LOS ANGELES — On Tuesday, Nate Diaz went off on an epic rant about fighter pay in general and his paycheck in specific.
Wednesday, UFC president Dana White had an answer, which more or less amounted to: Deal with it.
“I don’t dislike Nate Diaz,” White said at a media event in downtown Los Angeles. “But there are some people who do things the right way and some people who do things the wrong way, and Nate Diaz is a textbook example of doing things the wrong way.”
The lightweight from Stockton, Calif., hasn’t fought since his first-round finish of Gray Maynard in December. And while Diaz has mostly kept quiet, he went off on Tuesday, telling MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani, among other things,“We’re entertaining entertainers. We get Shaq, Justin Bieber and Lil’ Jon at the show. How are we entertaining billionaires and we can’t even get s—?”
For his part, White pointed out that Diaz had his opportunity to break through to the top of the company, but came up short: He lost a one-sided decision to then-lightweight champion Benson Henderson in Dec. 2012, then was knocked out by Josh Thomson in April of last year.
“Nate Diaz had his opportunities,” White said. “And he lost to Ben Henderson and he got stopped by Josh Thomson. Those were his opportunities to win that belt, or get back to the belt, and make Justin Beiber money, as he put it. He didn’t win. He didn’t win. The kids’ making 60/60. That’s $120,000. If you fight three times a year, that’s pretty damn good money. Time to get back to work, Nate. Get back to work.”
Both Diaz and his older brother, Nick, are in the middle of extended breaks. White says he can’t force either of them to fight, but even if they don’t like their paychecks, they’re not going to make any money by staying out of competition.
“If the Diaz brothers want to sit out for the next few years and not fight, they’re absolutely, 100 percent, it’s their right to do that,” White said. “They can keep turning down fights and they can keep sitting out, but I just don’t know how they’re getting money, I don’t know how they’re doing their taxes, I don’t know how you’re going to break off a little bit for your mom for her house if you’re not working. I’d rather not go to f— work either. If someone wants to pay me to not work, I’ll take it. That’s not how it works.”