Diaz blames a torn meniscus for his 2019 loss against Masvidal in the UFC. Will a 100% capable Nate show up tonight in Anaheim?
Nate Diaz is set to face Jorge Masvidal for the second time in his combat sports career, and he hopes to even the score against “Gamebred” now that he’s healthy.
Diaz and Masvidal threw down back in November 2019 for what was originally supposed to be a one-and-done ‘Baddest Motherf—er Belt.’ The two went back and forth for three rounds in an entertaining war … only for the doctor to wave things off before the fourth round due to a bad cut over Diaz’s eye.
Not the most BMF way for things to end, but it looked like Masvidal was taking over as the fight progressed. Things might be different this time around, though. During a roundtable discussion to promote the boxing rematch, Diaz revealed he fought with a knee injury that hampered his movement and cardio.
“I don’t like to make excuses, so I didn’t,” Diaz said (via Boxingscene). “But now we’re here years later – I had a torn meniscus in my knee two weeks before the fight. The fight was huge, at Madison Square Garden in New York, and there was no way I wasn’t showing up. The fight would have been a whole other story if I had been more than 20 per cent capable.”
Fans may be getting tired of betting on Diaz only to find out later he wasn’t able to train for whatever reason. Nate recently admitted he ditched his fight camp for the Jake Paul boxing match and went on ‘a four week bender’ after hurting his arm. That resulted in him getting knocked down and soundly beaten by Paul via unanimous decision.
“I wish I could have done things a little better,” he admitted. “It was necessary so I can now really beat his ass [in a rematch].”
Diaz will need a good performance against Masvidal tonight if he wants to convince fans that he’s still a must-watch fighter. He’s still got a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor to look forward to, but how bankable that fight stays depends a lot on what we see from Nate in the ring.
“I see it as a fight that needs to happen,” Diaz said of the McGregor fight. “I want to get this fight out of the way to think about the future. UFC 306 [at the Sphere in Las Vegas] would be great if that is even an option. I want to do big fights against the best opponents for the rest of my career.”