain't no West Coast gangster.

So there you have it, calling out Jorge Masvidal. That was a fun moment. Remember that live? It was a really fun moment. And here was Nate being like, I've got a little bit of time left to make a little bit of money now that I'm here. Let me selectively work my way through this process to the extent that he could, creating his own future, right?

Because he manifested the Conor McGregor experience to a degree. He manifested by finding and waited for the just right moment in Anthony Pettis calling out Masvidal. Masvidal wanted to make use of his surging popularity at the exact same time. The month before, Masvidal had knocked out Ben Askren. That's right. It was a perfect call-out. With the performance, I remember thinking in that moment, wow, Nate might get

himself back into the title picture. Instead, he gets himself in the BMF title picture. We all love this matchup. It became a headlining pay-per-view with UFC's trip to MSG, same night as Canelo Kovalev. We remember what happened there. November 2nd, 2019. I was there. Were you there? I was at Canelo Kovalev. We remember what happened there. November 2nd, 2019. I was there. Were you there?

I was at Canelo Kovalev. So I was out here. So I watched this fight in the MGM Grand Arena, which I still can't believe it actually happened that way. Yeah. But here's the deal, Luke. I remember thinking, and you can tell me, in that post-fight interview, he shows Jorge a lot of respect, saying we're the last gangsters left. That's right. East Coast gangster versus West Coast gangster.

So he still puts himself over. I thought this mixed with that Brooklyn press conference, which if you give the UFC credit, in terms of setup with the sun coming down, the Brooklyn bridge behind them in Manhattan there, that looked like him and Jorge dressed like Tony Montana. You were like, this is going to be awesome. And then they were almost too much of the same thing. They didn't talk trash to each other. Do you think Nate, in hindsight, erred in not

calling out Jorge more aggressively, making it more of an enemy thing? It was almost as if he showed him too much respect. I'll say this. Nate works best when he is working against the machine. Yes. When he's the guy who's the iconoclast, but you had another guy who kind of had his own story in that way a little bit. Spider-Man meme, these two. Yeah, a little bit of the Spider-Man meme. But I'll tell you what, President Trump showed up to the place. I remember getting in when the security was fucking insane the whole time. And I got to say, it was a smart call out for the opponent in terms of big name, big dollars, big size.

But it ended up backfiring because Jorge Masvidal beat his ass. Well, let's be honest about who Jorge Masvidal was. This is his, what, third fight of 2019 in which he would resurgently become the fighter of the year. It stopped Darren Tilley. It stopped Ben Askren. The Rock was at the press conference holding up the belt. The Rock was there with the BMF belt. It was a big freaking... I still can't believe UFC did that. Like, I give

them credit in hindsight. I still can't believe they've created a WWF title, basically, and did this fight, but they did. Okay, now coming into it, let's be honest about who Jorge was in Alien. This was Jorge Masvidal who had turned things around from the desert in Central America, not the desert,

the forest in Central America at that reality show and started baptizing people almost like 2013 VTOR, although for different reasons. I look at like Jorge will never be that again, and I almost can't believe he was, but who he was walking into the cage that night was a dangerous freaking man that even a resurgent Nate Diaz really had nothing for.

There were a couple of times Nate was able to pop him with a good one, too. And he did rally before the end. And you would see Jorge smile when they would clinch. But to your point, Nate got dropped multiple times in this fight. Heavy body kicks. The body kicks were devastating. The boxing, you see the cut open there. But who gives Nate trouble?

What was this fight? Was it the welterweight fight officially? This was the welterweight fight. But even when he would go at some light, when he fought big lightweights who were basically welterweights, and it's kind of what this is, and a guy who's that explosive, Nate's idea of let me try to counter you and wait for you to make a mistake, it's just not going to happen. Jorge beat him to the punch consistently. And I don't think it's as one-sided as people remember, so I'm glad you brought that up

because he did have moments. And when it was stopped, even though- It was one-sided in the sense that like, Nate had punctuated moments, but the heavy artillery was all on Jorge's side. The thing that guy like Nate says is, well, listen, if that fight was in a different state, the cut doctor wouldn't have stopped it, which is probably true. Probably true. And they had a reason to be sensitive from some of the boxing, the Magomed situation. Fair enough.

