Ahead of a targeted return to active competition this year for the first time since November of 2019, Stockton, California native, Nate Diaz has claimed that during his seventeen-year UFC career, nobody has been able to finish him.
Diaz, who suffered a third-round doctor’s stoppage defeat to Jorge Masvidal at the above mentioned Madison Square Garden event, is targeting a return to the Octagon for two fights this year minimum, or a possible quartet of outings — claiming a potential comeback could happen as soon as April or May coming.
Hoping to draw once-scheduled UFC 230 foe, number-one ranked lightweight contender, Dustin Poirier to a 170-pound welterweight matchup, as well as the number-three ranked Sao Paulo grappler, Charles Oliveira, Diaz has distanced himself from possible comeback outings against past-foe, Conor McGregor, or former interim titleholder, Tony Ferguson, however.
Speaking with ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani recently, Diaz pointed at rival, McGregor’s recent stoppage losses to Poirier and Khabib Nurmagomedov, before himself claiming that he has never been stopped in the UFC.
“How come these guys are all getting finished,” Diaz said. “It’s a part of war. The main objective in war is ‘go out there and come back home’. And these guys all get finished off and it f**king irritates me too. Conor McGregor just got finished, right? It’s a big fight, it’s a huge thing, he’s the best, he’s gonna get a rematch, he’s the f**king G.O.A.T and all this funny sh*t. Well, you just got finished off.“
“When you get finished off like that, that doesn’t drop you down in the ranking system. It’s a control issue, too. That doesn’t drop you down two spots in the rankings. You got choked out. You got knocked out. You just lost fifteen spots. And then they still try to talk about me and my sh*t record, I’m like, ‘Ain’t no one finished me off. I’m still gonna be here until the end of time.’ I’m telling you, I’m hard to kill. Not like the rest of these guys.” (H/T BloodyElbow)
While Diaz maintains he’s never been finished in his career, he currently holds a 20-12 professional record, with two knockout defeats and a submission loss dotted on his résumé. Prior to his doctor’s stoppage loss to Masvidal due to a couple of notable lacerations both above and below his right eye, Diaz had dropped a UFC Fight Night San Jose defeat to Josh Thomson, losing via a high-kick and strikes. Diaz’s elder brother, Nick threw in the towel in tandem with referee, Mike Beltran’s stoppage.
Whilst not under the UFC’s banner, Diaz challenged for the WEC lightweight championship in October of 2006, dropping a second round armbar defeat to Hermes Franca.