Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
UFC 244 went down on Saturday night from Madison Square Garden in New York City, considered by many to be the Mecca of fighting. But many MMA fans may be ready to move that designation to Las Vegas after the New York State Athletic Commission doctor shut down the main event fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz between the third and fourth rounds due to a nasty cut above Nate Diaz’s eye. The bout was declared a fourth round TKO victory for Masvidal.
”Gamebred” was clearly unhappy to win the fight that way and offered to run things back with Diaz immediately, an offer Diaz was happy to accept. But standing in the way is UFC president Dana White, who is looking to move Masvidal forward in the welterweight title picture. Here’s what he had to say about the doctor’s stoppage that tainted the huge UFC 244 main event.
”You know it happens in this game, these things happen,” White said at the post fight press conference. “At first I was bitching and pissed off and I said ‘They didn’t stop the Tyson Fury fight and that cut was nasty and whatever.’ Then I walked back and I saw Nate Diaz and his eyebrow was literally flipped over in front of his eye and he had another huge gash under his eye and I started thinking it’s easy sitting over in my chair thinking the fight shouldn’t be stopped.”
“And the reason we love Diaz so much is because he’s so tough and durable and everything else but … I dunno. These things happen and … it didn’t look good. It didn’t look good.”
And as for putting Masvidal vs. Diaz 2 on right away?
”No. It doesn’t interest me right away,” White said. “I think that, you know, I got asked a couple of questions tonight. Diaz comes on in the later rounds. If this fight had gone later, they didn’t stop it, what would have happened? But it didn’t. It got stopped with cuts and Masvidal looked very dominant and he looked good. He’s looked good all year. He’s had nothing but great fights all year and if anyone is the fighter of 2019 it’s definitely that kid. And I think he’s got some big options coming his way.”
Hard to deny White’s view on the fight, but it still feels like we didn’t get the resolution to this fight that everyone wanted. What do you think of White’s decision to pull the plug on rematch talk, Maniacs?