People don't understand the history there. They're a little bit more cautious. But the reality was Nate was trying to set up a fight against a guy who stylistically he had a chance of winning against and a big name. Mission accomplished. The problem was he got dealt. So here's what I'm saying. In hindsight, if you're a super Nate fan, you're like looking back, what should he have done differently? You know, if they would have fought six months later, Nate could probably win that fight.

It's just that version of Jorge was riding so much momentum, was so confident, was basically a living and breathing Tony Montana, like, character version. And, you know, he would go on to lose a lot of that momentum, and then people stopped liking him as much, and then he got knocked the hell out in two fights. But, Luke, in that moment, I don't think there's anything you can say like Nate did wrong. He just fought a force of nature, right? He fought a force of nature. He fought a guy who just had more firepower than him in the similar kind of way. So that takes us to the last fight on his record. It is a distinguished one, but it is the last one before he takes on Hamza Chema of UFC 279, UFC 263, June of 2021. He would skip the whole pandemic part of it, at least the worst parts of it anyway.

And he would take on Leon Edwards, UFC 263, Glendale, Arizona. Nobody wanted to fight Leon Edwards, so Nate Diaz says, I'll do it, right? He certainly did. Again, this is the Adesanya Vittori 2 card. And you might be asking, where was this fight? This was not the main or the co-main. This was the feature fight, but it's the first feature fight on a pay-per-view card, non-title, five rounds, right? First time, Nate Diaz, again, making history in that way. Do you remember the public workout before that

fight and another Nate Diaz, Mount Rushmore viral moment? Do we have it? Tell me we have it. I don't know that we have that one. If we do, you can play it, but I don't think we have that one. Hit me with it, Maneech. This is the post fight. Good enough. I'll take the post fight, too. Nate would spark a J. It wasn't technically marijuana that he sparked at the public. Yeah, it was CBD. But it looked just like it, and the image was awesome. So Nate goes into this fight, I remember thinking, okay, cool, but this is older Nate Diaz. Shouldn't he be fighting fellow older names? Why is he fighting prime Leon Edwards? The first four and a half rounds, didn't it prove that right? Why is he fighting this guy? You could say, well, is going into Glendale he fighting prime Leon Edwards? The first four and a half rounds, didn't it prove that right? You could say, well, it's going into Glendale, Arizona,

Leon Edwards's backyard. No, but this was clearly the UFC believing they had a future for Leon Edwards that they wanted to set up. They thought he was going to be a title contender. Let's use the Nate Diaz name to boost Leon Edwards's fortunes. Funnily enough, even though Leon Edwards gets the win and looked good for 24 minutes of it, I actually wonder if this boosted Nate's fortunes. Listen, you saw this fight like I did. The reality is he got outstruck on the outside for the most part, and then whenever they clinched, you would see Leon on top. But in the last minute of the fifth round, a la what he did to Kamaru Usman,

he rocks Leon with a big one-two. Look at the crowd being shocked and going apeshit. There's Justin Bieber in the bottom right corner. And Nate was all over him like white on rice. Here's what's funny. We love the point, but he almost got criticized for the point because he may have missed a moment to jump right on top of him. Yes.

And you can see the elbow there on the side of his head from getting slashed from the elbows. Here's what's cool about the gangster persona of Nate. He almost gets out of those two straight fights, even though he loses, by redeeming himself because there are people, although we thought Masvidal beat him handily and I didn't need a rematch, there were people who were like, no way, man, Nate was just coming on until the New York State stopped that with the cut. Man, you got to fight Nate Diaz to the death.

You didn't beat him. He kind of, to some people, redeemed some street cred and came out of that as a moral winner of some weird way. He was definitely a moral winner of this Leon Edwards fight. His brand got reignited in some ways by this. I mean, he's taken on a fight that he shouldn't have. He shouldn't have fought Leon.

The thing is, the Masvidal fight got stopped on the cut, which is where people hang on to it, but he got beat up in that fight. Edwards didn't really beat him up. I mean, he won the fight. I mean, listen, he scored some heavy shots. Fairly dominant. But like in three rounds, Masvidal did way more than in five rounds what Edwards did. And so for that reason, the thing you remember most about the Edwards fight is that he rocked him and nearly finished him off in the end of the fifth, which is the most unlikely thing that was possible. But it all speaks to who Nate

Diaz is. And it takes us lastly to UFC 279, BC. We started this conversation with when you saw this journey, did it make you think differently about this? Listen, I don't know how you feel. I think Hamza Chemaev is your favorite. I think he deserves to be a favorite. I think you probably will win. But there have been so many times that Nate has been asked to do the impossible, to your point, on the cheap against every tough guy in every difficult weight class and in every climb and place they could do it. And not every time it went his way, but enough times have to make you think it is stupid to look past it.

Make no mistake, this is as unique and weird a fight as like in one breath, UFC is offering up this old name who they know wants to make money outside of them with the last fight in his deal. So they're saying, hey, old name, we'll offer you up to this god Hamzat and you'll get your ass kicked on the way out. There's also the opportunity for Nate to do the ultimate double cross FU by upsetting Chemaev and going out in a blaze of grillery. But how about maybe a third straight moral victory. There's a scenario in here in which Nate doesn't win this fight, but he either exposes Hamza in some way or has a rally or does something that's Nate Diaz redeemable on the way out.

I kind of feel like... Some iconic memorable moment. If anything, he's going to author that for us. I don't think he should have been fighting Leon in 2021, whatever it was. I don't think he should have been fighting Hamza now, but he's had problems getting fights. He's the anti-hero-hero he still is and he's going to go on his own terms in the least desirable situation he's 37 you can argue whether gilbert burns humanized chamayev enough for nate

to go oh i know what to do i'll find that button when did nate ds stop evolving and essentially become the second half gangster of his career? Like, when did the evolution stop? I think he's still always been training. I don't know if his evolution has stopped. He's turned into a little bit more of being a hittable guy than he once was. And I think that's been since the McGregor fight itself, maybe. Maybe even, no, RDA was taking it to him. Once he really was, you know, in the early part of his 30s, late 20s,

passed, everything from Benson Henderson afterwards has been kind of up and down, really, is the answer to that. Are there any fights on this journey that you look at and say, Nate should focus on that one a little bit more in how you beat Chimaev? Kurt Pellegrino, Benson Henderson, RDA, Leon Edwards, all of those guys do a lot of the same things. The physical control, the muscling around, the Rory McDonalds, the Dong Kyung Kims, all of those guys had the same kind of thing. Sturdy submission defense and chucking him around from place to place, controlling position. He's got to have an answer for that. He's got to have an answer for that.

And sometimes he has, sometimes he hasn't. Final question on the legacy of Nate. Is his legacy ultimately, despite the individual success, still younger brother of Nick Diaz, leader of the Diaz Army? No. What is Nate's win or lose in this fight, and whatever he does next, Jake Paul or not, what is Nate Diaz's unique legacy within this sport? We'll see what happens against Chermayev. We'll see what happens against Jake Paul if they end up making a boxing match. But for me, he is the stone that the builder refused.

Just like Jesus. Sort of. I mean, I don't think Jesus is quite the right word. Well, that's where that line comes from. It's from the Bible, but it's also a rap song from the Boondocks, too. But I'm using it in that way. He is the stone that the builder refused. He was never the guy that promotion. Yes, he was the only

ultimate fighter. I think they wanted to do stuff with him. They wanted to make him a bigger name than he certainly would have been on his own, but they never pegged him as their GSP. They never pegged him as their guy. He had to take the game's popularity. It was never really handed to him. What do you think about this? You're the Nate Diaz of MMA

journalism over your career, and I'm the Jake Shields. Okay, either way, we have overstayed our welcome. So let me get that laptop for me, brother. All right, that's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. What did you guys think? What were your favorite fights and your favorite memories from the Nate Diaz experience?

Leave a comment below. If you want to reach out to us and leave us a little bit of feedback or give us a follow on social, there you have it. Thanks to the Malka team and to Mikey for putting all the assets together. I know it was a pain in the ass, but we appreciate you guys doing it. What a fun journey. What a long journey. Thanks to everyone who watched the whole thing. We'll see what happens on September 10th, UFC 279 for the MK family on this side. We'll see you all there. Until next time, enjoy the fights.